Is SEO Dead?

Is SEO dead?

Just asking the question makes me cringe. Or smirk. Or cry. I don’t even know anymore.

People have been saying “SEO is dead” ever since SEO was born.

And guess what. It’s not dead yet!

If you’ve ever Googled “is SEO dead,” you may have seen this website:

The author of the blog calls the SEO-is-dead-trope one of the “oldest cliches on the internet.”

Want to know when the site was first published? May 2010.

Why in the world am I writing about it?

Because every year brings fresh developments to the SEO industry that causes skeptics to once again wonder if SEO is dead or not.

The Internet has gone through several iterations over the past 30 years, and while SEO tactics have certainly changed, as long as search engines exist, ranking in them will be important.

New technology may change the way we interact and explore the Internet, but search engines will always be a factor, and optimizing your information for these constantly evolving algorithms will never go out of style.

You probably know where I’m going with this article.

SEO is not dead.

But, for a new age of machine learning, the AI takeover, and algorithm-driven algorithms, let me show you why SEO is still alive and kicking.

SEO for machines is still necessary even with the rise of IoT

The Internet of Things is upon us with automated cars, smartwatches, and even light bulbs that are connected to the Internet. It won’t be long before everything we own is connected, and certainly, SEO won’t be necessary for these machines to navigate the web, right?

Wrong.

Actually, it’s even more important to SEO-optimize a site for M2M communication in IoT.

While a person will scan a page to find the most optimal results for their needs, machines are forced to find contextual clues to determine both the reader’s and writer’s intent. It’s like a dating site.

To help you get started, here are some free SEO-related tools that can help you scan your site, compare it to the competition, and target focused keywords.

And here’s an idea of exactly what types of “things” are being connected to the Internet, along with their intended purpose.

What’s important to understand is these machines aren’t replacing the Internet as we know it. They’re simply adding that much more to it.

Back in 1992, there were barely one million devices connected to the Internet, which isn’t a great sample size, considering the current 7.125+ billion people alive on our planet.

Currently, there are nearly 23 billion devices connected, and by 2020, that number is expected to more than double to 50.1 billion.

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