Any time there is a change in the construction or nature of
search algorithms—think Panda, Siri or Penguin—there are people who will call
for the end of search engine optimization (SEO). While I am not sure what an “end” to SEO would necessarily imply, I think it is an interesting exercise to imagine a drastically
different future for SEO.
This is exactly what a pair of contributors to Forbes
recently did. They see a future in which
SEO lies in the quality of the content, eliminating the possibility of gaming
the system. “Germaneness” and “on-point,
poignant and substantive content” will be the key determinants of search
rankings. The way they see it, “thought
leadership” becomes central to SEO.
I should note that the authors of the article happened to
have recently co-authored a business book on thought leadership, so it may not
be so surprising that they see thought leadership as the future for this
industry.
Putting this fact (and my personal bias against the phrase "thought leadership") aside for a second, it is interesting to
imagine who becomes the SEO expert in their thought leadership world. Do SEO jobs stay within the marketing
industry, in which the focus then shifts to framing and other tactics to draw
in readers and other website visitors, or does all of the pressure to produce
page views fall on the content creators?
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