Will SEO Still Exist in the Future? Here's What the Data Tells Us

SEO is not as easy as it was 10 years ago, where almost every ‘trick’ in the Black-Hat SEO playbook worked, but now that Google PageRank, Penguin, and Panda updates came along, many “SEO gurus” have faded.

With that said, is SEO dead? Will SEO exist in 5 years? Just because the old ‘tactics’ don’t work anymore, doesn’t mean that SEO isn’t dead, it just means that Google is now focused on providing the best experience possible to their users, and they now have the power to do so with their advanced algorithms.

Let’s be honest here, I still believe that we’re definitely going to be asking Google every single question in our head 5 years from now even with SEO constantly changing due to the search algorithms of Google and other search engines, as well as the growing presence of artificial intelligence.

But don’t take my word for it, here is what the data says:

Is SEO Really Dead?

There is a big misconception that SEO is dead, but in the chart above showing the Google Ad revenues since 2001 shows that they are consistently making more money in ad revenue more than ever before. If SEO really is going to die, I don’t think Google wouldn’t be hitting all time highs in ad revenues consistently year-over-year.

SEO, or search engine optimization, has only been around for about ten years on the internet. When search engine optimization (SEO) first began, there were no special techniques or methods for achieving high search engine rankings.

As more people have become increasingly aware that search engines can be a source of high profits and online visibility for businesses, more people have begun to pay greater attention to the techniques that can help them achieve high rankings in search engines, such as creating more content and webpages, which in turn will give Google more chances of placing more ads = more revenue.

The chart above was taken from Weld.io and Internet Live Stats and it displays the amount of websites and internet users in the world since 1991. The blue represents the number of websites and the green represents the number of website visitors.

This data taken from the Google Zeitgeist, shows the number of searches on Google from 1999-2012. As of 2020, that number has now increased to almost 2 Trillion searches per year!

Is the increasing Google ad revenues, the number of websites, and the number of searches of Google all a coincidence? Most likely not! The data doesn’t tell us that SEO is going away in the near future, in fact it’s most likely the opposite.

SEO isn't a 'Trick' Game As it Once Was

As a result of the increasing number of websites, search engines have started to make their algorithms more complex to ensure that only legitimate and authentic companies are ranked at the top of search results and receive their well-deserved profits. Several changes have been made to Google’s search engine recently, and the search engine now requires websites to be more user-friendly.

Google has also taken several steps to ensure that web admins cannot rank their websites on the first page of search engines by using unethical or shady techniques such as keyword stuffing and cloaking.

Yes, SEO has changed dramatically over the last few years, and it has become nearly impossible to game the search engines and manipulate their results today. SEO is now considered a long-term investment for businesses, with results showing up gradually with time. SEO is considered almost dead by many web admins and business owners due to recent search engine algorithms.

They believe that SEO is no longer effective and will never yield fruitful results. However, I am one of those who still believe that search engine optimization (SEO) is the most effective method of generating leads and making your brand popular online.

Given our professional experience as SEO professionals and a Houston SEO company, we are confident that SEO will be around for a very long time and will continue to be the most effective method of obtaining the most significant organic and targeted traffic.

No doubt, the search engine optimization (SEO) game is constantly evolving, but that does not imply that everything we have done in the past is now worthless and will have no value for our websites in the future. It’s no longer a mathematical equation or formula to be successful in SEO.

It has evolved into an art form, and not everyone is capable of mastering this art form. Recently, people have begun to emphasize the number of links rather than the quality of links, so the vast majority of people are failing at this.

Furthermore, you should be aware that being socially active on the internet can significantly impact your website’s rankings on Google, as Google has begun to give it more weight in recent years.

Yes, the rules of the game have changed, but the game is far from over. You need to keep up to date with the latest techniques and dos and don’ts, and I am confident that you will rank any website for any given keyword with relative ease.

The Future of SEO is No Longer About Building Links

Now don’t get me wrong, backlinks are still a major Google ranking factor, but it shouldn’t be your main focus when doing SEO on your website.

Most SEO “experts” will tell you that one of the best ways to increase visibility in search engines is to build links. The more high-quality links you make, the higher your brand recognition, and your search engine rankings will improve, while that is true, there are other factors involved.

Even before introducing the Google RankBrain update, which prioritizes relevance, context, and quality, we already saw changes. The RankBrain algorithm focuses on the user’s intent as the primary objective. Your website should cater to the searcher’s intent before you can build links.

SEO is Becoming more Visual

Search engines are increasingly able to discover images, videos, and other visual content because of continuing advancements in artificial intelligence. Because videos have more excellent visual content, we recommend that creators optimize their content around visual content like YouTube videos. This is done by optimizing title tags, Meta descriptions, tags, and of course, video length.

Having a Brand Will Be Even More Important

The future of SEO, according to Neil Patel, is to create a brand. Your brand will grow, and you will soon rank better in search engine results if you provide outstanding value to your followers.

While you are known as a brand, it becomes much easier to acquire links and improve your SEO and rankings on Google. People searching for you online provide you with authority, which you can increase your demand when the number of people looking for you increases.

SEO is Shifting Towards Mobile

Mobile devices are the most popular way to connect to the internet these days. Your site needs to have a responsive design from the get-go. If your device is small, it should adjust its layout to accommodate you.

As a matter of fact, according to Google, the site you’re developing should be mobile-friendly and responsive across all devices. Sites that aren’t mobile-friendly get penalized by Google.

Voice Search is the Future

Many people have found that Cortana, Google Voice Search, Siri, and the Amazon Echo are the best virtual assistants. Typically, voice searches are longer and more conversational; thus, your website should focus on words with these characteristics.

Add more of a conversational tone to your blog by utilizing more colloquial language and doing extensive keyword research for lengthy phrases. Website search engines like Google are getting smarter, making it harder to achieve the best search results through lousy search engine optimization (SEO) strategies. However, with AI and more information on user intent, your Google rankings could jump to the top of the search results if you can provide thorough value and answer your searchers’ queries.

Facts About the Future Of SEO

When you own a website, one of the most critical tasks you must perform is SEO. You’ll be able to generate a lot of free traffic to your site if you can get visitors from search engines.

You’ll have to spend less money on paid traffic to your site if you get free traffic from search engines. Although search engine optimization has been around for a long time, it has recently undergone significant changes. Here are some predictions for the future of search engine optimization.

Your Content is Becoming More Important for SEO

If you want a large amount of traffic to your site, the essential part is content creation. Previously, you could stuff your content with keywords and expect people to find your site via search engines.

When Google made changes to their algorithm with the Panda and Penguin updates, they emphasized content. Now you must create the best possible content that people will want to read. When people like your content, search engines are much more likely to send traffic your way.

Aside from ensuring that your content is good, you must also ensure that it is up to date and fresh. Search engines are attempting to place a greater emphasis on providing results that are current and relevant to users.

This adds a significant amount of work to your workload, or you may also hire an SEO Company in Houston or a professional SEO Company to help you rank on Google, but it is necessary to provide the best search experience. Caffeine is a new system introduced by Google designed to help distinguish between relevant and outdated content.

Stop Trying to Trick Google, They're Catching Up Fast

Most SEOs understand the value of obtaining quality links from other websites when it comes to SEO. While this has been the case for many years, it is no longer as simple to game the system.

In the future, you’ll need to concentrate on obtaining the best links from the best websites. If you try to game the search engines and get links without earning them, your chances of ranking in the search engines will suffer. You’ll need links from reputable sources if you want to succeed in SEO and rank at the top of the search engines.

Search Engines are Becoming more Personalized

Google has made significant changes in the area of personalized search in recent months. When you examine while logged into your Google account, the results will be tailored to your preferences.

Google also keeps track of the sites and information you have previously viewed and may place a greater emphasis on those sites in future searches. This means that instead of a standardized set for everyone, more people will have their search results.

How to Prepare for the Future of SEO

The online world is constantly evolving, improving, adapting, and transforming its users. This transformational cycle does not appear to be slowing down any time soon, if at all. As the online landscape changes, so do the world of search engine optimization (Search Engine Optimization).

If you want to do SEO for your website, you must stay on top of your game and are always up to date with changes that may impact SEO in the future. Even as Search Engine Optimization matures, the fundamental principles of SEO have remained constant.

Understanding website structure, keyword density, and the constantly changing Search Engine algorithms are essential for successful SEO campaigns. Many of the world’s most prominent figures in the field of Search Engine Optimization are unsure of where the industry is headed shortly.

Speculations abound, but they do not always provide a reliable forecast of what is to come. One thing is sure, however: SEO will be around for a long time.

As long as search engines exist and internet users continue to use keywords and phrases to find what they’re looking for, the search engine business will continue. We’ll have to wait and see if the recent rapid growth of social media will significantly impact the future of search engine optimization.

For the time being, as long as SEO continues to be effective and these claims can be verified, the future looks promising.

Why SEO is Still Important

Even though social media has received more than its fair share of attention in recent years, there is one unalterable fact that must be remembered. To be successful in social media, you must have the web fundamentals in place: a website for your company on which you can sell and trade.

Social media is an excellent tool for business promotion and advertising. Still, when it comes down to it, a website that appears at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Pages) will always be given more weight and will always be trusted more than a website that does not.

As social media continues to grow in popularity, the world of blogging is making a resurgence. Everyone can benefit from a blog, and they will do a great deal of good for your SEO. The days when a blog was simply a place to jot down your thoughts in a diary format are long gone.

Blogs allow you to show a more personal side of your company. Use a blog to announce the launch of a new product, review services, or communicate with your customers on a more personalized level.

Whatever your line of business, whether it’s selling child-safe seat belts or raising cancer awareness, all projects, ventures, and companies will, categorically and most definitely, benefit from SEO.