The SEO world has been a bit rattled lately. Perhaps a bit more than usual.
Google’s changed the label for its ads in mobile SERPs.
Favicons have made a come back in mobile SERPs.
They gave us a heads up to an algo update which they’ve never done before.
And they’re giving organic listings even less space in SERPs with answer boxes, maps, paid ads and everything else taking up prime real estate. Don’t get me started on their content scraping duplicity.
Some even joked that PPC is now the new SEO.
And that SEO is finally dead! (plot twist: it’s not).
Now, I’m finding more and more people coming to me for PPC even though I’m clearly an SEO consultant.
But I’ll tell you why I’m not so worried about these changes by Google.
And why I’m not scared about the future of SEO.
SEO will always be relevant, because people will still be visiting websites.
And as much as these new changes affect how a site ranks in Google, it makes SEO no less important.
When you engage with an SEO consultant or agency, the process of optimising your site for search engine visibility begins.
Some of what we do includes but is not limited to:
Making sure the site loads securely over HTTPS.
Ensuring the mobile experience is seamless and that your website loads quickly and beautifully on any device and any Internet connection.
Also, ensuring that your pages are unique, relevant and setup in the best way possible to deliver whatever people search for based on intent.
And that’s just putting it simply.
We haven’t even gotten started on ranking improvements either. Even though that’s the ultimate goal of SEO.
So even if you have to start paying for ads, people will still come to your website.
And if your SEO strategy has been executed correctly, people will enjoy using your website.
PPC consultants typically don’t even touch these things. I’ve seen them in action. They don’t care about the things we SEO folks care about.
Duplicate content? it’s fine! Not enough internal links? Eh. Poor keyword density? Who cares?!
BTW, this isn’t bashing my PPC comrades. Merely indicating the difference in focus, approach and end goal.
This is why I remain bullish on our future as SEO professionals.
Even if we have to change the label on what we do for a living, it doesn’t change what we do or why we do it.
We will always be optimising for discovery, visibility and conversions.
No amount of paid ads will ever change that.
