It rises and falls with the times. Claims arise every few years, get some backing, and then wither away into the infinite void of the internet. Search engine optimization, better known as SEO, is in fact, not dead. Every once in awhile, Google—the largest player in the search engine game—changes the rules. What happens when the game maker changes the rules? We all conform to them, because otherwise, the digital presence of your business suffers.
Never Set In Stone
People claim that SEO is dead for a lot of reasons, but more often than not, it’s because of one thing: they play by the rules once, and expect it to work forever. Properly utilizing search engine optimization information and rules is more than a one-and-done kind of deal. In fact, it’s never-ending. The only consistency in the SEO world is its inconsistency. That being said, how can you plan to tack onto the search engine optimization train without putting the work in?
Digital World
Everything we do has a digital aspect to it nowadays, and with AI on the rise, that fact isn’t going to subside anytime soon. When it comes to SEO, it’s not just about getting your webpage found on a global stage, but local as well. When you’re a service that’s offered digitally—and this includes digital social media marketing agencies, who are the supposed masters of SEO—you’re competing with everyone else in the entire world. Even those who are using local search engine optimization to better their businesses are still found by global users far and wide. So it begs the question, does SEO work for global organizations?
Global Work
Yes, it does work on a global stage, but it’s trickier. It’s reading the abridged version of Atlas Shrugged instead of just skimming the cliff notes. You’re investing a lot more of your budget, and of your time into this project now. When someone doesn’t pop up on the front page of Google, they blame SEO, and run with that fact. They then pollute the internet with claims of search engine optimization services being ineffective, or they’ll stretch it and say that SEO is a complete and utter myth. Here’s the funny thing: there’s only ten spots on Google’s front page, and hundreds of thousands of businesses competing for it. SEO isn’t dead, it just isn’t as easy as everyone would think.
The Importance of Local SEO
More often than not, we do a quick little Google search of our target, whether it’s a business, service, or what have you. There you get a local, SEO-ready page on the front of Google, known as a Google My Business page. When someone adds “local” or “near me” into their search field, and their location settings are switched on, they’re going to get a narrowed-down list of results. If SEO were dead, it wouldn’t be directing employees to your competition’s site and services. You know what they did? Focused on the long-term investment that is search engine optimization.
The Bottom Line
Don’t buy a casket for SEO just yet. When Google changes the rules, we get frustrated, but it opens up the playing field for other competitors to sink in. This is why SEO is a constant commitment, and why those who assume that throwing money and a small amount of their time at SEO is going to yield fantastic results. If it worked that way, it’s be great, but it doesn’t. Commit, utilize every trick in the book, and be on the lookout for Google changing the rules. It’s either a pitfall or an opportunity, depending on how you act.
