Announcing the Death of SEO (and not a moment too soon!)

A good deal of Web 2.0 arguably presents a far more slippery slope than any other tech trend of the century. Naturally, the herd is always the last to know about something, and SEO is no different. I have come to learn that if every third or fourth person at a cocktail party is dropping the buzz-phrase SEO in one way or other, it clearly has become a deprecated subject.

These days, people seem to always be looking for short-cuts to successful results. I believe SEO is now just another lazy man's short cut to the hard work of creating sticky, robust, vital content and then taking the time to create serious, thoughtful, and compelling linkback relationships. Most of the killer algorithms now require the above-mentioned hard work, and SEO is no longer a solution by itself. Granted, in your niche marketplace, SEO may put you on top for a short while, but if you live only by SEO, you will surely die by SEO. Eventually, your competition will beat you because they are willing to hardwire their site for success by doing the hard work.

Blogs as short-cut marketing tools have been dead for years. SocNet may well go down the same road, dying under its own useless weight or getting constrained by policy or the simple common sense business notion that spending so much time on the computer leads to productivity losses, not gains.

Over the past 15 years or so, new tech has often reminded me of the new toy given to the narcissistic child. They play with it so hard and fast that it ends up broken in pieces, only to leave the child craving the next new toy. Will ALL these new technologies go the same way? I hope not. Hard work, and the use of new technology in MODERATION, will always get you where you need to be, without all the wasted time, bandwidth, and unnecessary drama.