Is SEO dying?

Transcript:

Hey, guys. Nick here from HVAC Business Growth. In today’s video what we’re going to talk about is one of the most asked questions in the SEO community, and it always comes up. The question is, is SEO dead or is SEO dying? So it’s a very broad topic, plenty to talk about. Let’s get stuck into the video.

Is SEO dying? What we have to do is really ask the question, “Where does this statement actually come from?” I think it’s for two reasons, where this statement comes from. First of all, here is a Google search result page from air conditioning repair service Baltimore. The result page has actually changed quite a bit over the years. What you can see here is a screenshot of a Google search on my computer, which is a desktop computer. This is one full scroll, so you can see Google guaranteed here, which is nice, and SEO or organic service. Then, you’ve got ads, and then you’ve got the start of the GMB there as well.

This has changed quite a bit, so number one in Google, as it used to be, it was at the top of the page. It was always at the top of the page. Now, number one organic in Google might be more like position six or seven, depending on what’s actually showing up in your Google search, maybe even a little bit lower. I think the phrase, “Is SEO dying?” really comes from that, because they’re looking at it, saying that the first page results is cluttered with ads and other different Google programmes, but here’s the thing. Even though these organic positions are actually pushed much lower down the page, they still get great click-through rate. The funny thing is, even with those ad spots there, the Google Maps underneath them will actually get more clicks than the ad results you can see above there. So it’s an important thing to consider when you hear the phrase, “Is SEO dying?”

The other thing, as well, is its a lot harder to game the system. It was only a handful of years ago where you could really slap up a fast website, where say maybe an exact match domain where the keywords in the domain actually matched the search query. Some quick content, a few back links, and you’d rank on the first page. It’s much harder to do that. So I think those two things are really where this, “Is SEO dying?” phrase actually comes from.

So we need to look at the facts and there’s 63,000 searches per second that are going on in Google, and its increasing every year. Google’s market share is over 90%, which is increasing pretty much every year. Their revenue growth, which is I understand is from ads, is 25% increase every year. These numbers are really important to Google and its very much a balancing act for them. If Google go a little bit silly, if they push the ads a little bit too hard, then what we’re going to find is they’re going to go, or people are going to go to a different search engine. They’re not going to use Google as much. Then, in turn, the ad the revenue will drop and its going to affect their share prices and their dividends, and all that type of stuff as well. So its very much a balancing act.

I personally don’t think that SEO is dying anytime soon. We’re getting more and more searches out there. The SEO game has certainly changed. The content and your on page optimization is really important, and the overall picture of your brand and business matters more than ever. But, SEO, in my opinion, its certainly not dead or dying. So thank you very much for watching, subscribe to the YouTube channel and we’ll see you in the next video.