SEO’s Not Dead; It’s Just Been Sleeping
As we all go increasingly digital, companies like yours will always need more and newer ways to reach that ideal target audience segment, whatever it is. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) remains a powerful tool for achieving online marketing goals, and that’s not going to change.
What is going to change, however, is the way we search and how we get to where we’re going. Not just today or tomorrow, but forever.
That makes SEO as vital as it’s ever been. If you think the rise of new tools and practices means SEO is dead, we’re here to say it’s still very much alive; It’s just had a bit of a makeover.
Let’s Start With the Basics
What is SEO, after all? Just a way of making sure that you receive the information you’re looking for, from the best and most relevant sources.
While much more goes into it, technically speaking, at the end of the day, that’s the result you’re looking for. People with informational needs and the sites and data offering information, meeting in the middle: that’s SEO.
AI copy may litter the landscape for now, making it almost impossible to use search engines to find what we need, but that’s temporary. Either way, the goal on the supply side remains the same: to be the best and most relevant source for whatever a user might need. The techniques and purveyors may change, but the essential goal is the same.
We’ve learned that changes to the search engine experience come fast and hard, whether by an incremental update or total disruption. That’s why at Dallas SEO Dogs, we focus on the fundamentals. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are the hallmarks of our SEO and content work, and will remain so.
The AI Assist
Imagine a digital avatar that knows your likes, dislikes, desires, and fears as well as you do. A learning AI “agent” or “bot” that can remember all your work products, documents, coupons, preferences, and ideas, producing them on demand from within itself. That’s the synchronization we see on the horizon, and it makes most transactions a simple conversation between your agent and that of another brand.
- Recommendations replace favorites as the agent of a music provider works with your agent to create a playlist of new music that will rock your socks off.
- An elder or child left at home alone has their customized companion AI, who knows when it’s time to eat, sleep, take meds, and all the rest of our daily duties.
- A composer hums a new melody on the go, knowing their AI will keep it for later work, then make recommendations on the developing piece based on current music trends and complex musical theory.
- Your grocery delivery cart is already full and waiting when you log on to shop, ready for you to take items out and put others in – but you find yourself customizing it less and less every week as your AI learns your real-world preferences and rhythms.
Teacher, friend, memory, calculator, hard drive, smart home hub, and creative partner, all in one place: an AI that knows you as well as anyone could, and can help you make the decisions that ensure your happiness as a consumer.
Your Personal Shopper
Much more than a simple assistant, your AI agent becomes the primary way you experience the digital world. Rather than a digital world created and run at Google’s command, tinkering with words and code hoping to land on the first search engine results page (SERP), brands will be able to micro-produce entirely personalized experiences.
Imagine visiting every store in a shopping mall, but they only have your sizes and go-to colors and are ready to ship overnight. Or imagine TikTok, but instead of giving you short-form video you’re reliably going to love, it’s giving you everything there is. All information is at your fingertips; only the good-faith attempts of creators and SEOs can help you find your way.
The digital experience, as long as we’ve known it, has been like surfing atop the ocean waves. What we’re talking about is more like swimming in it – and you can breathe water. Rather than surfing the web, the web surrounds you with all the things you need and everything you love.
Most of the internet keeps Google optimization requirements in mind, meaning it uses keywords to appear relevant and high-quality to a search algorithm. The trick has always been making your original content not just seem relevant and high-quality but actually be those things.
We’re talking about upending that system – making you the only keyword that matters. The individual collects brand agents like a candle does moths, picking and choosing which ones make the cut. Customers won’t seek you out and recommendation algorithms won’t be pushing you up because brand awareness becomes the fulcrum.
Suddenly, the top of the marketing funnel is just as important as the sale. Brand awareness has never been more important, and nothing creates brand awareness like the one-two punch of content marketing and SEO.
For every brand, the name of the game becomes producing the greatest personalized experience. Something unique and unexpected but reliable and authentic. And the qualities those brands need to get there? Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trustworthiness. Same as it ever was. The brands that will survive are the ones that know the fundamentals.
The Future Is Bright
So we’ve talked about what’s going away and why. Now let’s look at the main developments currently burning up your news feed and see how Dallas SEO Dogs can help you bridge the gap into the future.
Mobile-First
Simply put, people now access the internet with phones more than half the time. That means designing responsive and mobile-first sites and experiences and holding content to a high, snackable, and fascinating standard. You can check out our work for yourself to see how we’re taking your specific needs and vision and turning them into something special.
Voice Search
Voice search is becoming increasingly popular as people seek more convenient ways to find their information and make decisions. Businesses that optimize their websites for voice search will be well-positioned to take advantage of this trend.
How to do it? Start with a transparent and meaningful structure, just as you would a regular site. Think of optimizing for voice as an ultimate form of SEO: figuring out (and helping your AI to understand) what people are looking for and why.
User Experience
Google and other search engines increasingly take UX into account when ranking websites. This means focusing on creating sites and experiences that are user-friendly, authentic, and memorable.
Storytelling is a huge part of user experience as you work your way from brand awareness to conversion, so your users always know exactly what’s happening and why. An AI can’t tell a story that surprises, only stories made of stories it’s heard before. Considering storytelling as a prime function of people in general, we can see our place in this brave new world.
It’s Just Been Sleeping
What’s the answer to this changing landscape? What does this image of the future leave out? What will the future look like? You’ll see it’s a matter of seeing what’s already in front of you.
Everything at Once
TikTok is the closest we’ve gotten to the kind of AI recommendation engine we predict will soon be commonplace. It unceasingly shows you what you want, relying on every action you take on the app – every click, bored scroll, profile visit – to continually improve its read on you.
Sound familiar? TikTok is undeniably the future. The success of TikTok, its groundbreaking genius, isn’t that they’ve popularized short-form video: it’s about the algorithm.
What the average TikTok entrepreneur does to find success isn’t that far from what we think of as regular standard SEO. They figure out what their audience wants, provide it, and then ensure the app’s delivery algorithm knows what they’re doing and why it’s incredible.
Suppose your video appeals to a lot of people. That’s great! But we learn from the algorithm that it needs to appeal to the right people. Within the TikTok ecosystem, the goal is creating specific content for people who want that particular content. And that’s what SEO looks like now.
Memory Capture
As another example, take Google Photos. Your camera now notifies you when you take too-similar shots, labels every picture of your dog automatically, and makes suggestions on photo editing, choice and centering, and more. The app acts like a dedicated AI agent, constantly training itself on your history of using it and the content you provide.
New Models
All these examples mean that we have models on which to base our new relationship to information in the AI age.
It’s an ocean of content out there, and you’ll need help finding your way. But the tools to thrive in this environment are already available and part of the programs you use daily.
While it may not look like it right away, the truth is that whoever can offer you the content you want is winning the AI battle. And the best news of all: The basic precepts of SEO are durable enough to withstand even these significant changes because the end goal remains the same.
Wake Up Your SEO with Dallas SEO Dogs
Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness remain the hallmarks of our SEO and content work. This is something we believe in strongly, and we’re committed to making this jump along with the search industry. Let us show you how to increase your scores for those four ranking pillars simply by doing your best work and letting us do ours.
At Dallas SEO Dogs, we’ve always focused on the fundamentals – and those matter more than ever. Great content and on-page smart design are our calling cards, and we have the stats to prove they work. Partner with us to see how we can leverage the newest ways SEO can keep your brand visible, knowable, and desirable.
