Most everyone who writes a negative article about SEO feels they have been wronged in some way by Google. They probably had pages ranking well one day and then Google changed their algorithm. When Google makes changes, some pages win and some pages lose.

But there is nothing new about this. This scenario has been going on for as long as there have been search engines. But could there ever be a time when SEO dies?

There is a simple answer to that question: No

You see, as long as there is any kind of algorithm which search engines use to rank pages with, SEO will remain alive and well.

By the way, an algorithm is simply a set of qualities and checks that search engines use to rank pages with. Google has about 200 of these they use when deciding where a page should rank with respect to given keywords. A few examples of these are keyword density, title tags, file name, internal and external links, etc.

At this time, I can’t imagine a system for ranking pages which does not use an algorithm.

Therefore, SEO is alive and well and will remain so.

How can you defend yourself against changes in algorithms which might have negative effects on your site’s rankings?

• Don’t rely on just one or two keywords for most of your traffic
• Create a LOT of content in order to catch traffic
• CONSTANTLY work at getting more back links to your site
• Be sure your site’s pages are intra-linked well with each other
• Always be on the lookout for new keywords which can bring traffic

If you have enough content on your site, algorithm change won’t end up killing your site’s traffic. If you follow the above suggestions, when there is a change some of your pages will win and some will lose. Hopefully then every change ends up as a wash for your site with some pages gaining and some losing in rank.