SEO is great. It is a fundamental aspect of helping people get the answers they need. No matter who you are, where you are in the world, and what you do for a living – you use Search to find answers to the questions you have.
However, it’s time for websites to boldly go where few have gone before and pave the way for the next generation of SEO.
The problem with SEO today
There is one issue with SEO that has become more prevalent over time – building websites to adhere to the almighty Google whilst driving as much traffic as possible. Sure, there is nothing wrong with building a traffic oozing machine of a website, but it has become the primary focus to the point where the very thing that makes SEO has become somewhat lost in the noise.
A lot of websites today are nothing but a gigantic ad – if not for their own brand, then others. Even top quality, industry leading websites are now blatantly riddled with ads and popups from header to footer.
These days, SEO and developers sweep across the SERPS in an extinction grade event, focusing on how they can do everything they can to beat competitors and rank above the rest, leaving their websites held together by string and tape.
So then, what is it about if we want to be forward thinking?
Build websites that get remembered
To cut through the noise and be truly forward thinking, the focus should be on building websites that get remembered, more than they get ranked; Websites and content that gets remembered, gets talked about, and as a byproduct generates traffic.
Breaking the mold of building and optimising websites for search engines is difficult as this is an inherently large part of SEO. But websites are consumed by actual cash paying humans and delivered by search engines. Too often we get entangled in algorithm updates, technical advancements etc. that we lose sight of why a website was built in the first place.
Websites need to be built with purpose, to serve the people we seek to serve. This, is the next generation of SEO.
