SEO as a career... Secure Future?

Hi All,
Can one take SEO as a career for life, how secure can this career be, as SEO we are too much depenedent on google, if google bites dust in future, what would happen to us, we wil be job less

Am considering shifting to something like web designing or programming.

 

ask me, I do this all the time, full time, and into this for a couple years now

 

It's as secure as any career nowadays.

 

For now YES.. But in future I guess NO, Doing SEO is not that hard. and anybody can do SEO. Aside from SEO Its good if you also can do programming and web designing for your better future.


Cheers!

 

I have also been doing seo for last two and half years but the way google is turning the screws on seo, i think day is not far when we have to seriously think about another career option, seo is becoming difficult day by day, in this scenario, there should be some other thing to rely on, just in case we get dumped.

 

Some of the best and most stable SEO's offer a lot of SEO related services. They will always have a steady career IMHO.

If your capacity as an SEO is "Getting Links", then you will have a hard time in the future.

 

I think as more and more people and business's move onto the internet an SEO will be an important part of every business wanting to utilise the internet (any business gonna say no to that?)

 

That's right, i agree with you martaay, but what is more important for a web business is online advertising(adwords, overture etc) and probably seo(free listings) is not as important, because seo takes time, no business is going to wait 6 months to 1 year to see the effects of SEO, they need instant results, something which SEO can not provide.

 

The key issue is diverse income streams from diverse markets. SEO in itself is subject to real fragmentation in future:
http://www.platinax.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=2390

 

I think SEO is a part of the online marketing mix. It's one tool in a large toolbox that's used to drive traffic to your site from the web.

People who are nothing more than link builders will find themselves on the short end of the stick in the next 3 - 5 years. People who understand that SEO should be used as part of an overall marketing campaign will be in high demand.

 

I disagree to that. Of course its good if you can do 'more' but on the other hand; SEO only gets more complicated everyday. Right now Google is into links, but eventually they will want to change their Algo. They will want to add extra stuff. Also new engines will show up one day bringing competition.

Also sites grow bigger, new code comes, and google started the Adwords professional thing. SEO will get bigger.

But secure? I dont know... Its not like.. secure to grow old with... As you are never sure that you will understand the new algorithms. You need to stay up to date and keep learning. Something steady like making website content would help.

 

Of course we would be keeping pace with google's algo as we do know, but the thing in question is how far is that point when seo would be so tough to implement that there would be very little ROI through it and online marketers would perhaps deem more importance to paid advertising.

Google and other SE's do not like SEO and in future too they would be making adjustments in their algorithms that would make SEO very hard and time consuming process, thus reducing its importance, that would obviously make paid search marketing a winner, which every search engine desires, since it's their source of revenue.

That is why i feel SEO will perhaps loose out its importance to paid advertising.

 

I think in general seo will continue to get more difficult

a lot of seo is just determined by work ethic, you either work a lot or you don't

Some people do it and some people just pretend they do it.

I don't think its really a secure carreer but their isn't many of those, in the US

besides carrers that can't be outsourced

 

doing seo as a hobby currently = smart

doing seo as a business = dumbest thing you can do

sure it can be good money if done right, but you watch, google has funny ways of controlling the internet, rely on them and if they ban your site or soemthing - your screwed

seo as a career would be probably one of the most insecure jobs in the world, next to being a construction worker in iraq, it probably isnt going to last long fellaz!

 

If all you can do is build links you're right.

The market for people who can drive traffic to websites through the search engines (not just the "organic results") is getting stronger every day. Big companies are starting to realize that there's a relatively untapped median to market their products and services.

 

All i do is build links and I do ok

 

For now

Link builder in general do ok today. I see that becoming less and less true as time goes on.

Get it while the getting's good though.

 

"SEO" as we have known it will not be around in two or three years. The "SE" (search engine) part will change, and the "O" part will change.

What will be around in ten years will be online marketing: Connecting prospects and businesses online. So, if you are an SEO, then I think you need to start to offer a holistic service (traditional SEO, content development, marketing, Adwords / advertising management, affiliate program management etc.) because at the end of the day what your clients want is for you to connect them with new customers through the online medium. They really don't care how you do it (as long as it is ethical and doesn't wipe out their bottom line.)

 

I just started a thousand word thread on this and it's pretty gloomy.
http://www.searchen.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1738#post1738

D

 

I'm not sure the company I work for would agree with that...
It works well for us.

Regarding SEO in the future...

It's getting harder all the time.
The patients filed by Google and Yahoo can help show us the direction that things are moving in.

EVERY good SEO company (Or affiliate guru for that matter) should be making plans for the next 12, 18, 24 months.
If you aren't putting an infrastructure in place now that you believe will help you in the future, you're gonna be f**ked in 18 months time (IMO)