SEO demand has been growing annually based on Google Trends and Exploding Topics data. For many businesses, organic search reach remains an important source of traffic, leads and sales.
Despite this, there is no visible optimism within the sector. Some say the beer economic crisis will hit the SEO industry first and hardest, with some high-profile layoffs of top SEO executives and industry leaders fueling those fears.
This reminds me of a famous quote about optimism versus pessimism attributed to Henry Ford:
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.”
A self-fulfilling prophecy works like this. When you think you can’t make it, you won’t even try or sabotage yourself. When you believe it can be done, on the other hand, you excel and will make it happen despite some obstacles.
That is why it is important to see the situation with optimism or, at least, with realism. At the moment, we are still seeing a growing demand for SEO services and corresponding job opportunities. Yes, SEO is alive and well.
SEO is no longer just technical
Over the years, SEO has increasingly been characterized as technical to distinguish itself from other disciplines and to justify the investment. However, in reality SEO is much more than ensuring crawling, indexing and rendering or taking care of canonical tags and rich results.
Often 80% of real SEO work is about content and social tasks. Content SEO is usually labeled as content marketing or simply published and (wrongly) assigned to other teams entirely, while social SEO is not (only) about social media actually but about social relationships with people who are likely to link to you:
Website owners. Bloggers. Journalists editors editors
You need to build relationships with real influencers before asking for favors, especially big ones like a link. In some ways, actual outreach is just the last step of proper social SEO.
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One of the reasons SEO was said to be dead is social media traffic. During its heyday, Facebook drove more visitors to publishers than Google, a trend that has reversed since 2017. Fast forward to 2023, organic search traffic dominates while social traffic continues to decline.
It’s not an either-or anyway.
Currently, SEO and social media go hand in hand – although much less obvious than a few years ago, when Google+ and authorship marking were clear indicators of social search. While Google is giving up these two and other social tools and features, search is inherently social in nature.
Just think of these benefits:
Twitter can improve your visibility directly on Google. Facebook updates are more public than they used to be. Popular content on social media is much more likely to attract links naturally.
Otherwise, you will have to invest heavily in outreach and other PR efforts.
Although I was a big advocate of social media since 2007, I finally realized that it doesn’t work on its own without search engines. They have different but complementary roles.
Social media is needed to discover new things while search is used in the last steps of the customer journey. Finding something is impossible if you don’t even know it exists. You first have to discover something new outside of search to get interested and finally search for it.
Once people buy, the conversion or sale is often attributed to search. We know this is only a small part of the truth, as this form of attribution overestimates the last click.
That said, buyers rarely buy directly on or through social media. The customer journey often begins on social media or elsewhere:
Real life (word of mouth, billboards). TV and radio (including streaming). Print (magazines, newspapers).
We know that there are at least a few “touch points” until a person decides to search for something, and even then the search query will likely be informational at the beginning, then navigational, and transactional only at the end.
Social SEO also works in real life when family, friends and colleagues recommend you and your products or services to someone else. However, they will not buy your product from these people, offline or online. They still have to look for it.
The Demand for SEO: What the Data Tells Us
Among the many changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic is the rise of all things digital, which reshaped the way people live and work. Remote working and online shopping are the new norms now and for the foreseeable future.
As such, they are looking for vendors who can help businesses navigate the digital landscape. SEO is no exception.
Growing demand for SEO services and expertise persists in 2023. Let’s look at the data.
Google Trends
The demand for SEO has been growing for a few years, according to data from Google Trends. In the US, it peaked in December 2022. (I used the “Internet and Telecommunications” filter. to rule out some false positives from Korean pop stars.)
Search query data may be biased as it only shows generic searches. Despite this, generic SEO demand has been growing.
The following key phrases are at the top of the “related queries” list with a “breakdown” instead of actual numbers (which usually means more than 100% growth):
seo local seo agency content seo seo consultant seo analytics
Explosive topics
Exploding Topics is ideal for discovering trends with soaring demand.
I was surprised to find SEO among them, including:
“Technical SEO” with a growth of 184%. “SEO Writing” with 178%. “SEO Specialist” with 146%.
LinkedIn is a good indicator of actual demand based on the number of positions for a given experience. SEO has been in growing demand for years, especially following the pandemic.
Whichever source you prefer, the numbers seem to show that SEO is alive and kicking in 2023.
Even if it doesn’t say SEO, it could be SEO
Still don’t think SEO is alive and well?
When your boss wants to invest in content, marketing and PR, it can often mean real SEO-related tasks, for example:
Creating link magnets. User experience design. Diffusion of bloggers.
SEO is still such a technocratic term and most people prefer proper words or words with less negative connotations. Therefore, SEO tasks are often mislabeled.
Over the years, there have been many attempts to use plain language instead of SEO. Some common synonyms for SEO are:
findability Visibility (online). Website optimization.
Education and government spokespeople often tout the possibility of meeting, as it implies a more holistic and even scientific approach.
SEO defense
So you want to convince your boss, a potential client or even your partner to invest time, effort and money into SEO and beyond technical best practices?
Here are some ideas on how to speak up for the still often underrated art of search engine optimization in its full scope:
Technical SEO Content SEO Social SEO
Google real estate SERP
There is less space on Google search results pages due to the growing number of other Google search features. Thus, the competition for the remaining space for organic results also grows. You need SEO to differentiate yourself.
People also ask
With the plethora of search features also comes People Also Ask, an ever-increasing number of real and potential (probably AI-generated) questions that people could ask. Your SEO can help you take advantage of these and divert traffic from your top one-word keywords.
Empty places are not graded
Neither empty sites nor random content can help you rank in Google. The “good old days” of merely building links and ignoring site quality and content are thankfully over.
Your SEO can still help you find those opportunities for which you can create content through keyword research. They can also create or at least optimize that content (content SEO) and tell people about it (social SEO).
With AI everywhere, will SEO still matter?
When I first wrote this article, the ChatGPT hype was just beginning. Google and Bing then introduced their respective AI improvements and tools for search.
Google’s Bard preview looks a little half-baked, while Bing’s feature-rich AI results are already very compelling.
How will AI-powered search affect SEO as a discipline? Will it still matter?
I believe that with these rapid developments, businesses will need even more SEO advice.
Ask yourself or your boss: do you want to be among the first movers or wait until the dust settles and the competition has already optimized for AI-enhanced results?
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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