‘SEO is Dead’ is Dead

Diamond covered human skull by artist Damien Hirst. It looks both scary and classy.
Diamond Skull by Damien Hirst.*

One fine day I checked Twitter and saw to my dismay that a post titled “How SEO is breaking the web (and killing Google)” [sic!] has garnered almost 200 tweets.

While I assume that many of them were automated tweets from accounts retweeting everything about SEO and Google I guess there still were people around ignorant enough to spread this nonsense.

How come people spread myths like that again and again without educating themselves about SEO and how it impacts the Web (positively)?


Why People Spread Myths

Anger makes people irrational. Even I almost fell for it. I considered tweeting it myself to get my followers to ridicule the clueless guy but then I decided to just comment on that post.

I wasn’t the only person to voice my dissent with this kind of polemic. Most people were clearly stating that it’s nonsense to denounce SEO as a whole.

Yet by adding comments and engaging with the misleading post people who disagreed with it amplified it even further.

Raising hell by harnessing people’s outrage is the purpose of so called hatebait.

Controversial statements work well for attention grabbing. The post garnered around 3000 views. What did people think about this post though?

I guess 2000 of the 3000 were just shaking their heads in disbelief wondering: “How can somebody who is sane still spread such myths?”


Another Celebrity Talking Nonsense

Then a new search feature called “Google Instant” has been released and guess what, Steve Rubel – who has badmouthed SEO in 2008 already – did it again:

His “Google Instant kills SEO” nonsense got more than 1.5k retweets and numerous links. Does the “SEO is dead” meme still work? No.

“SEO is dead” is dead. Google itself offers official SEO advice at least since 2008 when the SEO Starter Guide has been published.

This time high profile Google personalities including Sergey Brin himself debunked the “SEO is dead” myth people love spreading.

They did it right away during the Google Instant presentation. Also Marissa Mayer whoe then worked for Google and Google’s “Head of Webspam” Matt Cutts stepped in to declare SEO alive and kicking.

SEO is alive but ignorance is as well.

Still the “SEO is dead” meme is dead. Who will believe Web celebs like Steve Rubel in the future when their misguided interpretations of Web reality get refuted within minutes after publication?


Stop Killing in the Name of Attention Grabbing!

Get over it. SEO is here to stay. As long as there is search on the Web, websites will have to get optimized for searchers. Don’t behave like an idiot just to get noticed!

The old stereotypes don’t work anymore. You just embarrass yourself ignoring the obvious and stating that “SEO is dead”.

“SEO is dead” is dead and you will also be dead on the Web in case you spread myths like these.

Who is this Steve Rubel anyway?

While I still knew what the other celebs were doing who have declared SEO dead in the past I don’t even know what Rubel does.

Influencers like Rubel are mainly famous for being famous. Thus I rather call them celebrities. They seemingly don’t do anything else but talking about others.

Probably most people will know him as the person who declared SEO dead while even Google execs disagreed.

The “x is dead” headline formula is overused anyway. Stop killing in the name of attention grabbing! It backfires.

* (CC BY 2.0) Creative Commons licensed mage by Aaron Weber.