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SEO Is Dead. Link Building Is Dead. Your Pony Is Dead.

Last Updated on March 12, 2018 28 Comments

Link building is dead. SEO is on its last leg. The tricks to beat and spam Google no longer work as well (dang!). SEOMoz.com has dropped "SEO" and turned into Moz.com. SEO agencies are bound to start closing their doors any day now. Unless, that is, they are hired by the same clients they've built bad links for to remove those links.

SEO is dead and THIS [insert whatever latest and shortest way to becoming an online zillionaire overnight is] changes everything!

And Google is…

google is evil SEO is dead

SEO is dead.

It must be.

Some 29,000 posts on the topic can’t be wrong, right?

seo is dead google search

Of course, it’ll be 29,ooo + this one now – the tipping point, I am sure.

Overwhelming frenzy.

And oh yes, your pony is dead. (?!)

Mass hysteria.

Even Eric Ward and Rae Hoffman agree.

Last I heard Eric might’ve quit link building altogether and gone fishing.

Let’s take a look:

[share]You should take a moment and share this post with your followers now before you forget; they’ll appreciate it and so will I![/share]

SEO Is Dead; What Now?

No, I didn’t write this post to jump on the “SEO is dead” mass hysteria bandwagon.

Not that it would be a bad move.

Mass hysteria drives hordes of traffic.

I simply liked what Eric Ward and Rae Hoffman had to say in their respective posts.

Plus I am addicted to Slideshare.

Plus I have nothing better to do.

No, that didn’t sound right…

Plus I have nothing better to do it’s THAT important for us to run the [search engine traffic] race while keeping our eyes on the prize.

Build a better business, NOT search engine rankings.

google wants to ranks popular sites

generate traffic seo

And if it was the pony that made you read this post, then here’s what happened to it:

seo is dead one-trick pony

Yep, that was straight from the horse’s mouth…

Now what?

Now we discover more/better way to drive quality non-Google/Google traffic:

Increase Website Traffic: The Ultimate Blueprint to More Profitable Web Traffic

SEO Traffic 2014: Your One-Stop Reference Guide for Non-SEOs

202 Bite-Sized Tips To Insanely Increase Your Blog Traffic

Slideshare Traffic Case Study: From 0 to 243,000 Views in 30 Days

How to Increase Website Traffic One Perfect Bite at a Time

How to REALLY Create a Popular Blog From Scratch

 

Happy website trafficking,

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28 Intelligent comments · espresso yours below

  1. Pedro says

    August 22, 2016 at 10:25 am

    Very good article, I think p SEO is not dead but is in constant change, want a tip ? Make testing, testing and more testing !!

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      August 26, 2016 at 7:18 pm

      Good point indeed, Pedro!

      Reply
  2. Pradeep Mishra says

    August 6, 2016 at 2:34 am

    Hi Ana,

    Link building is dead. SEO is on its last leg. I read the Slideshare and all blog.
    I am not professional in Seo but I think content is a king of Seo and it will alive.
    Social media is the best way to organic Result or ranking. Thanks for sharing your Point of view I am working on it .

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      August 10, 2016 at 8:39 pm

      I definitely agree that content is the heart of SEO, Pradeep.

      Not as sure about social media having any direct effect on rankings though. It’s more like when a post is widely shared on social media, it’s more likely to be put in front of many people – the more see it, the more link to it, thus the post goes up in rankings.

      One doesn’t cause the other; rather they correspond with each other.

      Reply
  3. koko says

    May 19, 2014 at 7:04 pm

    Link Building is Dead, SEO is Dead, SEM is Dead, Content Marketing is Dead… I think what all these statements really are trying to say is, “Scamming search engines is dead.”

    All relevant strategies that increase the quality of ranking factors in favor of your site are still alive and well.

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      June 21, 2014 at 6:40 pm

      Precisely, Koko.

      Reply
  4. Brent Jones says

    April 13, 2014 at 3:54 pm

    I love that you did this article. I’ve been reading so much junk lately about SEO being irrelevant. Nice job and I appreciate the “subtle” sarcasm. 🙂

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      June 23, 2014 at 8:18 pm

      Thanks, Brent; not everyone does. lol

      Reply
  5. Ashley says

    March 13, 2014 at 2:37 pm

    Ok Ana
    SEO is dead. That is it. I quit. I am removing all my links from the web and hiding under my bed covers!
    Really. Dead. I don’t think so. But some people will be dead in the water that much is true.
    Lucky I don’t yet spend too much of my day worrying about link building.
    But it has dashed my dreams of a link building empire! Imagine the little minions I could have hired to help.
    damn

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      March 19, 2014 at 10:08 pm

      So sorry to be the one to break it to you, Ashley. 🙂

      Reply
  6. Daniel Mihai Popescu says

    March 13, 2014 at 7:05 am

    Very accurate article, Ana, especially the links you are sending people at the end of it. I also like a lot your new site design. A lot of changes underneath it as well. It became also a definitively “nofollow” (the only thing that makes me sad about it)…
    I like it better, anyway, so I have decided to give it one more try and follow you on Google Plus.

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      March 19, 2014 at 10:06 pm

      Well, thank you, Daniel.

      When you have as many comments as I do (26K+), nofollow is a must.

      Reply
  7. Manny says

    March 12, 2014 at 9:15 pm

    Hi Ana

    Recently i have made a big mistake by changing permalinks of my blog that was about 1 year old and having more than 300 posts. Now i have lost most of may important backlinks.

    I need your expert advice about how to recover from this situation asap.

    Thanks..! awaiting your priceless suggestion

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      March 19, 2014 at 10:05 pm

      Usually, a 301 redirect will “forward” all the SEO to the new link. I don’t know of any easy way to do it; personally, I use Redirection plugin at TGC for all redirects.

      Let me know how it goes, Manny.

      Reply
  8. Eric says

    March 9, 2014 at 11:24 am

    I’ve not done much SEO myself but from what I’ve heard all around and have saw happen, if you just foucs on the basics, you’re good. There are plenty of tools out there but from what I’ve seen, many are just distractions from the bottom line.

    I’ve been using WordPress SEO by Yoast now but also found a new one I’m trying out: SEOPressor… some think it’s good and others believe it’s a complete waste of time and not worth the money.

    I think in the end it just comes down to providing excellent content + basic seo + getting to know people on social media and really making connects through content.

    It’s a big circle to me but to keep focusing on just seo alone certainly won’t do any good.

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      March 19, 2014 at 9:59 pm

      Basically, Google wants us to promote our content as if Google didn’t exist – and while doing it, we’ll be building valuable SEO foundation, and of course, that includes all the things you mentioned, Eric.

      Reply
  9. Junaid Raza says

    February 25, 2014 at 7:32 am

    It’s true! SEO is dead. But it’s unnatural SEO. If you are using Natural SEO. You don’t need to worry about anything. If you have quality content, you are using natural link building and know proper use of social media. You can still rock. What you say Ana?

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      February 25, 2014 at 8:35 pm

      Very well said, Junaid.

      Reply
  10. Glenys says

    February 20, 2014 at 4:43 pm

    Your post is very well presented Ana!!

    SEO is a moving goal post to be sure. I think we have to continually diversify our traffic sources. And I hate to think of the amount of epic content out there that is just waiting to be discovered!!

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      February 22, 2014 at 9:27 am

      Thank you very much, Glenys.

      Reply
  11. Stacie Walker says

    February 16, 2014 at 1:52 am

    Ana,

    I think you are fantastic with creating a fantastic piece of work with SlideShare. I really enjoyed this post. So many truths and so much BS out there in the Google universe. Yes, we must focus on building a solid, valuable business. Keep on inspiring.

    Best,
    Stacie Walker

    Reply
    • Ana Hoffman says

      February 19, 2014 at 7:12 am

      Much appreciated, Stacie.

      Reply
  12. John says

    February 13, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    R.I.P SEO. It did serve us alright for many years and we can’t easily forget its services. The death of his sister ‘Link Building’ too is regretted, though I wasn’t much interested in her and not did play with her much.

    But my pony still lives. It’s got a new dish to survive, and that’s called ‘content’. And, he seems to be content with that. 🙂

    Oh! SEO isn’t dead yet, but breathing its last! How ruthless of Moz to drop the name of what actually made them what they’re now, anyways, it’s their wish! But that’s how the world is, looks for new opportunities, salutes the rising sun, and doesn’t even take a glance at the dying superstar of yesteryear’s. 🙁

    Glad to know that the SEO agencies will still have business. I’m sure they’d glad that they installed so many ‘mines’ in the web, that even clearing them will make them a fortune!

    Rae Hoffman (Is he related to you in anyway?) and Eric Ward are awesome guys! They read my mind and stole my thoughts!! But I’m not going to sue them. 🙂

    Thanks for letting me know and sharing this information, Ana.

    Reply
  13. Harold says

    February 13, 2014 at 6:43 am

    SEO stands for search engine optimization which means optimizing your content to rank highly in sites that use search engines. If you are going to get traffic from sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and so on you need your content to rank highly.

    This means you need to optimize your content on those sites for their search engines. It’s been going on long before Google and while Google did dominate the industries focus for a long time the industry did exist long before Google.

    Reply
  14. Nikhil says

    February 13, 2014 at 3:26 am

    Hi Ana,

    Your post is really great. SEO and link building is Dead but not fully. It’s still work. Now SEO game have changed and place taken by Social signals. It is a new way to get ranked and drive organic traffic quickly.

    Reply
  15. Miguel says

    February 12, 2014 at 11:22 am

    This post had me cracking up! I mean I couldn’t resist the catch title of course.

    Totally agree with you and loved both of those posts you detailed. I also love how you made this post not only a blog post, but a slideshare, and Pinterest posts too. Blog promotion 101. 🙂

    Its been a while since I’ve been to your site, although I’ve always loved it. And I noticed that your homepage is broken, says it has redirect loop. Thought I’d let you know. I also see that you now use G+ comments and no CommentLuv anymore. Why is that? I remember you as being one of THE biggest promoters of CL in the past.

    Reply
  16. Theodore Nwangene says

    February 12, 2014 at 7:13 am

    I couldn’t have agreed more Ana,
    A lot has already been written on this subject and its becoming more interesting. What i will say is that SEO is no longer what it used to be.

    Focusing on SEO alone to in order to build a popular site is pointless because you will soon get your ass kicked.

    I guess the main thing is to focus on quality and the search engines will find you on their own. Its time we start diversifying our traffic source because anyone that is still believing and trying to impress Google will be wasting his time.

    An awesome slideshare presentation Ana, thanks for sharing :).

    Reply
  17. Harleena Singh says

    February 11, 2014 at 9:18 pm

    Hi Ana,

    As always, a lovely post, and the Slideshare was awesome 🙂

    Makes me wonder how you make the slideshares so interesting – need a post on that too someday! I enjoyed the all that Eric and Rae had to say. Yes, perhaps SEO is dead, but not all of it and if we are careful and concentrate on writing good content, we’d do fine. Using variation helps I guess, isn’t it?

    Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂

    Reply

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