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RSSBut the days of SEO have been numbered for some time. Now, this is not one of those columns. You know, the column where someone rails against search engine optimization and explains how it is an antiquated technique whose course has been run. Rather, this is a look at the evolution of SEO to DAO.
What's DAO? I'll get to that. But first, let's examine what SEO was...
SEO
Over the years, search engines have been described as dinosaurs. Often, the best way to explain what an engine looks for and how it "reads" a site versus the human interacting was to describe them in terms equated with dinosaurs: big, slow and dumb. Engines were so text-dependent that, in many cases, the best pages for optimization were FAQs. Marketers had a tough choice to make: optimize for a search engine or optimize for the people who would use a search engine. The term "search engine optimization" was really a perfect descriptor of the target segment a company was optimizing for, versus who or what they were optimizing.
The slow evolution to 3D and Universal
Over time, engines have been trying to find more and more ways to bring relevance into their listings. Emphasis has shifted from a focus on page elements to the off-site criteria. It began with PageRank, and now is morphing forward with Ask 3D and Google Universal bringing other aspects of media into a results page. Interestingly, a recent study by Keynote Benchmark highlights how user perceptions may be changing based on the evolution and availability of diverse content. In the study, Google held its usual position as the leader in all four measured categories: Overall Customer Experience, Brand Impact, Future Usage and Customer Satisfaction. But the surprise in the results was largely the improvements of Yahoo in terms of consumer satisfaction and experience. The growth was attributed to two things: 1) search assists and getting consumers to their desired topic sooner, and 2) tighter linking to both internal and external content and community that satisfied the searchers needs.
Yahoo's Director of Customer Insights, Michael Kronthal, explained Yahoo's path by saying, "In the future, people will be sharing information on a massive scale, and we believe that is the next chapter of growth for the Web. We're looking to tap that valuable knowledge and integrate it into our Web search experience, so that Web search is not just searching Web sites for information, but also delivering the knowledge that individuals have through their collective experiences... . We'll actually be leveraging the knowledge that exists within the one giant social network."
Introducing DAO
It seems like the trend is shifting from optimizing for a slow, dumb engine, and is moving towards a more sophisticated integration of elements, be it image, video, consumer reviews, or social networks. This changes what is getting optimized from the platform to the asset. That is why the future is all about Digital Asset Optimization (DAO) and not about SEO. Digital Asset Optimization properly assigns value to the platform or device as the conduit for marrying content and intent. By understanding how video can be optimized, a search campaign can be successful on Google or YouTube.
Earlier this week, fellow Search Insider David Berkowitz discussed the new Samsung set top See'N'Search. The device is just one example of how search is going to evolve. I've said this before, yet it still has not sunk in for many. Search on the desktop is not the end game. It is the starting point today, and Google has won that medium. When we think about Mobile Search, Local Search, Video and Image Search -- and even search on the set top, we have yet to declare a winner, and I would suggest we have yet to even meet all the players.
The closing paragraph of the Keynote study summed it up fairly well. "Whatever the front end, whatever the search domain, the news is sure to be good for users. With such intense competition, and so much money at stake, the leading search providers will continue to make the user experience better and better, and make it easier and easier to find whatever it is we seek."
So, the future of SEO as defined today is a bleak one. Whether we merely change the description of SEO or use a new acronym like DAO, the days of success being optimization for 10 text links on a standard results page is going to end up just like our old description of the engines: as dinosaurs. Extinct dinosaurs.
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Taking inventory of digital assets, optimizing and matching them up with corresponding marketing channels for promotion is at the core of the holistic approach to next generation content optimization, SEO 2.0, 3.0 or whatever you want to call it.
Nothing new really, but it's nice to see the idea get more traction.
I believe we are saying the same thing . . .
Thank you, Michael
A LOT of SEO services are sold to small businesses. These people are not interested in your DAO, what works in SEO, or how to do PPC effectively without throwing money away. They even still think "I just want #1".
Then there are also medium to large companies that can afford to hire someone in house. Most of those SEOs hired, however, are not as knowledgeable about SEO. They lack programming experience, lack marketing knowledge, or just plain claim they know something but don't. I've seen them on forums begging for help over fundamental SEO problems that any real SEO would know. I've also seen companies try to hire me for both SEO and "IT help" - wrong expectations. So something like this would still be over the heads of hiring people, people being hired, and for any of them when evaluating SEO services.
But, frankly speaking, unless the search engines completely stop functioning in the fundamental ways of evaluating a website and the coding and the associated content (text and/or video) and how popular it is via linking, DAO is a nice idea to talk about - like latent semantic indexing. Sounds good. Sounds "oooooo techy" but still fall undr SEO.
Also, SEO as an industry and term is driven by the people in demand of these services. When many of them ask about SEO, inquiring for services, they are still confused as to what are natural search results and what are paid search results. But to them, the work that is done to get them results in Google, Yahoo, MSN - they collectively call them SEO, no matter if it's right or not.
So, bottomline is, "SEO" is here to stay.
It took the better part of ten years for C level executives to be comfortable spending money on "SEO" and the industry has changed enormously over the last year, forget the last 12 years we have been trying to drive traffic from search engines. The fact that we now need to worry about all of a companies digital assets doesn't mean we should change the name.
Most of the veterans by now actually deliver a service that focuses on website optimization and creating conversions, the intersection of search intent, site content and user interface. While these convergent disciplines may not sound like what us old fossils starting calling SEO, the terms are widely used by people looking for those services, so it is a mistake to re-brand yourself just because your work has become more sophisticated.
Meanwhile, could you please source the quote:
"Yahoo's Director of Customer Insights, Michael Kronthal, explained Yahoo's path by saying, "In the future, people will be sharing information on a massive scale, and we believe that is the next chapter of growth for the Web. We're looking to tap that valuable knowledge and integrate it into our Web search experience, so that Web search is not just searching Web sites for information, but also delivering the knowledge that individuals have through their collective experiences… . We'll actually be leveraging the knowledge that exists within the one giant social network."
You may recall ClickZ got caught in the crossfire with Mike Grehan's "SEO is Dead" a few years back; which was misunderstood by practitioners as an irresponsible message to outsiders. Chris was careful to disclose this article is not an SEO rant and actually provides professional and responsible commentary for outsiders to soak on.
The way most of us doing SEO today are thinking about SEO, has less to do with text links, however; this doesn't change the fact that we all optimize for the SERP page (shelf-space).
Unfortunately, regardless if it's video, text, images, news, blogs etc., the default description for many of those outside the industry remains "SEO."
I can agree that SEO is a weak description for what we do today, however; the only way this description will change globally is through the development of industry Standards that are accepted by all players on the field.
The development and circulation of search marketing standards are necessary to sustain our growth and establish authority in a new era of marketing that starts online.
"Marketing that starts online" is what most people and companies are having difficulty understanding. SEO, DAO...whatever we end up calling it; it will remain a spoke in the wheelhouse for many decades to come.
I encourage all of you reading this to get involved in developing industry Standards for search marketing.
As for a new acronym, this type of stuff gives more power to the media companies and takes it away from their clients... In my practice I work at empowering clients to look after their own web presence. With so much going on, it doesn't help clients to add to the confusion of what matters, so I'll be content with encouraging SEO across all media types.
There will inevitably be specialists who work on local search (maps), mobile search, link-building, social media, PR, widgets, video or images, along with any new elements that develop as the web evolves through each new iteration (web 4.0 anyone?). But if agencies or in-house SEO departments fail to pay attention to all aspects of search, they'll become extinct along with the acronyms.
I read the story on the SamSung set-top box - rather than see it as a threat to search, I see it making the experience of search richer and more engaging - I love the concept. Now I can't wait to start incorporating strategies for See 'n Search into my SEO for the future - along with anything else that evolves the medium. That's what makes this such an interesting field to work in.
Mike Valentine RealitySEO.com
The change that we've been managing over the past several years isn't necessarily a change from one acronym to another, since search is still the tool that many will use to find our assets no matter where there are.
Rather the evolution that I think Chris is really addressing is from a mindset that optimizes mostly static assets that sit still or are managed within our domains to an approach that focuses now intently on optimizing - for search, for experience and for distribution - those assets that we set loose into the wild.
Where once this was limited to product feeds and article syndication, our "optimization in the wild" programs now include seeding posts and content into social networks, optimizing widgets for distribution, video and image optimization/feeds/seeding and trackable viral emails.
Thom
As we watch Search Engines merge and consolidate with more media and desktop providers more opportunities present themselves, but the power of search is not diminishing.
Most of our clients are small and medium businesses, and those clients are typically in desperate need of conversion optimization. Many have experienced a real disservice by SEO firms who think a few links, meta tags, and bold words in the content are all it takes to deliver results.
While their definitely is a large technical requirement to SEO, we should keep in mind that the problem is largely a marketing issue. DAO is only another set of touch points in which the ultimate goal has to be to convert the traffic - and at least for now that's all going to happen on a web page.
The biggest gap I see now (and maybe I'm just missing something) is the ability to adequately measure DAO traffic - as most of that is off site.
Kudos,
Michael Dillon Defacto Media www.defactomedia.com DEFACTO MEDIA
I like the concept of DAO, however, I think it lives under search optimization, since SEO still has meaning well into the 21st century.
Search optimization isn't just about asset optimization, it's pathway optimization, process engineering and conversion optimization as well. DAO limits the scope and boundaries for SEO in several ways, and remember SEO has three interesting elements:
1. Business optimization 2. traditional web/content/video optimization 3. Market research
The key is to redefine SEO, it's never too late to do that. Plus why change an acronym that folks know and fits so nicely in the ever evolving search value chain?
Regards, Cezanne