There are some that say SEO is busy dying out and it started to concern me as online marketing is very dependant on it. This one expert explains why this notion is going around, but says that in fact it is not dying out. Google's focus have shifted to consider primarily user intent than keywords. He says in this article that Google's latest algorithm updates makes it a little more difficult to get high organic rankings. That to try to rank #1 on Google is almost a waste of time in that that the rankings have become very user specific. This means that I can search for something on my computer and get results, whereas someone next door can search for something and get almost totally different results. Not even the #1 ranking spot in Google will be the same.

I have checked this out and I was stunned...it is true! Also, have you noticed how Google have shifted the organic results below the fold? The paid ads are now taking up the space above the fold in their results pages. It seems that they are trying to get their ad revenue up at the expense of organic rankings.

Is there hope for online marketing? I believe the answer to that is yes. Only, the game is changing and it would seem that only those that have the ability to change and adapt will come out on top.

Does anyone agree with me here? What is your view of this?