The Search Ninja

Today at the office, the boss and myself were enjoying a lively game of pool and discussing the future of search engine optimization. He felt that SEO would eventually become recognized as a minor aspect of traditional “Marketing”. That is, according to his prediction, SEO would remain a common aspect of Search Marketing, however Search Marketing would (eventually) be recognized as an aspect of Marketing (proper).

I feel that while this may seem (intuitively) to be the logical course for SEM/SEO, the increasingly technical/scientific nature of true SEO may always earn it a distinction as unique profession/practice. The skillset of a true Gen2 SEO is significantly different from that of a marketing professional. Accordingly, I predict that over the course of the next few years we will see a greater distinction between search engine optimization and traditional marketing. I would even go so far as to say that a clear distinction will exist between SEO and SEM. The later I see as being focused more strongly on paid placement avenues for achieving visibility.