SEO dead in 6 months? Not true says Google!

I thought these days SEO was screwing free traffic out of Google towards one's mediocre website? In essence

Seriously, one can go down a rabbit hole if you're a Google-twitcher.

Traffic is what we want, in the forming of potential buyers.

Or you can go black-hat, I guess.

that's a bold claim!

as long as google has to rely on some external factors that can be manipulated by webmasters, SEOers to compile their results, SEO will continue to exist

i dont really buy into the idea that data coming from social media or social networks can replace what a search engine currently does... what if I am looking for something never mentioned in my social networks? never mentioned even by any of my friends in my network?

what if I want to look for something and not be skewed by the gibberish that is constantly spewed out in my social network?

There will always be a need for a 'clean' and 'independent' search engine

SEO is simply a modern form of Advertising and Marketing: getting customers to a business.

As the internet is cutting out barriers between customers and clients, SEO, in some form, will exist.

Historical note: SEO is an acronym for Search Engine Optimistation. All that used to mean in 1998 was optimising web pages for inclusion in search engines.

In 2012 it's expanded to include SEM, Social Media marketing, Black hat and backlinking etc.

That would be nice but unfortunately it isn't likely to happen.

It's the same with all things where there is a possibility to make money, as soon as someone comes up with an idea, the unscrupulous will pervert it and use it rip off unsuspecting clients. As Barnum said, there is one born every minute. But, as I'm sure we've all discovered at some point, you don't need to be a fool to fall for the usually very creditable looking salesman.

A little more than 3 months down the line and SEO is still going strong, so I am already inclined to believe that it will still be here no matter what, but maybe with a few interesting modifications.

@Chloe Taylor, that's just it, tis a trend. And IMHO one that might just be short lived, or changed radically at some point. There are just too many SEO "gurus" out there exploiting social media, and twitter is a prime example. I have ranted and raved about it all at some point, but one thing remains true, more and more people are joining twitter and using /abusing it to place links. (all IMHO of course). In the end, most twitter profiles can be reduced to nothing more than pages and pages of links. of which either twitter itself or members will tire of and either do something about it, or leave twitter (members). I know I have contemplated that many times when I log in and all I see are links.

SEO might be vital to getting a site noticed and it might also be vital to get you past your competition, but dang it, what happened to promoting a business or product using social media. IE talking to people, promoting a product and not a web site. Giving existing and potential clients more to look at than a link to a blog, or a website. There are a lot of blurry lines in this all, and it gets even more blurry day by day. SEO is important, but is not the big picture, and I seem to think that this is where many IM's (especially new ones) lose their focus on that bigger picture is.