Can Greater Tracking & Personalization Destroy SEO? SEO as we currently know it is a process defined by the optimization of a site's internal & extrenal link structure, as well as content type and placement. It is largely not a design or content development industry, and can in fact be done many times without changing anything on a web page/site itself.

A Threadwatch post, however, has forced me to re-examine what the future of SEO might hold. In the thread, Fantomaster makes some fascinating comments about the nature of SEO once search engines rely more and more on personalized and tracked results:

Of course, new search engines will demand new SEO approaches - so, black hats: build your bot nets and human surfer simulator bots and generic vintage-to-be domains now or become roadkill in a year or a year and a half's time ...

If this is the future of SEO, there will be white-hat ways to perform as well - creating exceptionally compelling title and description tags and infinitely usable and enjoyable websites that attract thousands of visitors who bookmark and frequently return to your site. It's infinitely more difficult than current SEO approaches, but it is also more rewarding. It does bode for a smaller industry, however, as those with tech backgrounds are pushed out by those with marketing/public relations and psychology expertise.

My guess is that this trend is many years away, but it's something to think about now, as building for this type of a future event can ony improve your business today.