As we constantly search for new ways to climb in search engine rankings and dozens of people declare every single month that they figured out the Google ranking algorithm, we easily end up missing the obvious thing: things evolve, but basics remain the same.
Out of all the stories that practically every single person from around the world knows, this fable is the one that is a perfect comparison to what happens with the SEO industry. In fact, it is a great metaphor for what happens in anything related to rankings.
We will always have people that want to speed up everything, hack or use black hat techniques in order to make a quick dollar. This is the hare. Then, we always have people that stay focused on quality and that take things slowly. In the end, it is always the tortoise that wins in any modern version of the story. The same thing will happen with the SEO industry in 2015. It is one thing that we always see in history.
Eleven years from now seems like a huge time but if we compare 2014 with 2008, we will almost instantly notice the fact that the similarities are incredibly high. In fact, many SEO specialists do not see a huge difference in the algorithms.
The truth is that Google's main focus was always to weed out the spam attempts and the results that were altered in one way or another in order to end up higher on their ranking ladder than they should. Sometimes Google messes up and that is normal, but nobody can deny the main focus being put on offering high quality content.
The key was always high quality content and the sites that ranked the highest were always the ones that got backlinks in a natural way. We can easily think about newspapers as a really good analogy. When a story was really good, the paper had huge sales as people were interested in reading some articles. The same happens online. When an article is offering something that is really interesting for a number of people, those people are able to find it, one way or another.
Many believe that SEO will be influenced by apps and the clear development of the smartphones. This is not something that we should take into account because of the fact that the search algorithm will practically remain the same. The only difference stands in delivering search results that are user friendly. With this in mind, it is always possible that some search engines will stand out, although the domination of Google will, most likely, still be huge.
As long as there will be an incentive to get really high in rankings or to gain access to a site, hackers will exist. Just as hackers will keep trying to break the system, many black hat enthusiasts will figure out new ways to cheat the search engines. This is unavoidable and it will go on for a really long time.
The only problem is that organic SEO may not be as strong as it is now in 2025. The budgets that will be needed to climb rankings will have to be higher and it is already impossible to guarantee a number one position in rankings.
With this in mind, it is possible that SEO agencies will disappear, but many of them will evolve towards content marketing, so no problems in losing jobs. As long as clients will need rankings and results, people will be there to offer what they are currently looking for, be it through SEO or marketing methods.
