SEO is like golf. You hit the ball and then get mad because the ball goes wherever it wants to go, not where you wanted it to go. You hate the first hole, you hate the second hole, and you say you’ll never play again — until you hit that one good shot, and then you’re hooked. If I have 100 keywords and 3 of them rank at the top of the search results, that’s all it takes to keep me hooked on SEO. The other 97 I can work on, but I have enough traffic coming in organically from the 3 that I can’t afford to give it up. People have faith that if they can rank for 3 keywords, then they can rank for 10, and if they can rank for 10 they can rank for 20. And that is how the hunger for lasting SEO grows. So SEO will continue to play its vital role in the integrated marketing mix. If there are a billion keywords, then there are 10 billion top‐ten results. That’s sufficient to feed our industry for an indefinite amount of time. As you review our midyear report of SEO factors and forward‐looking trends, understand it’s presented at a time when SEO is more multifaceted than ever. Consider the variety of SERP features and ranking signals in the framework of your own business’s resources and information. Then identify the opportunities to shine in your niche. Local businesses must optimize all aspects of local search. Event listings and product ratings must be marked up for rich snippets. Human authors should be smiling on the SERP next to their articles. SEO is getting increasingly harder, but the wins are going to be longer lasting if you can get them.

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