Obviously, it didn’t happen.
Prepare yourself now: you’re going to see many false claims (e.g.,
“SEO is dead,” “the new SEO”), and attempts at rebranding SEO
(e.g., “Search Experience Optimization”).
While SEO as a term isn’t perfect – after all, we aren’t optimizing
search engines, we’re optimizing our web presence – it has
remained the preferred term of our industry for more than 20 years
now and likely will be for the foreseeable future.
As for Search Engine Marketing?
It is still used but is now more associated with paid search
marketing and advertising.
The two terms co-exist peacefully today.
20 YEARS OF SEO: A BRIEF HISTORY OF SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION