I see people complaining about Google's updates over the past year all the time. What gets me though is that these updates should have come as a surprise to nobody. Google had long warned people not to use some of the commonly accepted "
SEO" (and I use that term loosely) practices that were out there. They just did not have the ability to really target people using those methods in an efficient way until their Panda and Penguin updates.
I have yet to find a single website that got hit and didn't deserve it.
If anything, I think
SEO actually got easier. Google's algorithm was not supposed to reward people who spammed their way to top rankings, but for a long time it did. I look at it as a bit of a glitch. They just fixed the glitch.
None of my clients have ever been hit by any of Google's algorithm updates.
As for seeking out other traffic sources, a real business would be stupid not to. However, to ignore search traffic would be equally foolish. People are searching everyday in Google for your business. If they are not finding you, they are finding your competitors.
I think the real problem with
SEO is too many businesses and IM'ers got suckered in by $50-100/month
SEO offers. Truth is that you cannot do real
SEO work for $100/month. You get what you pay for.
There are also a lot of lousy
SEO's out there. I see it everyday. People read some stupid $17, 10-page eBook they find on a marketing forum (I'm looking at you WarriorForum), and now they think they are an
SEO. They believe they can start taking on work for real businesses. In the past, the worst they could do was throw up a bunch of links that really had no benefit. After Penguin though, wannabe-
SEO's are destroying the rankings of businesses all over the place. Since Penguin, my business has more than doubled. I actually turn away far more projects than I take on.
If you find the right
SEO though, it can be a great investment in your business.