Cue the death knells and gray, overcast skies. Feel the biting wind and raindrops forming to kill the joy. Watch as the funeral procession slowly comes over the ridge, carrying the coffin…
SEO Is Dead.
RIP SEO.
Is SEO dead? It’s too early to tell, in my opinion. What I do know for sure is that the way SEO has been done up until now is dead.
Unwanted Changes in SEO
An old co-worker messaged me recently and told me that our old agency had killed her position and laid her off.
Suddenly. With no warning.
I’ve had that happen to me, too. It’s like being shot/stabbed in the back.
You don’t see it coming.
No warning. Nothing.
You’re just going about your Monday or Friday, and the next thing you know…
Darkness. Shock. Disbelief. Confusion.
Maybe anger, depending on how well you’re able to manage it…I’m not good at that myself.
SEO is Drastically Changing
As we spoke, I expressed my sorrow and hope that I could help them find something new. But in the back of my head, I knew…things are bad for SEOs.
It became apparent the minute OpenAI released ChatGPT. The Verge article accusing SEOS of polluting the web signaled the beginning of the “anger” and “resentment” phases.
| SEO, or search engine optimization, ensures that a website’s structure meets certain criteria or technical guidelines so that it ranks higher on a search engine results page. |
It’s a lot of data analysis and even speculation. Still, the percentages support the theory that the higher your business shows on a SERP, the better your chances of winning customers.
Perhaps it’s not a theory. Maybe it’s a fact. In this age, you can find enough evidence to support and disprove anything if you’re willing to look for it.
I argue that psychology, design, culture, trends, and numerous other factors contribute to SEO.
SEO in the Late 90s and Early 2000s
Search Engine Land launched in 2006. Search Engine Journal was first published in 2003 as a personal blog. Search Engine Watch predates both, having started in 1997.
Around 2009, companies began to understand the importance of ranking at the top of search engine results pages.
At least, that’s when I observed that companies really started to care.
Slowly, more agencies began offering SEO without fully understanding it, in my opinion.
They suspected it was something companies needed and would pay for. But they thought it was easy, and just a matter of adding some keywords in strategic places or ensuring you used them a percentage of the time.
I remember working at an agency early in my career and taking an interest in SEO. That was my first experience with Screaming Frog, SEMRush, and Ahrefs, where I really looked at the bones of a website and learned to structure sites and content for better search placement.
My curiosity about SEO made me a better content marketer. It also made me a unicorn at the time because very few content writers had taken the time to understand SEO.
Right now, all great writers understand SEO. But I have a feeling that’s about to revert because of the direction SEO is taking.
We’re going to have to go back to being specialists.
Where Do SEOs Go From Here?
The worst part for SEOs right now is that we don’t have any clue where to turn or an inkling of where search is going.
Generative Search
We know that generative search is claiming all top-of-funnel content.
Top-of-funnel content is consists of the traditionally easy to answer or basic questions dealing with the who, what, where, when, why, or how of topics.
Generative search will quickly answer these for users concisely instead of presenting sets of links users must click through to find the answer themselves.
Awareness
One primary purpose of SEO is creating awareness about your product or services.
The success of investing in an SEO strategy is measured by your rank for specific keywords on a SERP.
Typically, this is done by creating content for your audience that educates them on all aspects of your product or service. Once they are aware of you and feel you may solve their problem, they’ll move to lower in the marketing funnel.
But it all starts with ensuring that you are seen as the best solution to a user’s problem when they type a question into the search bar.
Ranking High
Appearing at the top used to be paramount and ensured users would click on your website.
It’s been proven that users rarely click over to the second, third, fourth, or fifth pages of search results. So, you’ll see a significant revenue decline if you’re not within the first three to five results.
Now, however, generative search can create real-time answers to a user’s query by drawing from the best information available, even if that information comes from lower ranked websites. So, the entire purpose of SEO is seemingly destroyed for now.
Branded Search
We also know that branded search is getting tougher.
In a recent Search Engine Land article, “Google SGE is a top threat to brand and product terms, study finds,” it’s predicted that there will be an “erosion of current traffic levels from brand-related traffic terms,” as lower-ranked competitors may rank for your brand name.
We don’t know if this is 100 percent true, but this article and study on the effect of search generative experience on brands provide some convincing evidence.
It’s Weird: SEO is Increasingly Tied to Branding…and Yet, Will Still Be Siloed
I don’t want to sound like I’m “tooting my own horn,” but about a year ago, I began thinking that branding would become an increasingly important aspect of search/SEO.
Since then, I’ve surmised and then began evangelizing to my clients that increasing their brand recognition spending should be a major consideration for marketing spending.
It’s a slow process.
It’s a slog.
It’s a battle…actually more like a siege where you’ll have to dig in and plan to stick to your guns, wait out the tough times, and wait for attrition from the other side, meaning waiting for your competitors to give up.
You’ll have to look at your digital marketing from a holistic point of view. Owners, SMBs, or brands can’t view digital marketing as a segmented budget spend.
You can no longer choose to devote your budget to SEO only… PPC only…or social media only.
Slight Issue Though
That means you should work with professionals who are skilled enough to tie each step of your marketing into a cohesive strategy. This approach is problematic because each marketing type and channel requires different knowledge and skills: a team.
This is in contrast to companies looking to find unicorns who can handle all aspects of a marketing strategy, from ideation to execution to maintenance. In my experience, you get better performance from teams every time. Collaboration is essential for the creative part of marketing.
Overall, building your online brand across all channels is increasingly important, so I’m educating my clients on this.
Marketing is Marketing is Marketing
The marketing funnel isn’t going away.
You’ll still have to let your audience know that you exist, compare yourself to your competitor, and show why you or your product is superior.
And you’re still going to have to convince them to buy, contact, or sign up… you’ll still have to get them to decide and close the deal.
But the silver lining is that once you’ve convinced your audience to buy in, I think there’s a much better chance they’ll become lifetime customers.
So, in theory, the investment you make early to win customers will pay off in customer lifetime value.But remember, building your brand is of the utmost importance as digital marketing progresses.
Deven Bhagwandin 