Dear Google: Stop Training Your AI with My Content
Dear Google, Stop stealing my work to build your AI robots. Every word I write, every article I publish, every idea I share online is mine. I never gave you permission to scrape it, copy it, and feed it into Gemini so it can spit my words back at people — while cutting me out of the loop. If I copied your search index, your code, or your internal data, you’d sue me into oblivion. But when you take my content? You call it “innovation.” That’s not innovation. That’s exploitation. And it’s not just about me. It’s about every small business owner, journalist, artist, teacher, or creator who puts time, energy, and money into publishing something worth reading. Every time your AI answers a question without sending someone to my site, that’s a paycheck stolen from my pocket. I continue to see ideas, concepts, and copy showing up in AI overviews that were originated by creators who rely on their creativity to feed their families. You’re not just hurting creators. You’re hollowing out the web itself. The era of AI slop is here. If you keep strip-mining the internet without giving back, there won’t be anything left to train on. Your AI will be trained on recycled garbage because you’ve killed the incentive to create anything new. Here’s what I’m asking — no, demanding: Stop using content without consent. Give creators a real opt-in or opt-out. Compensate the people whose work makes your AI possible. You pay billions for sports rights, music licenses, and ad distribution. You can pay creators too. And to every other publisher, creator, and business out there: this isn’t just my fight. It’s yours. If you publish online, your work is being taken too. Dear Google: Train your AI on your own content. Leave mine alone. Sincerely, Nate
SEO Multiplicity: When Copies Degenerate & Nothing is Original
Thanks to the miracle of Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V (and now, the caffeine-fueled firehose of AI), the web has become an echo chamber where everyone is saying the same thing in slightly different words. It’s SEO multiplicity—an endless army of near-identical blog posts, guides, and “ultimate lists” that feel less like thought leadership and more like a copy of a copy of a copy. The problem? Each time content gets rehashed, it loses a little sharpness. Facts get blurred. Original insights disappear. And before long, Google’s bots and human readers alike are rolling their eyes at yet another reheated plate of internet leftovers. In Michael Keaton’s case, his “copies” became more mentally unstable and easier to recognize as unoriginal. If you’re wondering why your rankings are flat, your bounce rates are high, and your “fresh” content isn’t moving the needle—it might be because you’re serving up a photocopy instead of the original photograph. The Age of Infinite Content Replication While artificial intelligence has made aspects of content marketing easier, it’s also contributing to an internet that has a multiplicity problem. The Internet’s Echo Chamber Once upon a time, people wrote things because they had something to say. Now, half the web is just reworded versions of the other half. And it’s only getting worse! Search any common SEO topic (SEO articles are some of the most regurgitated on the web) and you’ll find dozens of posts saying exactly the same thing, often in the same order, often even with the same stock photo. The Rise of AI-Generated Content AI has revolutionized efficiency—but also homogenization. While it can help produce ideas and speed up drafting, AI also makes it easier for the mediocre middle to flood the market with “new” content that’s anything but. In solving one problem, it fues an exacerbation of another: unhelpful noise. Aggregation vs. Originality Curating and summarizing information is useful—until it turns into regurgitation. True aggregation should add perspective, context, or clarity. Otherwise, it’s just copycat SEO. And, unfortunately, the internet is becoming awash in it. It’s one of the main reasons Google is deindexing so much content out of the SERPs. The Problem with Multiplicity in SEO Content velocity doesn’t matter like it used to. Quality, uniqueness and query relevance matter more than ever, especially when everyone can create velocity on even a meager, local SEO budget of basically $0. Duplicate Content Penalties & Misconceptions Google doesn’t slap you with a “duplicate content penalty” for every repeated sentence, but it will choose the most authoritative or original version to rank—often ignoring the rest. If your content isn’t quality enough to stand out, then you’re more likely Content Decay from Repeated Rewording Like playing telephone, every rewrite erodes meaning and accuracy. By the fifth “spin,” facts get lost and nuance disappears. Your content is also less likely to include ALL the right semantic words needed to differentiate and disambiguate your content. Keyword Over-Optimization from Copy Culture Recycling the same keyword-heavy phrasing over and over doesn’t just bore readers—it can make your site look spammy. Semantic relevance trumps keyword stuffing for SEO. Why True Originality Matters for Brand & Search Visibility Purple Cow SEO matters now more than ever. Here’s why. Trust Erosion Audiences can sniff out stale, regurgitated content. Once they decide you’re just another SEO clone, you’ve lost them. Reduced Authority Google favors content with original research, personal expertise, or unique insights. Multiplicity is the opposite of that. Repeating stats (even if you appropriately reference/link to them), almost ensures you a spot below position 1. Competitive Dilution If every competitor says the same thing, none of you stand out—and rankings flatten out across the board. This problem is particularly acute in red ocean industries like SEO and link building where ranking for competitive keywords is a bloodbath. Avoiding the Multiplicity Trap Newbies and non-experts will have a more difficult time producing content that fits into the quality, relevance and originality bucket. Produce Content from First-Hand Experience Case studies, proprietary data, and personal expertise can’t be copied. They’re your unfair advantage. This type of content is also some of the hardest to obtain because it takes real-world work and experience. Develop a Content “Moat” Brand voice, custom imagery, and deep niche knowledge are hard to replicate. Your moat is directly related to point 1 above. Develop a moat based on your own internal EEAT framework. Invest in Thought Leadership Commentary on trends, predictions, and hard-won lessons builds authority. Stay abreast of changes in your industry and provide up-to-date, meaningful insight that adds lots of free value. The content itself will be the hook to bring in readers and eventually clients. Mix Up Your Formats Podcasts, videos, webinars, interactive tools—these are far harder to clone than a blog post, especially when real humans are used in your videos and social posts. Authenticity builds the authority and dwell-time you need to stand out. Refreshing Instead of Replicating We now spend way more time on updating old content than we do on producing anything new. Content Pruning and Consolidation If two posts overlap heavily, merge them into a stronger, more comprehensive page. A content consolidation strategy can work well when executed according to SEO best-practices. Updating vs. Cloning Revise old posts with new stats, visuals, and angles instead of making a near-duplicate. This strategy also solves the problem of Google having to choose which of your multiple posts should be indexed above another. E-E-A-T Signals Through Content Evolution Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust grow when your content evolves instead of multiplying into thin, repetitive versions. Originality as the Last SEO Advantage SEO Multiplicity: Problem–Solution Matrix SEO Issue Cause Impact on SEO Solution Duplicate Content Reusing or copying content across sites without adding unique value. Google may filter duplicates and prioritize original sources. Create original, value-added content with unique insights and citations. Content Decay Repeated rewording or “spinning” of existing content. Loss of clarity, accuracy, and user engagement over time. Refresh with updated data, new perspectives, tighter structure, and improved UX.
Agentic SEO: When AI SEO Agents Replace Your SEO Agency
The SEO industry is undergoing a seismic shift. The rise of artificial intelligence — especially in the form of autonomous AI agents — is quickly changing the rules of the SEO game. We’re entering the era of Agentic SEO: where intelligent, automated agents can perform many of the core tasks that once required a full-time team (or an expensive SEO retainer). These AI-powered assistants can crawl websites, optimize metadata, generate keyword-rich content, and even run backlink outreach campaigns — all with remarkable speed and increasingly impressive accuracy. In fact, most of the copy I’ve seen from AI destroys the relentless link building spam we receive from India. So what does this mean for your SEO agency or your business if you have an in-house team? Is it time to ditch the human white label SEO entirely and let the robots take over? What are SEO agents? What can/can’t they do? What are the pros & cons of using AI SEO agents? What are the limitations of agentic SEO? The Traditional SEO Agency Model Before we dive into the rise of SEO agents, it’s worth revisiting how traditional SEO agencies have delivered value over the past two decades. A typical SEO agency offers a combination of strategic consulting, technical execution, and creative production. These services are delivered by human specialists, often grouped into siloed teams. Here’s what that typically looks like: Core Functions of an SEO Agency Technical SEO Audits: Manual site crawls, Core Web Vitals checks, indexing analysis, linkgraph audits and site architecture recommendations. Keyword Research: Identifying high-value keywords, search intent mapping, and topical clustering. Content Strategy & Optimization: Editorial calendar creation, content briefs, metadata updates, and on-page tuning. Content Creation: Human-written blog posts, service pages, and long-form guides tailored for brand tone and audience relevance. Link Building & Digital PR: Securing backlinks through relationship-based outreach, guest posting, and media placements. Analytics & Reporting: Custom dashboards, Google Analytics/GA4 setups, and performance reviews. Strategic Consulting: Ongoing prioritization of efforts, testing, A/B experiments, and long-term roadmap creation. Why Agencies Have Worked Well for ALL of These Tasks (Until Now) Strategic Thinking: Humans understand nuance, business goals, and market context, particularly if an SEO is focused on a particular niche. Creative Judgment: SEO isn’t just technical — it’s emotional. Tone, voice, and brand integrity matter. Industry Expertise: Agencies build domain expertise across verticals (e.g. law firm SEO), applying proven playbooks. Relationship Capital: Digital PR and link building often rely on trust and real human relationships. But despite the value agencies provide, much of their output is process-driven — and that’s exactly where AI agents are starting to gain ground. Enter Agentic SEO: What Are SEO Agents? In the world of AI, “agents” aren’t people — they’re autonomous software entities designed to complete specific tasks with minimal human oversight. When it comes to SEO, these AI agents are rapidly evolving into capable digital workers that can analyze, optimize, and even create — all on their own. Agentic SEO refers to the growing ecosystem of AI-driven tools and systems that act independently (or semi-independently) to execute SEO-related functions. These aren’t just glorified checklists or dashboards. They’re adaptive, learning systems that can take an input (like a URL or a keyword), assess a goal (e.g., improve rankings), and autonomously take action toward your desired outcome. How SEO Agents Work Autonomous: They can make decisions based on data without human intervention. They keep learning and improving over time. Persistent: Many operate continuously in the background, monitoring and adjusting over time. They don’t take naps, sick days or vacations. Connected: They can interact with APIs, databases, CMS platforms, and other tools in your marketing stack. Generative: Leveraging LLMs, SEO agents can generate optimized content, titles, meta descriptions, and even backlink pitches. Examples of Agentic SEO in Action Crawling & Technical Fixes: Agents that detect 404s, crawl issues, duplicate content, and auto-suggest (or auto-implement) fixes. Keyword Intelligence: LLM-powered keyword clusterers that group intent and recommend full content hierarchies. Content Generation: AI writing tools fine-tuned for SEO that can pump out optimized drafts in seconds. Link Outreach Bots: Autonomous agents that scrape sites for link opportunities and send templated (yet personalized) cold outreach. Analytics & Reporting: Real-time dashboards updated by AI agents summarizing performance, opportunities, and anomalies. Agentic SEO doesn’t just promise speed — it promises scalability. What once took a team (and 10+ SaaS products) of five can now be done (or at least initiated) by one person and a handful of intelligent agents working behind the scenes. We’re using Bolt.New and N8N to replace many of our existing SaaS-stack. But not all SEO tasks are created equal — and not all AI agents are created competent. Task-by-Task Comparison: SEO Professionals vs. SEO Agents To understand where AI agents truly shine — and where they still stumble — it’s helpful to compare their capabilities side-by-side with those of traditional SEO professionals. While some tasks are already being executed faster and cheaper by intelligent systems, others still demand human strategy, creativity, or relationship capital. Here’s a breakdown of the most common SEO activities and how they’re handled by both sides: SEO Task Human Agency AI Agent Current AI Capability Keyword Research Manual research, creative grouping, intent mapping High-speed clustering, SERP analysis, long-tail discovery ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Content Writing Brand voice, storytelling, nuanced messaging Fast generation of optimized drafts and outlines ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (requires human polish) Technical Audits Custom insights, prioritization, manual crawling Automated crawling, error flagging, Core Web Vitals checks ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Link Building Relationship-driven outreach, custom pitches Email outreach bots, list scraping, cold templates ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (limited quality control) On-Page SEO Manual optimization, A/B testing, brand alignment Auto-suggestions, real-time meta updates ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Reporting & Analytics Customized insights, executive-level summaries Auto-generated dashboards and trend alerts ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Strategy Big picture thinking, market adaptation, creative planning Pattern-based insights, data summaries ⭐️⭐️ (limited business context) What This Tells Us Just like the SEO industry, AI agents are already competitive — and in some cases superior — when it comes to high-volume, data-driven tasks like keyword research, technical
Page-Level vs. Object-Level Targeting: The New Frontier of SEO in the AI Era
Search engines have always rewarded content that is relevant, comprehensive, and authoritative—but how that content is delivered is changing fast. In the past, the SEO strategies of most SEO agencies focused on optimizing entire pages for specific keywords. Today, with the rise of AI-powered SEO retrieval systems and generative search experiences, we’re witnessing a seismic shift: from page-level optimization to object-level targeting. In this post, we’ll explore what that shift means, why it matters, and how forward-thinking SEOs can adapt their content strategies to thrive in the new AI-native search landscape. What is Page-Level Targeting? Traditional SEO has long revolved around page-level targeting. You optimize a single page around a core keyword or phrase, build topical depth, add metadata, and hope it ranks for related search queries. This model made sense in the Google 1.0 world—when search engines looked at documents holistically and used link-based signals to evaluate authority. But it has always had its limitations: Long pages often buried key answers deep in the content. Pages that tried to answer multiple intents could lose focus. Search engines sometimes struggled to surface the exact information users needed. Now, thanks to advances in natural language processing and large language models (LLMs), search engines and AI assistants are retrieving information at a much finer resolution. What is Object-Level Targeting? Object-level targeting is the practice of optimizing individual content “objects”—sentences, passages, bullet points, tables, facts, or structured elements—so they can be retrieved independently of the page they live on. Rather than thinking in terms of optimizing whole blog posts, marketers must now consider how each content fragment performs in isolation. These fragments might include: A single sentence that clearly answers a question A list of pros and cons A stat embedded in a table A well-marked FAQ block A properly tagged product feature AI-powered search systems now break content into these atomic units and retrieve only the relevant ones based on user intent. And that’s changing everything. How Retrieval Works in the AI Era In traditional search, ranking algorithms evaluated entire documents and returned the most relevant URLs. But in AI Mode, models like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google SGE use retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines. The following diagram illustrates the difference in retrieval workflows between classic search and AI-driven systems: Here’s how it works: Content is chunked into passages or data objects. Each chunk is embedded as a vector—a semantic fingerprint. When a user asks a question, the system retrieves only the most relevant content chunks. Those chunks are fed into the LLM to generate a synthesized response. The result? Your sentence might appear in an AI-generated answer, even if the rest of your page doesn’t. Aspect Page-Level Targeting Object-Level Targeting Unit of Optimization Entire webpage or document Individual sentences, passages, or structured data Primary Goal Rank the full page for a core keyword or topic Make each content fragment independently retrievable Search Engine Retrieval Traditional keyword-based search Semantic chunking & vector-based retrieval (AI Mode) Content Structure Intro, body, conclusion format with topical breadth Modular blocks designed for clarity and reuse Tools/Techniques H1s, meta tags, backlinks, keyword density Structured data, embeddings, RAG pipelines, schema Visibility Page appears as a single unit in SERPs Fragments appear in AI summaries, zero-click results Measurement Page-level metrics (rank, bounce rate, CTR) Fragment-level usage harder to track (requires RAG or analytics integration) Content Authoring Long-form, narrative structure Precision writing with atomic clarity How to Optimize for Object-Level Targeting Before diving into specific strategies, let’s compare the core differences between traditional page-level SEO and emerging object-level SEO: Adapting to object-level SEO requires rethinking how you structure and present your content. Here are key strategies: 1. Write Standalone, Authoritative Sentences Each paragraph or sentence should answer a specific query and be self-contained. Avoid burying key insights in bloated paragraphs. 2. Use Structured Data Wherever Possible Implement schema markup for FAQs, reviews, how-to steps, and product details. Structure boosts retrievability. 3. Leverage Lists, Tables, and FAQs These elements are easy for AI to chunk, extract, and present in answers. Treat each row, bullet, or answer as a standalone knowledge unit. 4. Implement Internal Fragment Linking Use anchor links to specific sections or objects in your content. This allows better referencing and sharing of micro-content. 5. Add Metadata to Modular Components If your site is API-driven or headless, make sure each content block (testimonial, stat, use case) has its own metadata and object ID. Use Cases in the Wild Let’s look at real-world examples: Product Pages: Instead of optimizing the page around “best running shoes,” optimize each spec (heel drop, material, weight) as a separate data object. Real Estate Listings: Ensure address, price, lot size, and amenities are all marked up as separate retrievable properties for real estate SEO. Legal or Medical Content: Break long documents into clauses, rulings, or symptoms with proper headings and citations. Each of these “objects” can then be retrieved independently when a user asks an AI: What’s the square footage of 123 Main St? or What’s the difference between a DWI and DUI in Arkansas? SEO Implications: What This Shift Means This shift to object-level targeting has wide-ranging implications for content creation and SEO: Keyword Research Evolves: Instead of optimizing for one main keyword, focus on granular semantic relevance across dozens of related intents. Content Length Isn’t Always King: Brevity and clarity now outperform fluff. A great sentence can out-rank a mediocre blog. Fact Accuracy Is Crucial: AI systems cite “factual” fragments. Errors may be extracted out of context. Links Still Matter: But the reputation of a domain can now power the visibility of its micro-objects. Challenges of Object-Level SEO While promising, object-level targeting isn’t without its issues: Over-fragmentation can lead to disjointed UX if your content loses narrative flow. Measurement is tricky: Traditional SEO tools still focus on page-level metrics. Duplication risk: Small content fragments may overlap across pages or cannibalize rankings. You’ll need a blend of editorial quality and technical precision to win here. Tools to Support Object-Level Optimization Want to future-proof your SEO stack?
Pros and Cons of Done-For-You SEO Services
SEO is complicated. It’s equal parts art, science, and voodoo. I’ve even had potential clients wryly remark, “oh, you do witchcraft.” With AI and algorithm changes at near-constant levels, keeping up with industry trends and best practices is somewhere between “impractical” and “utterly impossible.” Enter: Done-For-You SEO services. The promise? Hand over your digital keys and let the experts drive. No internal hires. No guessing games. No wondering what Google means when it says “helpful content.” Just rankings, traffic, and leads delivered on autopilot — or so the pitch goes. But like most things in life (and marketing), the truth lives somewhere in the messy middle. So, let’s break down the real pros and cons of handing your SEO over to a fully managed service. What Are Done-For-You SEO Services, Exactly? At its core, Done-For-You (DFY) SEO services mean you outsource the entire SEO operation to an external agency. That includes technical audits, on-page optimization, link building, content creation, reporting — the works. The idea is simple: you focus on your business; they focus on your rankings. Instead of building an internal SEO department (which, let’s be real, most companies are completely unqualified to manage), you get an agency with the staff, tools, and (hopefully) expertise to handle it all. But buyer beware: not all DFY providers are created equal. Some are true SEO experts; others are barely more than outsourced Fiverr factories held together with duct tape, expired PBNs, and hope. TL;DR Feature / Category Done-For-You SEO Do-It-Yourself SEO Hybrid SEO Control & Customization Limited – agency handles most tasks Full control over every aspect Shared control; you choose focus areas Cost High monthly retainer ($1K–$10K+) Low direct cost, but high time investment Mid-range pricing; often flexible Time Commitment Minimal – hands-off Significant – steep learning curve & ongoing work Moderate; time spent on strategy or specific tasks Expertise Required None required High – must understand technical SEO, content, link building Some knowledge helpful, but agency provides support Results Timeline Faster due to expert execution Slower; DIY learning phase can delay results Balanced – can scale faster with support Scalability Very scalable Limited by your bandwidth Scalable with managed support SEO Tools Access Included (Ahrefs, SEMrush, etc.) Must pay separately for tools Usually includes access to key tools Content Creation Fully handled by agency (writers, editors, strategists) You write/edit all content You may write, agency edits or vice versa Technical SEO Covered by the agency Must handle site audits, schema, speed optimizations yourself Technical audits often provided; fixes may be split Link Building / Outreach Fully managed (white-hat outreach, guest posting, etc.) Manual outreach, time-consuming Some links handled by agency, others DIY Analytics & Reporting Monthly reports, insights, KPIs You need to interpret Google Analytics/Search Console data Shared dashboard + occasional insights Flexibility & Pivot Speed Slower – requires communication and task queue Fast – you can pivot immediately Medium – you get advice but can act on your own Ideal For Busy professionals, enterprises, non-tech founders Budget-conscious startups, SEO hobbyists, freelancers Growth-stage companies, marketers who want oversight Common Pitfalls Lack of transparency, over-dependence Burnout, mistakes due to inexperience Communication gaps, unclear division of labor The Pros of Done-For-You SEO Services 1. Turnkey SimplicityYou don’t need to learn canonical tags, crawl budgets, or why Google suddenly hates your schema markup. You hire an agency, they handle it. It’s SEO without the headache. 2. Access to True SpecialistsGood agencies live and breathe this stuff. Their teams are staffed with technical SEOs, content strategists, data analysts, and link builders who understand both the art and science of ranking in highly competitive markets. Their full-time job is keeping up with Google — because let’s face it, you don’t have time to read 200 pages of search quality rater guidelines. 3. ScalabilityDFY SEO can ramp up or down based on your needs. Need international SEO? They’ve got a team for that. Launching a new product line? Content calendar coming right up. You get access to cross-functional teams you couldn’t easily replicate internally. 4. Premium Tools Without Premium Price TagsEnterprise SEO software isn’t cheap — and most SMBs don’t have the budget for full licenses of Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, and every new AI-powered SEO tool du jour. Agencies amortize these costs across clients, giving you access without requiring you to sell a kidney. 5. Consistency & AccountabilityGood agencies are data-obsessed. You get monthly reports, tracked KPIs, and (if they’re doing it right) proactive strategy adjustments. The work gets done whether your internal marketing team is sick, distracted, or busy posting memes on LinkedIn. The Cons of Done-For-You SEO Services 1. Loss of ControlYou’re outsourcing not just the work — but often the decision-making. If you’re deeply protective of your brand voice, your backlink profile, or your content strategy, ceding full control may not sit well. Maybe DIY SEO is more for your business? 2. Cookie-Cutter CampaignsMany DFY providers operate on templates. They crank out 500-word blog posts and generic backlink outreach like it’s still 2012. True customization requires an agency willing to do deep discovery and tailor every element — and many simply don’t. 3. Quality VariabilityThe SEO world has its share of charlatans. Some DFY agencies outsource their “link building” to overseas link farms. Some spin content or buy garbage guest posts. If it sounds too good to be true (“Guaranteed #1 Rankings!”), it almost certainly is. 4. Upfront CostDFY SEO can be expensive — and for good reason. You’re paying for a team’s time, tools, and expertise. But if you hire the wrong team, you’re essentially lighting that retainer on fire every month and killing your SEO ROI. 5. Communication GapsDFY doesn’t mean “forget about it entirely.” Poor communication can lead to misaligned goals, missed opportunities, or — worse — your agency implementing strategies that hurt your long-term organic health. SEO is a collaborative process, even when outsourced. Who Should (and Shouldn’t) Use Done-For-You SEO? Done-For-You SEO Makes Sense For: SMBs without internal SEO expertise. But consider the lack of
Thanks to AI, Keyword Rankings are Now Vanity Metrics
For years, keyword rankings were the lifeblood of SEO. Digital agencies built entire reporting models around tracking specific phrases and their positions in Google. Clients obsessed over being “number one” for their primary keywords. Ranking reports were considered gospel — proof that SEO was “working.” But the world has changed. Artificial intelligence is reshaping the search landscape in ways that are fundamentally undermining the importance of keyword rankings. What once served as a meaningful metric is now little more than a vanity exercise — and in some cases, dangerously misleading. It’s time to retire keyword rankings as a primary SEO KPI. The Historical Obsession with Keyword Rankings To understand how we got here, it helps to remember why keyword rankings mattered in the first place. For years, Google operated on a fairly static model: 10 blue links on a search results page, ranked in a clear hierarchy. If you ranked #1 for “personal injury lawyer Chicago,” you could expect a steady stream of highly qualified traffic. Rankings correlated closely with impressions, clicks, and leads. Naturally, SEO clients wanted to know: Where do we rank? Are we moving up? How do we compare to competitors? SEO agencies responded by building rank-tracking into their core service models. Entire businesses were built around selling ranking improvements. And for a while, that made sense. Enter AI: The Death of Linear Rankings Then artificial intelligence arrived. With the rollout of AI-powered search engines — Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE), Bing Copilot, Perplexity, ChatGPT web browsing, and others — the linear structure of search results has started to dissolve. Instead of serving everyone the same list of links, AI engines deliver synthesized, personalized answers drawn from multiple sources. And they are getting better at knowing what you want, feeding you content in a vacuum based on your previous queries. The result you see may differ dramatically from the result I see, depending on factors like: Search history — how often users visit and what they are doing when they are on your website can tell a lot about how they feel about your business and brand Location — Are your visitors coming from Russia and India or are they primarily in the United States? Device (desktop vs. mobile vs. tablet) Real-time data sources User intent — and where the user sits in the marketing funnel Even Google’s traditional search results are now filled with featured snippets, knowledge panels, People Also Ask boxes, AI summaries, local packs and now “AI Mode” that push traditional rankings further down the page. In many cases, users no longer even see the “organic rankings” that agencies have spent years tracking. Why Chasing Rankings is Now Largely Pointless The traditional rank tracking model simply can’t keep up with the way AI search works today. Rankings are highly fluid. What you see may not reflect what your customer sees. AI-generated summaries answer questions without clicks. Many users get what they need directly from an AI response, without ever clicking through to a website. Multiple SERP features dominate above-the-fold real estate. Even a #1 organic ranking may sit far below AI-generated content and other search features. Personalized SERPs mean fragmented data. Rankings (and traffic) depend on variables outside of your control. And those variables grow infinitely when users perform multiple follow-up searches to an initial query. At best, keyword rankings have become a loose directional signal. At worst, they give businesses a false sense of progress while failing to capture whether SEO efforts are driving real business outcomes. Keyword Rankings: The Ultimate Vanity Metric Vanity metrics are those that look good on paper but fail to provide actionable insight or correlate with business performance. Keyword rankings increasingly fall into this category: They don’t reflect real user behavior. They don’t capture traffic quality. They don’t measure conversions. They don’t account for AI-driven zero-click outcomes. Clients love seeing their target keywords sitting pretty on a report. But that doesn’t mean those rankings are generating leads, sales, or revenue. What Metrics Actually Matter in 2025 and Beyond If keyword rankings are no longer reliable, where should businesses focus instead? Here’s where we advise our clients at SEO.co to shift their attention: Organic Traffic Trends: Total search traffic, accounting for all keywords and long-tail variations. More importantly, are you trending up in your “overall” keyword rankings? Is your traffic on the incline or the decline? Conversion Data: Leads, sales, and revenue attributable to organic search. THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT METRIC! Brand Visibility in AI Outputs: Is your brand being cited or summarized in AI-generated answers? Entity-Based Optimization: Are your brand and key topics recognized in Google’s Knowledge Graph and LLM training data? Do you have the right semantic and entity keywords mixed in your body content to disambiguate what your page is about? Backlink Authority: High-quality, earned backlinks still matter as signals of trust. But, the other ranking factors are increasing in overall “weight” in AI SEO. Topical Authority Signals: Depth and breadth of content coverage across your niche. Engagement Metrics: Click-through-rates, time on site, bounce rates, page depth — indicators of real user interest in your content and your brand. The common theme: real-world business outcomes, not superficial rankings. The New SEO Playbook for the AI Era AI isn’t killing SEO — but it is changing how SEO must be approached. Winning in AI-powered search requires: Building Topical Authority: Comprehensive, expert-level content that answers questions thoroughly. Optimizing Entities, Not Just Keywords: Become a recognized authority tied to specific topics, brands, and people. Leveraging Structured Data & Schema: Feed AI engines the context they need to understand and surface your content. In other words, object-level optimization first over page-level optimization. Earning Mentions, Not Just Links: PR, citations, interviews, and social signals that position your brand as an expert. Focusing on Brand Building: Long-term authority that transcends individual keyword phrases. This is a shift from transactional SEO to strategic SEO — from chasing individual rankings to building defensible authority. What SEOs and Clients Need to Do Now
Google Doesn’t Owe You Anything
Google doesn’t owe you any organic traffic. It doesn’t owe you rankings, visibility, explanations, apologies, or even acknowledgment of your existence. And yet, every time there’s a Google algorithm update, a corner of the internet (primarily Barry’s blog at seroundtable.com) erupts into wails and gnashing of teeth. “Google destroyed my business!” “I used to rank #1 and now I’m not even in the top 10!” “They’re favoring big brands!” “They are stealing our content and ideas to feed their LLM (large language model)!” Boo. Freaking. Hoo. Let us be the friend that tells you what your other “SEO gurus” won’t: You are not entitled to free exposure If your Google rankings dropped, you’re not the only one If your rankings dropped, take ownership of your website’s deficiencies–don’t blame the search engine If you’re playing the SEO game, you haven’t been playing it long enough if you have not yet been “hit” negatively by an update Just because SEO can be a solid avenue for traffic, distribution and sales, it should NEVER be your ONLY avenue (you should always be diversifying your strategy) Unless you experiment, pivot and adjust your SEO strategy, a single rankings drop can be more of a permanent business killer. The Myth of Organic Entitlement Somewhere along the line, a dangerous idea crept into the SEO world — that just because you built a website, published some blog posts, and optimized your images and H1 tags, you’re owed a steady stream of organic traffic. That myth needs to die a rapid death, immediately. Although Google tends to rank older sites over newer sites, it doesn’t care how long you’ve been around. It doesn’t care how many hours you spent perfecting your meta descriptions. There is no SEO Santa handing out goodies for effort. If your content sucks or your site is stuck in 2012, don’t expect sympathy — expect invisibility. “People who are given whatever they want soon develop a sense of entitlement and rapidly lose their sense of proportion” — Sarah Churchwell It may be time to mute expectations on what Google can do for you, especially now that: AI mode will continue to shove organic search results into the ether, keeping users locked in the Google ecosystem with zero-click searches…unless you pay. Google’s share of the overall search pie is dwindling to other prominent LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai. Don’t expect that to improve! Expect less from Google. That is, reset your expectations. Google Is a Business, Not Your Fairy Godmother Time for a reality check: Google’s job isn’t to help your business grow — it’s to serve its users and make money. Preferably lots of it. It turns out users trust big brands. They click them more often. They stay on their sites longer. That data tells Google those sites are better answers. So, of course, Google serves them up. If you were Google, wouldn’t you do the same? So no, it’s not a conspiracy. It’s not some secret vendetta against small businesses. It’s just the algorithm doing what it does — reward what works for those that own the platform. Your Traffic Dropped? It’s Probably You Let’s be honest: if your organic traffic tanked after an update, maybe it wasn’t the update. Maybe your site: Loads slower than dial-up. Has 700 blog posts about nothing anyone wants to read. Looks like it was built during Obama’s first term. Hasn’t earned a single high quality backlink since TikTok was launched. Google didn’t destroy your rankings — you neglected them. SEO is not a “set it and forget it” kind of game. It’s more like raising a needy digital child. You have to feed it, clean it, and keep it out of trouble constantly. And it’s only getting harder with stiffer competition and less love from fewer clicks from the SERPs. You Chose to Play This Game No one forced you into the SEO game. You chose this. You wanted “free” traffic (so called). You wanted leads. You wanted to outsmart the competition (er…the algorithm). Well, welcome to the jungle. Google changes the rules every few months. You can adapt, or you can become roadkill. There is no third option. You don’t get to complain about the rules when you’re playing in someone else’s sandbox. This is Google’s game — and you agreed to play. Big Brands Are Winning? Shocking. Yes, we know — big brands dominate the SERPs. They’ve got armies of writers, PR agencies, and backlink budgets that could make a small country blush. You can either cry about it… or pivot. Find your niche. Build deep topical authority. Outmaneuver them in long-tail and local. Create 10x content they’d never bother with. Be more agile. Complaining that Nike ranks better than your dropshipping site for “best running shoes” is like whining that LeBron James gets more endorsement deals than your local rec league MVP. Life’s not fair. Get over it. How to Actually Get Google’s Attention Here’s what works (and always has): Content that solves problems. Not fluff. Not AI garbage. Real insights. Backlinks that matter. Not from sketchy PBNs. From relevant, high-authority sources. Speed and user experience. Your site should load fast, look good on mobile, and not make people want to smash their devices. Topical depth. Show that you know your stuff inside and out. Become the resource. Consistency. No, blogging once every 6 months doesn’t count. Diversify Diversify away from a dangerous Google-only strategy. Find other digital marketing mechanisms for growth. You can also diversify on Google itself by having multiple sites, targeting multiple sectors using slightly tweaked strategies for gaining organic exposure. If you spend ALL your time on a single site or brand ONLY doing SEO, and it gets wiped-out, then shame on you. Google Doesn’t Owe You. You Owe Google Your Best Work. Stop expecting Google to hand you success on a silver platter. That’s not how this works. If you’re frustrated, that’s fine. Just don’t confuse frustration with injustice. Get better. Work smarter. Invest in
The Evolution of SEO: How to Rank in an Agentic AI World
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has always been about one thing: visibility. From the early days of keyword stuffing and backlink farming to the era of semantic search and Core Web Vitals, the goal has remained the same—get found by users looking for answers. But what happens when those “users” are no longer human? Enter Agentic AI—a new generation of autonomous AI agents capable of making decisions, taking actions, and even conducting web research on behalf of human users. These AI agents don’t just search—they execute tasks, compare data, and select the best outcomes with little or no human intervention. And their rise is fundamentally changing the rules of SEO. How is SEO is evolving in the age of Agentic AI? What does Agentic AI mean for digital marketers and website owners? How to future-proof your content strategy for a world where algorithms don’t just rank content—they consume and act on it. The Evolution of SEO To understand where SEO is headed, it’s helpful to look back at where it’s been. Over the past two decades, SEO has evolved through several major phases—each driven by changes in user behavior and search engine technology. 1. The Early Web: Keywords and BacklinksIn the early 2000s, SEO was relatively primitive. Rankings were heavily influenced by keyword density, exact match domains, and the quantity of inbound links. The system was easily gamed, and websites often prioritized search engines over user experience. 2. The Google Revolution: Smarter AlgorithmsGoogle changed the game with algorithm updates like: Panda (2011), targeting thin or low-quality content Penguin (2012), penalizing link schemes Hummingbird (2013), improving understanding of search intent These updates shifted SEO toward content quality, relevance, and semantic search, forcing marketers to focus more on value than tricks. 3. Mobile-First and User ExperienceWith the rise of mobile, Google introduced mobile-first indexing, placing greater emphasis on responsive design and page speed. This era also brought Core Web Vitals, metrics that measure real-world user experience. 4. The AI Era: RankBrain and BERTGoogle began integrating machine learning with updates like RankBrain and BERT, enabling it to better understand natural language and context. This marked the beginning of AI-assisted search—and the first real steps toward AI being more than a ranking assistant. Now, we’re entering a new phase. Agentic AI is changing how people interact with the internet altogether—and SEO must evolve once again. Enter Agentic AI in SEO Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that are not just reactive but proactive—capable of taking initiative, making autonomous decisions, and pursuing specific goals on behalf of users. Unlike conventional AI, which answers questions or performs simple tasks when prompted, agentic systems operate with a higher degree of independence. A few examples might include: AutoGPT and BabyAGI: autonomous agents that can execute multi-step tasks, even done without a specific prompt, but with a specific outcome in mind. Personal AI assistants: capable of booking travel, shopping, or summarizing research Custom enterprise agents: navigating internal systems and surfacing strategic insights These agents are not just passive conduits of information—they actively browse the web, evaluate options, and make decisions based on real-time data. From “Searching” to “Delegating” In a traditional search engine experience, users input a query, browse results, and decide which links to click. With Agentic AI, the user simply states a goal—like “Find the best property management software and set up a demo”—and the agent handles the entire process. This eliminates multiple steps of user interaction and bypasses standard SERP behavior. It also removes another middle-man that is frequently used by SEO agencies: the virtual assistant. How AI Agents Interact With the Web Rather than being guided by snippets and titles in search results, agentic AI systems: Scrape content for factual data from various web sources Query APIs and structured datasets from existing and new sources Prioritize trusted, verified sources (think EEAT for Google, but with real “learning” involved) Analyze readability, clarity, and actionability—not just keyword relevance or the anchor text of a backlink In short, AI agents don’t behave like humans—and that has profound implications for how websites should be structured and optimized. How Agentic AI is Changing the Search Landscape The rise of Agentic AI represents a shift from search as a human-driven discovery process to search as an autonomous task completed by machines. This search transition is already reshaping the digital ecosystem in several key ways. 1. Decline in Traditional Search Queries As more users delegate tasks to AI agents, we’re seeing a decline in traditional keyword-based queries. Instead of typing “best CRM software for small business,” users might prompt their AI to “find and sign me up for the best-rated CRM that integrates with Gmail and is under $100/month.” The AI might never display a SERP—it simply performs the task. 2. Rise of Zero-Click and AI-Generated Answers Google and other platforms have already been moving toward zero-click searches, where answers are displayed directly on the page without requiring a click. Agentic AI accelerates this trend by consuming and summarizing content internally, often never exposing the original source to the end user. In short, search engines still use your content to created the AI-generated answers, but users are much less likely to click away and visit your site unless they really want to know and dive deeper. 3. Direct-to-Answer Systems With models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude, answers are generated on the fly by aggregating knowledge from multiple sources. In many cases, the user doesn’t know (or care) where the data comes from—so long as it’s accurate and helpful. 4. AI Agents Don’t Click—They Act Unlike a human who might click several links, skim through a few articles, and compare options, AI agents: Scrape content directly Evaluate data based on instructions or goals Make choices algorithmically based on structure, clarity, and authority This means the traditional SEO tactics designed to attract human clicks—like compelling headlines or rich snippets—may not apply in the same way. The new SEO is less about visibility on a page and more about being useful
How to Dominate in the Winner-Take-All Game of SEO
SEO is a winner-take-all, zero-sum game. The harsh reality of SEO is that only a few win while everyone else remains invisible. And the problem is compounding. Consider these stats: The first organic result is 10x more likely to receive a click than the 10th position. Similarly, the first organic search result has an average CTR (click through rate) of nearly 28%. Over 90% of users never even visit page 2. The top 3 organic results receive nearly 70% of all clicks. If your business is not in the top 5 results for your most coveted keywords, the likelihood of ever seeing scalable growth via online means is nil. Every run-of-the-mill SEO agency will consistently tell you to “capture the long tail” and “go after keywords your competitors don’t rank for.” That used to be a viable strategy, but the emergence of AI (artificial intelligence) in SEO results and the consumers’ proclivity toward other AI search engines like Perplexity.ai and ChatGPT are killing the SEO long tail game. To add further insult to injury, SEO also takes longer than ever to be effective. In SEO, you only win when someone else loses. You can typically only grow revenue significantly when you rank in the top 1-5 positions for bottom-of-the-funnel, commercial keywords. Let’s talk about how you can still craft a winning strategy, in spite of all the aforementioned negativity. Play to Win Have you ever played a game with someone so competitive that they refused to capitulate — even if they were playing a simple board game with a child? I have. It’s annoying. Those same types of people I’ve found also have the mentality that they won’t waste their time playing a game they know they can’t possibly win. In business, where results really matter, sunk costs may be irrelevant, but ROI is not. Don’t play the game of SEO unless you know you can win. Here are some questions to ask: In a content and link gap analysis, is there possibly a way to catch up to the dominating players in your niche? If so, what is the cost? What is the forecastable revenue from becoming an authority in your industry? Compare that to the cost of bridging the gap. If you can see a path toward bridging the gap, do you have the budget to get there? More importantly, how much time is it going to take you to get there? In SEO, your greatest deterrent to playing the game is more likely the time to rank and not the cost to rank. It can take 3-6 years even with the most robust and sizeable SEO budgets. Playing to win in SEO means you have enough budget to bridge content and link gaps. Playing to win in SEO means you are taking the long view. Can you afford to wait for 3-6 years before you start to receive meaningful leads to your business? Why Most Sites Lose Most websites don’t lose because SEO doesn’t work. They lost because they never played to win in the first place. Unwitting business owners approach SEO like it’s a side project, rather than a core business growth strategy. They don’t commit to the long term. They don’t build a real content moat. They chase quick wins, half-heartedly publish blogs, and dabble in link building without ever developing website and domain authority. Their strategies are often outdated, borrowed from a time when keyword stuffing and exact-match domains still mattered. Others focus solely on paid traffic or social virality, hoping for spikes rather than building sustainable momentum. And even more businesses rely on generic, templated content that adds nothing new to the conversation — the kind Google is increasingly good at filtering out. Add to that a failure to differentiate — to stand for something specific and valuable in the eyes of both users and search engines — and it’s easy to see why most brands flounder. They’re not investing. They’re not innovating. And they’re certainly not executing with consistency. They’re not really playing the game. And in SEO, if you’re not playing to win, you’ve already lost. Here’s why most sites stay invisible: No long-term commitment. SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Businesses bail too early. No content moat. They create thin, surface-level content with no topical depth or authority. Stale tactics. They’re stuck using outdated playbooks from 2012. No differentiation. They blend in. Google doesn’t reward “me too” brands. Short-term thinking. They chase trends, paid traffic, or viral posts instead of compounding value. SEO is a war of attrition — and most brands are ill-equipped for the fight. How to Win: A Proven SEO Playbook Winning in SEO requires clarity, commitment, and a willingness to delay gratification. You won’t see results overnight. You probably won’t see them in a quarter. But if you’re willing to invest in a long-term, compounding strategy, the rewards can be transformational. The first step is making the decision to go all in. SEO isn’t for the indecisive. You need the budget, the patience, and the confidence to stay the course — often for a year or more — before you begin seeing serious ROI. But when the results do come, they tend to snowball. Brand and Authority Trumps Rankings: Building Asymmetric Returns with an SEO Moat Authority compounds. Rankings solidify. And traffic becomes consistent, qualified, and cost-effective. Once you’re in, the next step is to build a content moat — not just any content, but deep, authoritative, valuable content that sets you apart from everyone else in your niche. This isn’t about churning out blog posts. It’s about publishing content that is so thorough, so insightful, and so useful that it becomes the go-to resource in your space. Then, you keep it fresh. You update your content regularly. You protect your position. We have found that our brand quality (i.e. SEO.co, PPC.co and DEV.co) creates an asymmetric return on our content marketing because there is a true brand moat. How can you replicate this
How SEO Agencies Can Mitigate & Minimize Client Attrition
SEO agencies have a client attrition problem. While SEO isn’t “one and done,” there is a tendency to reduce or completely halt spending on content and link acquisition once desired rankings have been achieved. But retaining clients is crucial for growth, at best, and critical for avoiding oblivion, at worst. Because roughly 40% of our own internal revenue is derived from our SEO reseller partners, we have a keen interest in helping your SEO agency succeed in client retention. Here are a few of our learnings when it comes to retaining clients for our white label SEO clients. Set Clear Expectations from Initial Engagement Educate clients on realistic SEO timelines and results. SEO is the equivalent of online brand-building. It takes years, not weeks and months. The best SEO is measured over 4 to 6 years. You can expect it to take that long, and your clients should expect it to take that long as well. For small, local SEO clients, SEO results can be achieved quicker, but most national SEO clients experience gains over a much longer time horizon. Consequently, it’s best to establish clear, long-term expectations for rankings potential at the outset. This will include key performance indicators so your client knows you’re tracking according to expectations. It is also important to be clear that SEO is never “done.” SEO spending can be reduced after certain desired milestones are met, but it should never be ignored entirely. Maintain Transparent and Regular Communication From a client perspective, almost nothing is worse than: Not knowing how a campaign is progressing Having to check in with the SEO team to get a status update Regular communication with the client is absolutely critical to maintaining the long-term relationship and trust clients should expect. Weekly check-ins and monthly reports are table stakes. Even better are clear and easy-to-understand reporting dashboards (there are numerous platforms that can help here – we have tested a number of them). Be sure to take a proactive stance in addressing concerns and adjusting SEO strategies. Consistently Demonstrate Your Value Showcase ROI through case studies and example progress reports before engagement. Once engaged, and for the lifetime of the engagement, highlight regular wins, even small ones, to reinforce ongoing progress. Some examples could include: Rankings improvements for specific keywords Overall keyword gains Leads generated Revenue growth These last two are the most critical as they demonstrate ROI. However, they will be less likely to come quickly. You will need to explain the long-term benefits of SEO to prevent client impatience. After you have gained prominence and the leads and revenue the client desires, suggesting and targeting a new set of tangentially related keywords can help you further grow your client’s traffic and leads from other search sources and new niches. Diversify Services to Increase Stickiness While most digital marketing agencies do this from the outset, offering other complementary services like PPC, content marketing, and web design can help increase client stickiness. Use your client sales team to cross-sell and upsell additional services that add value. When doing so, it can be helpful to throw in freebies to get them hooked and charge for these additional SEO services later. To be even more sticky, provide exclusive insights or tools to keep clients engaged and happy with your work. This omnichannel approach embraces search everywhere optimization for multiple traffic sources, not just traditional SEO focused solely on Google. For instance, we have proprietary tracking tools (not just Ahrefs, Moz and others) that we use to showcase the value of how our services work together seamlessly. In fact, you can use other paid services to influence how you perform and manage your SEO campaigns. The more you are able to add value to your clients (and show it), the more likely you are to experience better client retention. Foster Strong(er) Client Relationships Personalize interactions and go beyond transactional relationships. You can do this by: Sending occasional gifts Sending very personal holiday messages or thank you notes Creating client loyalty and discount programs for recurring and bulk campaigns There are numerous ways to incentivize long-term client retention and reactivation. Improve Client Education, Onboarding, and Support When you are able to develop a seamless onboarding experience complete with training materials, your clients will thank you. One major mistake we often see SEO agencies make is keeping their clients ignorant of the “magic voodoo” of SEO. It’s best to default to the opposite. Educate clients on what you’re doing and why you’re doing it a particular way. In doing so, you will achieve greater client buy-in that your strategies are sound. Furthermore, it’s best to offer dedicated account managers for more personalized service. A responsive support system to handle urgent client requests quickly. Nothing will cause client attrition more rapidly than a bad customer support experience. Address and Reduce Pain Points Painful conversations and pain in your client’s business should not be avoided. The same goes for the pain points in your own customer churn. Identify common reasons for internal client churn and proactively address them. Offer flexible contracts or pause options instead of cancellation. Again, providing proper client education to prove SEO value and prevent unrealistic expectations is critical for long-term retention. Leverage White-Label SEO Support If you want to both scale and retain more client accounts, white labeling can help. But your white label SEO provider needs to be top-notch. Choose a reliable white-label SEO partner that enhances client satisfaction. You’ll want to ensure your white label SEO partners maintain high-quality service and reporting. The right partner will already include SOPs (standard operating procedures) that address the items already discussed above, allowing you to scale your SEO business with less churn. Conclusion Client retention is the lifeblood of any successful SEO agency. People don’t shop based on your SEO pricing. They also don’t leave due to pricing. They leave because of lack of results. However, that doesn’t tell the whole story. While achieving rankings is a key milestone, maintaining long-term relationships with clients
Every Company is an SEO Company
The effectiveness of SEO is admittedly waning. However, the death of SEO is still greatly exaggerated–at least in the short term. And, even though SEO cannot be as reliable a source of 90% of your digitally-fed leads as it once was, it still should remain a key pillar of your company’s digital visibility. As such, every company that has even an inkling of tangential reliance on the internet for leads and growth should be an SEO company (or at least treat themselves as one). Said differently, every company, whether they realize it or not, relies on SEO to succeed. That means every company needs to learn SEO and have at least one person internally that can serve as the DIY contact for technical SEO with an SEO agency as a backstop. SEO is Still Not Optional For the most successful online companies, organic search (still) drives a significant percentage of website traffic, even if the overall numbers are declining. And, according to every search platform out there, YOY searches continue to increase. And, Google still commands 90% of market share worldwide. SEO has been a critical component of companies that operate online for decades. Every Company is Already Doing SEO (Even If They Don’t Know It) If your business has a website, blog, Linkedin page and does PR, you’re already doing SEO, even if you don’t know it. Here are some specific examples of SEO activities that your company is already doing that are helping your SEO even if you may not know it: Content Creation: Businesses produce blogs, landing pages, and product descriptions—whether optimized or not, they impact search rankings. Website Experience: Site speed, mobile-friendliness, and user experience all influence SEO. Brand Mentions & Reputation: Online reviews, PR, and social signals affect rankings. Local SEO & Listings: Any business with a physical presence relies on Google My Business, Yelp, and local citations. If your team is already doing many of the tasks that an outside SEO agency is doing, then it could be rightly assumed your business IS, at least in part, an SEO business. The Competitive Edge of Proactive SEO As a team, we can consistently show through direct SEO case studies that the revenue and growth prospects of those who actively manage their SEO are consistently higher than those who take a passive approach. Even those who rely wholly on managed SEO services to do all the work will not experience the growth of companies who take internal ownership of their SEO seriously. Because there are so many ranking factors, internal as well as external eyes on content strategy, link building and technical improvements are essential for guaranteeing long-term growth. And while there is a cost to perform SEO, the cost of neglecting SEO can have a much larger negative impact on revenue and company sustainability in the long run. And, what is that cost? In part, it is the cost of acquiring leads via paid channels–which can be much more expensive and lead to a major squeeze in profitability. Embracing an SEO Mindset Across the Organization In order for your organization to adopt an SEO mentality and thereby succeed online, every silo of your company should become versed in the nuanced aspects of SEO–not just your marketing team! It starts from the top down: Leadership: SEO starts from the top down. If leaders, owners and other C-level stakeholders are not “all-in” on SEO, then pushing the concept of “our company is an SEO company” is an impossible sell. In addition, understanding the ROI of SEO and investing in long-term organic growth is something only top-level leadership have authority to do. There needs to be more than just mental buy-in; there needs to be ample budget to move the needle, and that comes from leadership. Sales & Customer Service: Sales and customer service reps can and should leverage SEO insights to address customer pain points and provide the proper feedback loop to content marketers and UX designers to ensure there is alignment for what people are finding via SEO and how they are treated once they connect with a member of the team. Developers & IT: Your technical staff needs to ensure websites and web properties are technically optimized for search engines. This means sites need to load quickly, include the right entity and LSI (latent semantic indexing) keywords, include the right title tags, and have the right sitemap structure. And, when changes need to be made, there should not be too many communication layers to get to someone in the IT department that can fix an issue. Ideally, the IT department itself will be monitoring for SEO issues and preemptively take action before a marketer finds something. Marketing Teams: Internal marketing teams align SEO with a broader branding and content marketing strategy. The marketing team should be more attuned to driving the messaging that aligns with SEO keyword strategies. The strongest digital-first companies will be those who treat their organizations like their own internal SEO company. They will have more than just managerial buy-in. Your entire organization should be trained in the technical nuances of SEO. Old dogs need to be taught new tricks. In many ways, because today’s ranking factors and digital flux are causing many businesses to lose out, it’s more important than ever to not be an ignoramous when it comes to running SEO campaigns as part of your digital marketing strategy. It also means your organization will be better equipped to spot SEO fraudsters who are simply out to make a buck and not necessarily drive revenue for your business! Why SEO Agencies Still Matter While every company is, in some way, an SEO company, that doesn’t mean they can—or should—handle all aspects of SEO on their own. Specialized expertise is still essential. Search engine optimization (SEO) is a complex, ever-evolving discipline that requires specialized knowledge, the right SEO tools, and ample experience. Here’s why partnering with an SEO agency is still essential: 1. Keeping Up with Algorithm Changes Google’s search
AI is Killing the SEO Agency
AI isn’t killing SEO. AI is killing SEO agencies. It’s not that SEO itself is dead. It’s that AI is killing the current revenue model of SEO agencies. It’s not only a problem for SEO agencies; it’s a problem for Google. And Google knows it, too. It’s why they’re running scared. What happens when: There aren’t 10 blue links in the SERPS (only references to well-known, branded internet sites)? The effectiveness of Google Ads takes a nosedive? When more people search via an AI chatbot and avoid Google altogether? When AI can do the work of 10 lower and mid-level SEO managers with a simple automation workflow? Here’s how AI is replacing SEO services. The Evolution of Search in the AI Era Here’s where SEO is and where it’s headed: Perplexity.ai, Claude/Anthropic, DeepSeek and ChatGPT are stealing eyeballs and user attention. AI agents/agentic AI is transforming how SEOs are performing keyword research, link building and content production User intent, guided by AI, and user mechanics are trumping traditional ranking factors. AI is transforming keyword research, content creation, and link-building. Google’s AI-driven algorithms (e.g., SGE, RankBrain, BERT) are working together to give competing signals. Meaning, you may have a positive signal placed on your site by one signal, but a completely negative symbol tagged to your site from another. User habits are changing. Who cares if SEO is still alive if the eyeballs shift to another platform? SEO is alive and well on Bing, but do you care? What AI is Doing to Traditional SEO Agency Services Here are some trends we are noticing: Automated Content Creation: AI-powered tools (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude) can generate content faster and cheaper than an army of expensive, U.S.-based writers. In fact, the “want ads” for writers and writers reaching out to our SEO agency have skyrocketed in recent months. Google has a mixed relationship with AI content, and we’re seeing some punishing going on, but that doesn’t mean that some sites aren’t using it to their massive benefit. This alone has killed many freelance writing gigs, particularly if those writers are mediocre and below. Technical SEO Automation: AI-driven platforms like SurferSEO and Clearscope streamline on-page optimization with implementation and analysis done by AI tools like N8N, Bolt.New, etc. Link-Building Challenges: Google’s AI is getting better and better at cracking down on manipulative and spammy link building. It’s one of the reasons we admonish clients to use our white label and standard link building services for acquiring quality backlinks. DIY SEO Tools: Businesses can now handle SEO in-house with AI-powered platforms, reducing reliance on expensive SEO agencies and even humans. In fact, SEO has been discussed ad nauseum for the last two decades in both blogs and on YouTube, and many small business owners can discover and do SEO without the help of an agency. The Agencies That Will Survive (And Thrive) in the AI Era The transition to human-less SEO (search engine optimization) or GEO (generative engine optimization) is happening faster than most digital agencies want. It’s not giving SEO agencies much time to adapt. Only the cameleons will adapt and survive. Here’s how Be Prepared for Consolidation & M&A: This tectonic shift will undoubtedly bring casualties. Your SEO agency can either be a statistic or get ahead of the curve. Some agencies will shut down altogether, others will simply survive but likely with far less revenue as companies shift away from traditional SEO services like link building, content writing and on-page SEO. The total number of searches will continue to climb, but without a clear path toward revenue, many agencies will simply die. Those that survive will have far fewer employees, as AI will replace specific positions. But be prepared for discounting in your SEO agency business valuation. High-Level Strategy & Consulting: AI (in its current form) lacks the human touch for custom strategies and business-specific SEO roadmaps. Those that thrive will be able to provide the 50K ft view of strategy, while agentic AI will take care of tactics, operations, and throughputs of the chosen pathway. Brand-First Approach: Brands always win in SEO. Agencies that integrate SEO with broader marketing (PR, thought leadership, social media, and better branding) will remain relevant. Your name in the marketplace takes years to establish. Focus on brand. The “optimization” will take care of itself when customers are searching for your brand and not just a keyword. This means building your own list and community that cares what you have to say. Human Creativity & Expertise: AI can’t replicate brand storytelling, nuanced messaging, or real audience engagement. Technical & Programmatic SEO: AI can assist, but experienced professionals are still needed for complex implementations. AI can find the errors and fix them, but many tweaks and fixes are nuanced and require assistance from real professionals. The Future of SEO: AI as a Tool, Not a Replacement The agencies that survive will be those that embrace AI rather than fear it. AI will make the surviving SEOs super-powered by augmenting their natural skills and replacing mid and lower-level SEO virtual assistants with AI agents. With the augmentation, the agencies and SEO freelancers that succeed will likely pivot in the following ways: They will become extremely adept at using the latest SEO AI tools to augment and maximize their native SEO expertise and abilities. They will need to be able to do much more with much less human input. AI content generation lacks originality and real-world expertise. It should be augmented by a human touch, even if AI content is part of your overall strategy. Google’s increasing focus on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) and brands will squash those who simply try to automate their online business with artificial intelligence. SEO will become a single piece of a more holistic approach toward “digital marketing” and “search marketing.” SEO experts will still exist, but the survivors will be Swiss Army Knives who know much more than just content marketing and technical SEO. How to Future Proof Your SEO Agency in the