I’ve always had mixed feelings about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as a marketing investment. Getting to the top of Google is tricky, nobody is really 100% sure how to do it, and there are an abundance of dodgy SEO agencies out there.

That’s not to say I haven’t seen it work wonders for some businesses, especially when they’re focusing on local search. And I’ve always encouraged people to consider search engines when they write website copy and blog posts.

But one thing I have always stood by and will always stand by is that you should optimise for readers first.

There’s not much point in getting loads of visitors to your website if they quickly lose interest because your content is completely useless or irrelevant.

And I think that’s more important now than ever before. The internet is saturated with low-quality content and AI-generated slop, and people are bored with it. The last thing you should be doing is adding to it.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of optimising web pages to increase the chances of them ranking in search results.

Google has been the dominant search engine for years, so most SEO tactics are geared towards keeping Google algorithms happy (although that is changing with the rise of AI search).

Google (and other search engines) do not care about how much you want your website to rank. They care about giving searchers the highest-quality, most relevant results. If they don’t give users the best results, those users will go elsewhere.

And that is why Google does not divulge the secrets of its algorithms, and it’s why the algorithms are regularly updated. There is no benefit to Google in teaching people how to cheat the system, which is why no SEO experts can guarantee results.

If you come across any SEO company promising results that sound too good to be true, it’s likely that those promises are bullshit.

One thing I’ve noticed over the years is that people often invest in SEO without really understanding it. And that often leads to a poor return on investment. So if you are considering paying for SEO services, here’s a very quick history to help you understand the theory behind it.

In the early days of search engines, the algorithms weren’t all that sophisticated. They would crawl pages looking for keywords that matched the user’s search, and they’d give preference to sites that had lots of links pointing back to them.

People figured out that you could game the system by repeating keywords over and over in the copy and paying for links.

Some of the more unscrupulous SEO “experts” would happily take your money, then stuff (and hide) a load of keywords into badly written web pages. They’d also pay content farms to churn out blog posts so stuffed with keywords they were barely readable. Then they’d pay link farms to create multiple links to your website from sites set up purely for this purpose.

You’d pay a fortune, the SEO agency would keep most of it, and you would possibly see some improvements in your rankings.

But between 2003 and 2005, Google began to crack down on keyword stuffing and dodgy link schemes. The algorithms started to understand link quality and detect patterns such as reciprocal linking and unnatural anchor text.

This also coincided with the rise of Google Ads. They were first introduced in 2000, but were placed on the right hand-side of the search results. They didn’t really impact SEO at first because many Google users were wary of them, viewing them as spammy.

But in 2005, ads started showing at the top of the search results, and SEO professionals started seeing a small drop in click-through rates. After that, ad quality started to improve, and more ads started showing in queries.

Some SEO companies embraced this and added paid search to their services. Others chose to stay focused on organic SEO.

2005 also saw Google Maps replace Google Local (launched in 2004). This made local search possible, but it was still separate from Google search.

Then, between 2011 and 2013, some of the biggest shifts in SEO came about when Google’s Panda and Penguin updates were introduced.

Low-quality, duplicate content, and manipulative link-building got heavily penalised. Many content farms lost 50-90% of their traffic, and thousands of small websites lost over 70% of their organic traffic. In some cases, rankings didn’t just drop; they completely disappeared. And some sites stayed penalised for years.

This had a huge impact on the SEO industry. Those agencies who were getting by on dodgy tactics were caught out. Clients whose websites suddenly tanked were not happy.

Meanwhile, local search became a bigger focus (especially on mobile) as search engines looked at implied local intent. And Google started understanding the meaning and intent behind searches, not just keywords.

In 2014, I started my business. Back then, I offered done-for-you copywriting services and the majority of my work was website copy and blog posts.

While I had no interest in the technical aspects of SEO, I did think it was important that I understood the basics, so I swotted up as best I could.

At that time, there was lots of reference to black hat SEO and white hat SEO.

White hat SEO referred to ethical and sustainable tactics that aligned with Google guidelines and documented policies. White hat agencies focused on creating helpful, original content, ensuring the technical aspects of a site were properly optimised (crawlability, structured data, local accuracy, etc.) and earning genuine backlinks from trusted sites.

They understood that Google’s goal was always to satisfy users. If people weren’t getting relevant or useful search results from Google, they would go elsewhere.

Black hat SEO referred to the riskier strategies. Before the Panda and Penguin updates, these included:

While many of the black hat tactics were neutralised by the Panda and Penguin updates, many agencies were still using them.

Google didn’t punish sites immediately. Sometimes it would take months for its algorithms to pick up on these tactics.

That meant a dodgy agency could convince a client to pay them a nice chunk of money and then implement a load of black hat tactics. This would get fast results, which looked good on paper.

By the time the tactics got penalised, the agency was already quids-in. They could then convince the client that it wasn’t their fault. They could say it was an algorithm change or the keyword had become too competitive, or the site got hacked. If the client didn’t understand SEO, they might not question it.

But not every company was completely black hat or white hat. White hat SEO was often slow and expensive, meaning many smaller businesses couldn’t afford it. So some companies did things the “right way” but also used watered-down black hat tactics to help boost the effectiveness.

For example, I was often asked to write two versions of the same blog post or multiple versions of a webpage (just changing the geographical location for each one).

Technically, this wasn’t dodgy. I often write blog posts that cover a similar topic just from a slightly different angle. And lots of companies operate in several locations.

But I never really liked the fact that it was always about manipulating the algorithms and trying to find safe ways to play the system rather than benefiting the reader.

I get it - that’s the industry. It’s all about doing the best you can to ensure your website pages rank at the top. But it never quite felt right.

As the years have gone on, the algorithms have gotten more and more intelligent, and the best SEO companies focus on white hat strategies. In fact, the terms black hat and white hat aren’t used nearly as often as they were ten years ago (although there are still plenty of black hat tactics being used).

And up until around 2024, the SEO industry settled. It was about paying attention to Google updates, aligning with their policies and focusing on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).

E-E-A-T is Google’s quality framework. It’s what it uses to determine whether content is reliable.

So it really all goes back to the approach I’ve always taken to SEO. Create original, quality content that is actually going to be useful or valuable to readers. Build links organically. Get reviews. Be honest and accurate. And don’t try to cheat the system.

In November 2022, ChatGPT was launched to the public. People quickly realised it could bang out blog posts faster than humans ever could. And so, many companies started adding huge volumes of content to their sites. Initially, it didn’t seem to impact rankings too much, so many SEO companies embraced it.

But the savvy SEO experts knew it was only a matter of time before Google clamped down on this. After all, Google’s aim is to keep users happy (and make money, of course). But if it doesn’t give searchers quality results, they will go elsewhere.

And so, in 2024, Google rolled out one of its biggest updates ever. It introduced new spam policies targeting AI abuse. And it introduced AI overviews to the public.

At first, people were wary of the AI overviews, still preferring to click on results to get real answers, but (as was the case with ads), the wariness faded.

And so that brings us to now.

AI Overviews have reduced organic click-through rates by up to 61%, and approximately 60–65% of Google searches now end without a click.

But there’s something else impacting SEO too. Searchers are starting to go elsewhere. More and more people are using LLMs such as ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot to answer questions they previously would have asked Google.

Early research suggests that LLMs are dominating search when it comes to research, coding and “how-to” queries, while Google is still leading transactional and local queries. But AI use is moving so quickly, this could change before I’ve even hit publish on this article.

There has already been an element of panic in the SEO industry, with many companies now advertising AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) alongside traditional SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Earlier this year, Google put out new documentation reassuring people that the same tactic of creating high-quality content still applies to AI search.

And they have a whole guide on how to create high-quality content.

So clearly, quality should still be your main focus if you want to get found in search engines, LLMs or AI overviews.

But of course, SEO (and all the other EOs) isn’t purely about the quality of the content on the page. There are still technical elements to consider (URLs, metadata, sitemaps, etc.). And there are some things you can do to build authority (getting quality backlinks and citations from trusted sources).

Personally, I think it is a risky strategy for small businesses, especially if you have a limited budget. So much of the AEO and GEO stuff is guesswork at the minute (no matter how much people try to convince you otherwise).

Every LLM has different criteria for which resources it cites, and this seems to change faster than anyone can get to grips with it. Google AI overviews are impacting click-through rates, so even if you do get listed in search results, you might not get the clicks anyway.

But whether you should focus on SEO or not really depends on what kind of business you have, where your customers are searching, and what other marketing activity you do.

I don’t think focusing purely on SEO is a sensible approach right now. The whole industry is so volatile at the minute, and things are changing at a faster rate than they ever have.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still some excellent SEO consultants out there. People who have dedicated their working life to understanding Google’s algorithms, learning the technical side of it all, and recognising the value of quality content. And I’m sure they still provide a valuable service.

If you do think SEO is worth exploring, and you want help doing it, make sure you know what to look for in an “expert” because there are plenty of people winging it right now.

Luckily, you don’t need to make a decision based purely on my opinion. Google has put together a helpful guide on what to look for when it comes to SEO support. So at the very least, give it a read before you part with any money.

I can’t tell you how many times over the year I’ve seen claims that this thing or that thing is “dead” - that it no longer works.

And most of the time, it’s bollocks.

SEO might be in a huge transitional period, but it’s not dead. People still search for stuff on the internet. What’s changed is where and how they search and how the information is presented.

For as long as websites exist, there will be a place for SEO. But as with most marketing activities, SEO is going to be more relevant to some industries than others.

And while SEO isn’t dead, I think we’re going to see many SEO consultancies and agencies struggle.

Although I do have some sympathy for the ethical agencies that might not survive, I also find it really interesting how things have come full circle.

Back when the Panda and Penguin updates came out, the companies that had been trying to game the system were hit the hardest. Many of the link farms were wiped out. And those people selling SEO services based on lazy and unethical tactics were pushed out of the market.

Some agencies continued to use low-quality content bought from content mills (companies churning out content for low rates ). This content was good enough to satisfy search engines, but lacked deep research, unique perspectives and editorial quality.

The better SEO agencies and in-house SEO managers realised that Google wanted quality, so they invested in content writers who could deliver it.

But when ChatGPT was unleashed, things changed.

Many said it was the end of the line for content writers - they’d all be out of jobs. And certainly, many average writers found their workloads suddenly dropping.

Some SEO agencies and SEO managers saw AI as an opportunity to save significant amounts of money. Why pay content writers when you could do it for free with AI?

It also led to an increase in “AI-Writers” - those who positioned themselves as experts in prompting AI. If you were looking for a quick way to make money, this was your chance.

Savvy SEO experts knew that Google would eventually start clamping down on AI-generated slop, so they continued focusing on quality. And the best content writers knew they would be able to weather the storm.

I certainly wasn’t worried. I was fairly sure that things would swing back in favour of human-written content. And that is what has happened.

Google has clamped down. And those SEO companies who looked for a quick cost-saving opportunity now have a decision to make.

They can try and do their best with low-quality AI-generated content (just like those companies who stuck with content mills rather than investing in high-quality content). Or they can go back to human-generated content written by people who understand what good writing looks like.

And as for those AI writers? Well, I suspect many of them will go the way of the link farms. You can only game the system for so long before it catches up with you.

Google has always advocated for quality. That won’t change. And as for your readers? I’m pretty sure most of them would prefer quality content that actually gives them something useful over some AI-generated guff written purely for clicks.

So, no, SEO isn’t dead. It’s just evolving. And the best way to avoid being killed off is to focus on quality rather than looking for cheat codes.

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