Is SEO Doomed to be Taken Over by AI?
In a time when we could openly congregate en masse, I was catching up with an old friend who's also in digital marketing. He asked how my agency was doing. I told him things were going great. He then proceeded to tell me that I needed to get out of SEO pretty soon, as AI was going to take it over and make people obsolete. After thanking him for his advice, we dispersed into the crowd.
And here I sit, a year removed from that interaction, still doing much of the same work I was doing then.
The thing with SEO is that it is so much more than just a box you tick when redesigning a website. Most people assume that it's about choosing keywords and placing them in the right order on the page.
But that is a small view of what SEO is.
How I see SEO is it's more than just optimizing for search engines, it's about optimizing for the entire web experience; where you are optimizing your website for people and transactions. Content consumption, purchases, downloads, form completions -- all of which are transactions between your website and its visitors. The whole experience. That is what SEO is.
A good SEO thinks past that first interaction. What good is ranking number one if no one ever searches or clicks or converts?
SEO is brand building. It is about consistency, trust. That when a user is intrigued enough to click your listing, that your site meets that expectation. Brands take time to build and so does SEO.
SEO is the foundational strategy for any website. You need the right words to describe your offerings. You need content for social media. You need landing pages for your ads.
What is a protest without the signs?
The signs don't make the protest, but they clearly convey which side the crowd is on.
Whereas design is the medium we communicate through, SEO is the language so that we are understood.
I think people often forget that about websites. We rely so much on visuals to connect with an audience, that we forget that we need words and a story to add much-needed context. People think that words get in the way of a good visual story, but they make the message. They compel people to take action. Without a story, the message can be interpreted however the viewer wants.
It would be naive of me to sit here saying that AI will not take over large parts of SEO (and digital marketing as a whole), but the need for human-powered strategy will persist for a good while longer.