It's time to fight back against the SEO doomsdayers and Linkedin fluffluencers.
I've never seen so much worry and misinformation out there.
From huge influencers to famous founders, and slowly, creepingly...it feels like even SEOs are giving in.
This is a mistake, one driven by ideas...not reality.
Yes, Hubspot and Forbes took immense right hooks. But the traffic didn't disappear. It went to other sites.
Yes, ChatGPT has become popular. But its market share is a tiiiiny sliver compared to Google's near monopoly. And where does it get its information anyway? Search!
Yes, SEO has changed. Lots recently. But let's not forget that this happens EVERY single year. There's a reason many of the world's most successful companies (Canva, Wise, Zapier) still invest HEAVILY in SEO.
So, without further ado.
Here are 7 reasons now is a GREAT time to invest in SEO
SEOs, let's start sharing these points across LinkedIn, newsletters, podcasts, and get the word out.
1/ AI tools (e.g. Chatgpt) use search engines (e.g. Bing) as a major data source.
There is a clear pattern in what ranks in search and what's appearing in chatgpt. do you want your competitors to be everywhere in the training data and you...not?
2/ Google has the audience - full stop.
Despite the fear-mongering about Tiktok and ChatGPT, google still gets BILLIONS of searches per day.
In fact, searches grew ~21.64% in 2024 (source: Sparktoro)
3/ Google is sending more qualified traffic to websites than ever.
Sure, AI overviews satisfy a lot of searches and click-through rates are down on some informational queries.
But were those people who wanted quick 10-second answers the ones you were converting anyway?
Instead of sending people to websites to read a 2,000-word blog when they were sat at dinner with a friend and had a quick question...Google now sends people who WANT to learn more and solve real problems.
Those people are more open to learning about products, typically.
(Plus, BOFU keywords feel more relevant than ever. I've been preaching for a long time that TOFU content rarely if ever converts to business outcomes.)
4/ Search users are more satisfied thanks to AI.
Google's CEO said, "we are encouraged that we are seeing an increase in search usage among people who use the new AI overviews as well as increased user satisfaction with the results."
This is a great thing.
More satisfied users = less people ditching it for Chatgpt and social media.
Google needed to evolve to keep its audience. It's working.
5/ Traffic down? Go and look at your conversions.
All my clients have the same answer: conversions are the same or up.
This is the time to get smarter, double down your SEO efforts on the areas that are working, not run away from one of the best growth channels for businesses EVER.
6/ Everyone's slowing down, which is a great time to speed up
Anyone familiar with investing knows that the best time to invest is when the economy is bad and prices are unnaturally low. That way, you get to buy stocks on sale.
This is kinda just like that. If people are cutting SEO budgets and reallocating them because they're worried about AI - now is a good time to take advantage of competitive weakness and invest.
When the rest of the market realises, you'll be 6 months ahead and solidifying your lead.
7/ Where else is better right now?
LinkedIn reach is down. So is Instagram. People are saying PPC ads are less effective than ever. Building your founder's brand is only so scalable.
The reality is that no marketing channel is easy. If it were, everyone would do it, and it would quickly become hard. The arbitrage only last so long.
And unless you're selling a CRM tool, many industries still have a huge SEO arbitrage opportunity. Why? Because SEO is difficult to get right - it's naturally a hard channel to master, which makes the opportunity still ripe for those who invest time to understand it.
Let's also not forget what SEO does offer to businesses:
→ ability to identify and reach in-market buyers
→ compounding returns
→ no cost-per-clicks
There's 10 years in the old dog yet.
Spread the word.
—Benny
