SEO Is Not Dead, But The Way You’re Thinking About It Is.
or over a decade, the debate about whether SEO is a dying practice has persisted. Every time Google releases a major algorithm update, the SEO community lights up with speculation about the implications for website rankings, traffic, and impressions. The truth is, Google rolls out dozens of algorithm updates each year, but only a handful make headlines. And like most headlines, they seem designed to stir up fear, uncertainty, and debate—shaking our confidence and forcing us to re-evaluate our strategies.
But let’s get real: SEO isn’t dying. What’s dying is the way we’ve been thinking about it.
The Old Way of Thinking About SEO
For the past 30 years, SEO has largely been treated as a pattern-detection game. Those who best align their websites with Google’s patterns win the rankings race. And while this has worked to an extent, Google has introduced new complexities with tools like its Search Generative Experience (SGE), Performance Max campaigns, and local map pack placements. These developments hint at something much larger: Google is pushing us into a "no-click" ecosystem.
From a user’s perspective, this makes sense. Why click through a dozen websites if you can get the information you need directly in search results? Meanwhile, tools like ChatGPT, powered by Bing’s index, are reshaping how people interact with web search altogether. The implications for organic marketing are massive.
The Paradigm Shift We Need
If we want to stay ahead, we must shift how we think about SEO. It’s not just about optimizing for Google anymore—it’s about optimizing for the entire digital ecosystem. And there’s one key principle to guide us:
Google’s ultimate goal is to provide the best possible experience for its users.
By adopting this customer-first mindset, we can reimagine our approach to organic marketing in a way that aligns with what truly matters: the customer. Over the years, many of us have focused so much on pleasing search engines that we’ve lost sight of the real goal—delighting the end user.
Organic Drives All Marketing
Here’s where things get interesting. Organic efforts—done right—drive every other aspect of marketing. But it’s time to move beyond the outdated terminology of “SEO.” With SGE, AI-driven tools, and other innovations pulling from our website data, it’s clear we’re optimizing for more than just search engines now. Let’s redefine organic marketing into two core categories: Relevancy and Accessibility.
Relevancy: Establishing Authority
Topical Authority: Create well-structured content that answers the most common questions customers have and establishes your position in the market.
Inventory: For transactional businesses, having the right inventory is foundational. Even the best marketing efforts fall flat without aligning inventory with customer needs.
Accessibility: Ensuring Reach
Site Structure: What we used to call technical SEO remains critical. Your website and web properties must be easy for databases (not just search engines) to access and index.
Customer Presence: You must be where your customers are, both online and offline. This includes leveraging in-person interactions (IRL, as the kids say) to support and amplify your digital activities.
Together, relevancy and accessibility ensure that your content is properly indexed and visible—but they also elevate your strategy beyond just "pandering to robots."
SEO is About More Than Robots
Let’s step back and take a 30,000-foot view of why we’ve invested in SEO for the past 30 years. The goal has always been to generate more business opportunities from people shopping online. But if customers interact with over 24 touchpoints during their vehicle-shopping journey, how can we think of SEO in isolation? It’s clear that the customer journey is much broader.
This is where the offline world comes into play. What if we redefined organic marketing to include offline activities—events, in-store experiences, and real-world touchpoints that differentiate us from competitors? The reality is, most competitors won’t go the extra mile offline, which creates a golden opportunity for those willing to innovate.
Eliminating Friction in the Customer Journey
Google’s no-click ecosystem isn’t about taking opportunities away from us—it’s about removing unnecessary friction from the customer journey. By surfacing answers and content directly within search results, Google is helping customers find what they need faster. But here’s the kicker: our website content still feeds into those results.
This means we must double down on providing the most relevant, accessible information possible. At the same time, we can’t ignore the importance of offline sentiment. When in-store experiences align with the seamlessness of online interactions, we create a powerful, unified customer journey that builds loyalty and drives conversions.
Who Will Lead the Charge?
Here’s the ultimate question: Who will tackle this first—you or your competitor? Adapting to the no-click era isn’t just about staying relevant—it’s about innovating. By integrating online and offline activities and focusing on the customer experience, we can outpace competitors who remain stuck in the old ways of thinking.
The way we’ve approached SEO is dying—but organic marketing is evolving into something much bigger. To win, we must embrace this shift and focus on the one thing that has always mattered most: the customer.
