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Every week someone tells me that SEO is dead.<\/p>\n
This week, I was given an online conference by a young man with a start-up company.<\/p>\n
First came the humble brag about how his business grossed over $20 million in one year with PPC ads.<\/p>\n
And this combination ended with a brutal statement about how AI will kill SEO.<\/p>\n
In today’s article I will tell you why he is right. But what’s coming is much bigger.<\/p>\n
When I was recovering from the online wildness of the review, I did what any SEO does on the receiving end. Place the user’s domain name in Ahrefs.<\/p>\n
The result of $20 million in turnover? <\/p>\n
Only 2,000 brand searches per month. This is not a brand; are some people who verify that you are legit after seeing your ads on TikTok.<\/p>\n
To be fair, he’s right. And he’s not the only one who thinks so. <\/p>\n
Ever since Google told everyone that the Search Generative Experience (SGE) was coming, even SEO consultants have been crying into their tea, fearing that traffic will be destroyed.<\/p>\n
And for good reason, fewer people are likely to click on websites thanks to AI.<\/p>\n
But you don’t need to cry into the cup of tea you stuck at your recent SEO seminar.<\/p>\n
SGE will give birth to a new and much bigger beast. <\/p>\n
Organic Search Optimization (OSO).<\/p>\n
Time to brush up on marketing 101. <\/p>\n
Brands grow by acquiring more customers. Not a huge shock, but they don’t grow with traffic and rankings.<\/p>\n
So, as SEOs, we need to think tactically about how people become customers.<\/p>\n
Simply put, we need to make businesses easy to understand and find.<\/p>\n
Translating this into SEO language, we need to rank customers by their high purchase intent keywords. Rank them for category research search terms (thinking questions and comparison style search).<\/p>\n
And remember, we can use informational search to reach out-of-market people and try to get their email addresses.<\/p>\n
And that’s pretty much SEO.<\/p>\n
How this is done is debatable, but these are the results brands want.<\/p>\n
So how does this change with SGE\/AI?<\/p>\n
The role of SEO is to capture and feed demand. Minimal demand generation can be done through SEO.<\/p>\n
But research is evolving. Now we have Google about to add insights that will rank TikTok videos and YouTube shorts.<\/p>\n
We have news and discovery feeds that are getting better and better, and of course we’ll have SGE.<\/p>\n
Research is not dying, it is evolving.<\/p>\n
Now we need to think about multi-channel SEO.<\/p>\n
Now we have to think beyond the first Google SERP.<\/p>\n
Now we need to build large networks to capture the demand that marketing teams create.<\/p>\n
And even better, it captures the demand that other marketing teams create, which is an amazing SEO benefit.<\/p>\n
It’s okay to spit out your dummy as an SEO and tell the world you’re not going to go to YouTube and do SEO there. <\/p>\n
Or avoid TikTok and say, “No… that’s not for me.”<\/p>\n
But if that’s your mindset, you won’t help build brands online because you won’t be able to give general tactical advice.<\/p>\n
No one says you have to be behind the camera or making the videos themselves. <\/p>\n
You also don’t need to tell people what to write to try to appear in the discovery channel.<\/p>\n
But you need to expand your skill set to exist in the ever-evolving world of organic search.<\/p>\n
SEO “Prospects” will be a great opportunity for growth.<\/p>\n
In practical terms, your work is now much sexier.<\/p>\n
Finally, you’ll receive invitations to social team events, where you’ll ask them to make videos for you.<\/p>\n
Go from curating written content to short videos, long videos, PR and even thought leadership\/news content.<\/p>\n
Yes, SEO will be much bigger.<\/p>\n
Yes, SEO will help businesses capture more demand.<\/p>\n
And yes, this will help SEO become a bigger industry (which usually means you’ll get paid more).<\/p>\n
The problem is that SEO will need new leaders.<\/p>\n
Get the daily search newsletter marketers trust.<\/p>\n
It’s tempting to think that the social team will pick up the Insights tab. After all, Google will get the content from social platforms.<\/p>\n
But they have enough work, creating demand-generating content and ads that keep brands on the minds of their audiences.<\/p>\n
Asking them to start using search tools to find out keywords that rank in Google, that should be the job of SEOs.<\/p>\n
And learning how to optimize those videos for search engine discovery\u2026 yes, this is for you too.<\/p>\n
You’ve spent years learning and mastering keyword research. You know how Google’s algorithms work.<\/p>\n
Since you’ve been soliciting written content for years, soliciting shorts will be part of your role.<\/p>\n
And for this reason, you will need to become an omnichannel SEO.<\/p>\n
Omnichannel SEO is why organic search optimization seems like a much more accurate job title.<\/p>\n
My last role was called ‘head of organics’. Today I am the SEO Director.<\/p>\n
Essentially, both were SEO.<\/p>\n
SEO is a name that has been around for a long time, and it is our category.<\/p>\n
While the focus will shift to use organic search thinking across platforms, the name will be difficult to alter from SEO.<\/p>\n
After all, we are still talking about search engine optimization.<\/p>\n
So OSO is more of a mindset.<\/p>\n
It’s a growth mindset. <\/p>\n
The thing is, no one is going to give us that extra market share.<\/p>\n
SEOs must demand this responsibility. <\/p>\n
We need to get excited about the huge potential of ranking through search, not just in the first SERP.<\/p>\n
SGE, Discovery, Perspectives, News, YouTube, TikTok, Reels, Watch.<\/p>\n
The list will grow and the list will expand.<\/p>\n
Organic search is growing. <\/p>\n
And organic search specialists will thrive\u2026but only if you choose to.<\/p>\n
This has been a preachy article. I make no apologies for that. We have to grow as a sector.<\/p>\n
But I want people to leave with practical knowledge.<\/p>\n
If you are interested in meeting this demand directly, you need to enhance your skills.<\/p>\n
To get started, go to search and explore tabs.<\/p>\n
Press the tabs and see what comes out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Explore the overall results and learn how this content ranks and why it ranks.<\/p>\n
![\"Men's](\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2023\/07\/Mens-moisturiser-with-SPF-More-SERP-results.png.webp\"\/)
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Now, you will find a crossover. Some of the content that ranks in the News Feed ranks in the “All” SERP.<\/p>\n
![\"Men's](\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2023\/07\/Mens-moisturiser-with-SPF-Multiple-rankings.png.webp\"\/)
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Some content that ranks organically in the SERP also captures the first segment of people also asking.<\/p>\n
Now, go to TikTok and do the same searches.<\/p>\n
![\"Search](\"https:\/\/searchengineland.com\/wp-content\/seloads\/2023\/07\/Tiktik-search-mens-moisturiser-with-SPF.png.webp\"\/)
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What comes up in searches?<\/p>\n
Do they have a large following? A good video? Are they using text in their videos?<\/p>\n
And repeat this with YouTube.<\/p>\n
You won’t just see an opportunity.<\/p>\n
You will begin to expand your SEO skill set.<\/p>\n
And now, I hope you get a little more excited about the power of organic search optimization.<\/p>\n
The potential is incredible.<\/p>\n
AI is not killing SEO; makes it more powerful.<\/p>\n
Think breadth of search, not depth. <\/p>\n
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.<\/p>\n