I’m passionate about creating sustainable SEO strategies that drive long-term success. As an entrepreneur, I strive to balance business growth, family, and personal well-being. My mission is to empower others in the SEO space by sharing practical insights from my career and simplifying success in their organic search efforts.
SEO: Business a̵s̵ is (un)usual
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Hi there, It’s no surprise the last year has been formative for SEO and it doesn’t appear it will let up, anytime soon. With the introduction of AI, both in SERPs (AIO) as well as in 3rd party tools (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, etc.) brands and marketers are attempting to reconcile where SEO is heading, what’s going to change, and how we prepare. Initially I was intimidated by the change; "I can't keep up" was my initial thought but having dug in and giving myself time to reflect, I have some initial thoughts. Let’s dive in. Fundamentals haven’t changedSince the advent of the internet, the digital space has moved towards optimizing user experience. This is supported by the push for speedier and accessible experiences (load time and rendering capabilities), relevancy (content, schema, links), and further weight on credibility (backlinks and brand mentions). These have been the crux of search optimization for years and continue to be integral for performance in AI. Google Search Central even shared how to appear in AI features…
Google shared that foundational SEO best practices are still relevant. Yes, we have to be cognizant that we’re in the middle of a redefining of the search space but we don’t have to completely reinvent the wheel. As far as LLM optimization is concerned, I couldn't definitely discern anything drastically different from high quality SEO / user experience. Looking at this table from WebFX, there is a large overlap between SEO and LLM optimization.
The strong overlap gave me confidence that SEO best practices are still applicable. Nuanced nomenclatures vs. layman’s termsA vast majority of the industry is looking to make sense of AI while remaining marketable. So we read patents, we read documents, we pull out technical jargon and hold it up in conversation. Does it matter? Short answer, yes. Long answer, NO. As marketers, we need to be able to convey what’s best for our brands and our customers. Long term, chasing the minutiae of AI or Google’s algorithms doesn’t accomplish that. We’re back to re-engineering the algorithms for the sake of traffic rather focusing on user experience. Michael Curtis beautifully summarizes my reaction to new AI / SEO definitions in his post…
We still need to be able to reach our customers but even before then we have to reach our stakeholders. Unless your org or client centers around AI and data science, the conversations on vector embeddings and cosine similarities may not bear fruit. You not only need to communicate as a marketer and strategist but also as a collaborator and, to do that, means communicating in a way that everyone will understand.
Vanity metric (another one bites the dust)This one breaks my heart 💔. We’ve often looked towards traffic as a KPI within organic search - it was an easy way to measure changes and get a pulse on the SERPs. Unfortunately, traffic is no longer something we can hold onto. In April, Ahrefs reported AI Overviews reduced clicks by 34.5%. AIO predominantly appears for higher funnel queries, encouraging users to stay on the SERP but also weeding out those that are not ready to convert. My theory, users who have a focused intent will have no qualms on clicking through to a site and, based on the experience, convert. The priority then falls on site experience and conversion optimization. What metrics do we use now? Well it’s going to depend but I’m going to continue focusing on conversion metrics, engagement metrics, and… Keyword rank 😮 …hear me out. You shouldn’t be chasing individual keywords but we shouldn’t be blind to the fact that there is a strong correlation between top performing keywords and their presence in AI Overviews. SurferSEO reported that 52% of sources mentioned in AIO ranked in the top 10. That said, individual fluctuations shouldn’t matter, tracking category groups has been my go to approach to analyze site section performance.
Stay steady, not stillSEO isn’t dying; it’s evolving. So, it’s business as usual, but in a different way. As far as what the future holds, will the industry shift to GEO? SEO? LLMO? LMFAO? I dunno. I’m sticking to my guns - SEO strategy = business strategy. Whether you’re focusing on the user or communicating clearly with your team, at the center of the strategy is people. How you reach these people will depend on your unique circumstances. Keep that in mind and your strategy should be well-positioned for whatever the algorithm (or AI) throws at us next. With that, let me know your thoughts on the above. Am I underreacting? Overreacting? Would love to hear your thoughts. Edwin RomeroIndependent SEO Consultant
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Pragmatic SEO
I’m passionate about creating sustainable SEO strategies that drive long-term success. As an entrepreneur, I strive to balance business growth, family, and personal well-being. My mission is to empower others in the SEO space by sharing practical insights from my career and simplifying success in their organic search efforts.
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