Is SEO Changing?

One of the perennial questions every year is “Is SEO dead in *insert year here*”. I’ve even written about it before. 

Another one that’s also a frequent flier is “Is SEO changing?”

That’s easier to answer than the other one, because as the answer to the former is a staunch “no,” the answer to the latter is a definitive “yes.” 

But this should come as a surprise to exactly none of you since SEO has been changing ever since it became a thing. 

Let’s take a closer look at some of the big ways SEO is in fact changing and how you can adapt your strategies to remain effective. 

How Is SEO Changing?

There are many ways that SEO (and best practices) change with the seasons. But there are three big ones for this year that I want to focus on. If you can dial in on these changing elements of SEO, you can position your organic marketing strategies for greater success. 

1. The Use of AI 

I have belabored the fact before (more than once) that I do not use AI, not only in my professional line of work but in my personal life. 

Be that as it may, I would be remiss to overlook the fact that AI is in fact changing SEO. First, there are more and more content creators (not including myself) using AI to produce and then optimize content. 

There are also ways to ask AI models for help optimizing a URL at the page level, as well as for technical help to improve site structure for better performance. As an algorithm itself, AI can be effective in assisting with these things. 

But there is another fundamental way that AI is changing SEO – the Search Generative Experience. 

You know, for instance, the AI overview that pops up for lots of searches, which shows up at the top of the search engine results pages?

Whether we SEO experts like it or not, the fact that Google has decided to shove this down our throats by placing it above the organic results (and preventing us from disabling it) means that it is part and parcel of SEO at the current time. 

And, to be fair, the AI overview is synthesized from organic results. So even though AI hallucinates and the overview frequently delivers criminally (and embarrassingly) bad and patently wrong information, it is part of SEO. 

Knowing how to show up in the AI overview is one way to adapt to this. That’s something I can help with. (Read my previous post.)

1. User Engagement Metrics 

I personally assumed Google always referred to user engagement metrics in some form or other when assigning rankings, though I could not prove this – and I do not know how anyone else could definitively disprove it, either.

At the same time, understanding how Google values quality content and the page-level experience, I just can’t see a page that has a 100% bounce and 2 seconds average time on page maintaining its rankings for long. 

With that said, I find it quite validating that other SEO experts are now starting to suggest that Google will be officially considering user engagement metrics when assigning rankings. 

Ultimately, what this means for you is that we are no longer looking at an SEO landscape in which on-page optimizations and link strategy are as simple as they once were. 

Moreover, your pages cannot simply offer an interface that results in a good UX. They have to capture them. Things like time on page, pages per session, and conversion now officially count. 

For writers like me, it means I can’t just stick keywords in blog titles and answer a bunch of questions with thin answers (not that I ever did). I now have to (officially, once again) start thinking about writing blogs that people will actually take time out of their busy days to consume. Although, to be fair, I always have. 

Anyway, that’s something to be aware of. Moving forward, if you notice rankings are slipping, take a look at user engagement metrics through GA4 and see if they are slipping too. If you can’t find another reason, you may have just found the cause. 

1. E-E-A-T

Long has Google prioritized E-A-T, which stands for Expertise, Authority, Trust. Now, there’s a new kid on the block and it’s Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust. 

Here’s what this means to you. An anonymous article can convey expertise, authority and trust. But how can an anonymous article convey experience? Whose experience, specifically? 

If you’re thinking it can’t, good job – you pass Logic Assessment 101. It can’t. Without an author assigned to a piece, there’s no way for Google as a search engine to vet the experience of the writer of the article.

It also means that the more writing a single author does in one vertical, the more they will be seen as an authority in that niche. This is good news for freelancers that focus on one or a few industries, and not the best news for ghostwriters. But let’s be honest, ghostwriting is shady at best and unethical at worst. 

For businesses, it means it might be time for you to hire dedicated content producers (they don’t necessarily need to be writers) and include an author bio for work associated with them – like video, audio, photography or other creatives, and of course, writing. 

How to Adapt Your Strategy Given These Changes 

Now that we’ve glossed some of the ways SEO is in fact changing, what can you do to ensure your organic marketing initiatives remain viable and effective? 

Well, here’s a start. 

1. Write (or publish) more and develop authority 

This may not come as welcome news to those that are not born content creators, but content is (still) king, and the vast, considerable bulk of content that weighs on SEO is written content. 

This includes but is not limited to product and category page copy, CMS page copy, blogs, news articles, and press releases. It also includes all evergreen copy on your website including FAQs and “About” pages. 

The more useful information you can publish (not fluff, never fluff) the better your domain will perform in the end as a direct result. 

Now, of course, not all content is written, even though most of it is. Getting active on socials (organically) or publishing videos or new creatives to your website is another way to boost your SEO. Just make sure all metadata, including alt data, is updated and optimized accordingly. 

1. Watch your Google Analytics metrics like a hawk 

This is actually not new but if you weren’t doing it before, you should absolutely be doing it now since user engagement metrics are now officially ranking signals. 

Pay close attention to the amount of time users spend on key, high-traffic pages, how many pages per session there are, and if they eventually convert.

For blog and CMS pages, you ideally want more than 2 minutes time on page, average. If you can manage this you’re in a good spot. Less than 20 seconds is not good, as is a high bounce rate. 

If you see low-performing pages, you should take action where possible to adjust them for user experience. Go back, edit them, or add additional information to keep them interested. Any and all of these things (among others) can be beneficial.

1. Focus on link quality, consider old-school methods 

The problem with link quality is now indelibly, inextricably tied to E-E-A-T. You see, if your company is using cheap backlinks that come from low-DA websites and the content from which the link comes is vapid and anonymous, well, you don’t need me (I hope) to tell you that is bad news. 

In the new era, I estimate that one quality backlink from a reputable website will be worth a hundred or more trash backlinks; more importantly than this, it is well known that Google can and does penalize websites for low-quality link “building” inclusive of buying links.

This means that eventually it will become in your best interest (or at least, in the best interest of your marketing team) to do outreach to gain real, legitimate links from trusted sources – not to take the cheap way out and buy links. Eventually, that will catch you. 

1. Leverage other channels 

SEO is just one marketing channel. In fact, it is only one of an even smaller echelon of channels, being organic marketing. There are other organic marketing channels you can leverage to bolster your overall lead funnel. 

One of the best is social media, and social media marketing, like SEO, relies heavily on user engagement metrics and perceived authority and trust. This is the reason that influencers, who operate basically exquisitely on social media, are effective at what they do. 

Their brand image, an extension of their interests or aesthetic, conveys credibility, authority, trust and desire. 

However, it takes different strengths to be an effective social media marketer, or an influencer, than it takes to be an SEO copywriter. 

If you know that you (or your marketing team) would be better suited to a different channel – like social media marketing – consider leaning more heavily on that than you do solely on SEO going forward. 

1. Use AI to your strengths

Lastly, I’m going to leave you with a shred of wisdom that I am loath to offer – yet I will offer it in the spirit of honesty. 

There is a place for AI in SEO. It’s just not in content generation. 

Here are some things you can ask AI for help with, as it respects SEO.

• Give AI a URL and ask it for suggestions for on-page optimizations. 
• Give AI a list of keywords and ask it which ones are a good fit for your business. Alternatively, you can ask it to offer up keywords for you. You should double-check AI, though, as (as I have stated) it is dangerous to rely solely on its outputs. 
• Give AI a blog post and ask it to optimize it for a content cluster, or for a group of keywords. 
• Ask AI for some topics that you can use for your content streams – AI is generally good for idea generation, just not copy generation (at least in my experience).
• Ask AI to scrape a URL for technical errors. 
• Ask AI for recommendations on how to improve page speeds. 

These are just a few of the ways in which you might be able to leverage AI to produce greater workflow efficiency. There are others – but this is a good start. 

Is SEO Still Practical in 2024? (and Will It Be Practical in 2025?)

Since 2024 is mostly elapsed, I will make this answer for the coming year and save myself the effort of writing a whole blog in early 2025 to this effect: Yes, SEO is still practical in 2024, and it will remain practical and effective in 2025. I expect it will remain practical for many years after that. 

In fact, since the main manner in which SEO is changing is with an emphasis on high-quality content and how users interact with it, and since that is fundamental not only to marketing but to the general human experience, I expect SEO to remain relevant basically forever. 

Is SEO Obsolete? 

I have what I believe is a starkly concise answer to the question of whether or not SEO is obsolete. It will never be obsolete as long as people are using search engines. When search engines are obsolete, so too will be SEO – and not before. 

Is SEO Changing? Yes, but It’s Not Going Away 

Hopefully I’ve answered as far as, is SEO changing or not. Yes, it’s changing, but it has been for more than a decade. It has changed considerably and it’s still here. Fortunately, for writers like me, there has been an increasing emphasis on the quality and value of copy. That is welcome news for me, as well as for my readers. 

Ultimately, SEO is changing but it’s just getting better. With luck, and assuming Google’s algorithms improve, these changes will result in a better user experience not only for you but for your customers as well.