For years I have said that blogging regularly is the best way to rank for search. And I still believe that to be true, but with the caveat that the way it is being done in most cases, and I’m afraid to say the way I have been doing it with Yazaroo and Comus, will need to change.
SEO is going through a bit of a crisis at the moment. I work with several agencies that run SEO campaigns for businesses, and they are all talking about it. Whatever you think of SEO agencies, for some businesses it has been an absolute gold mine, though of late that is becoming harder and less common.
Until now there was really only one game in town. Google owned search. And I say owned, past tense, because AI is eating that up. The whole industry played by the rules set by Google, but suddenly AI, starting with ChatGPT, has smashed like a torpedo into that ship.
Business models built around the Google ecosystem have been thrown into the air, and honestly I don’t think anyone really knows what to do at this moment. Every SEO expert I talk to says something different. Some are getting into the dark art of AI targeting, some are doubling down on Google on the assumption that Google will win out, some are using AI to build AI tools to sell. One was telling me that blogs like this one will become the new currency: real people sharing real experience. As I’m sure you’d appreciate, I agree with him.
So what do I think, as an SEO industry-adjacent observer?
Well, I think the days of manufactured blogs and link farms are dead. Not straight away, but AI has the processing power to spot patterns and links in a way we’ve never seen. It can also, seemingly in a way Google’s search algorithm could not reliably, distinguish between genuine user experience and posts written to get clicks.
The way we are using AI is different too. Unlike the old “buy leather work boots” searches, AI queries have far longer tails: “I’m looking for a pair of leather work boots for a plumber with size 11 wide feet, and they need to be waterproof.” With more context you can drill down into product detail, and AI can find a shortlist of boots that really match what you are after.
This will move the internet away from the current system of large centres of traffic to a more dispersed, personal experience where niche wins over mass. More small creators and producers will be the winners.
The problem with this is that for an authentic blog or producer, the signals created by actively pursuing SEO may work against its strength: authenticity. If AI is looking for a specific niche and finds a site written by an obvious expert who is clearly not trying to rank, because for example they are writing experience driven pieces, not using SEO tools like Yoast and have not edited their meta descriptions, AI should quickly be able to verify their claims on other sites and present them as an answer to a search. Not because their inbound links built trust, but because the writing is authentic, the information matches other sources, and the person has a unique experience and voice. It’s not just another post produced for clicks.
The problem is, SEO specialists will want to manage the content, and that will reduce authenticity. So where do SEO agencies sit in this new world? I have absolutely no idea, and I’m not convinced they do either.