SEO philosophy #2: The hard things
They're just going to get more difficult.
What’s the hardest thing in SEO right now?
Is it creating AEO/GEO/LLMO strategy?
Getting everyone to agree on all the emerging acronyms?
No, I think it’s trying to predict the future of search 🔮. While we know people are beginning to start their search in LLMs instead of search engines, we’re just at the beginning of how searching online will fundamentally change.
Some SEOs are still focused on how they can show up in AIOs, but does that really impact your bottom line? In 5 years, will we even have AIOs? In 10 years, will humans still use search engines? Will the web serve 3 audiences: humans, LLMs, and AI agents? Will everyone use either ChatGPT or Gemini (like iOS or Android) to get their information?
I’m curious what others think, but I think it’s too early to tell. Until we get closer to mass adoption or have tried and true best practices, I’d be wary about investing too much time and potentially placing the wrong bets.
Instead, SEOs should focus on monitoring how search behavior changes for your customers. What are they using LLMs for today and what aren’t they using LLMs for.
Aside from just getting clarity from those you’re trying to get into your funnel, what should you really be focusing more on as AI turns the world upside down? I don’t think we’re talking about this enough.
The hard things about doing SEO
So I started my career at a small startup and last year, I worked my way up to enterprise SEO. If I had to name the hardest aspect of my work, it’s the people. It’s everyone’s feelings and opinions that you have to navigate, let alone your own.
Currently, AI and LLMs are good at:
Content production and optimization
Keyword research and competitor audits
Technical audits and reporting
But what’s hard are the uniquely human aspects of SEO work:
Researching is easy. Getting everyone aligned on your vision? Hard.
Organizing your research is easy. Getting everyone to agree on page copy? Hard.
Figuring out milestones is easy. Getting everyone to meet deadlines when they all have other priorities? Hard.
This is why these four areas of what we do will remain valuable:
Getting executive buy-in, since resources are finite and limited.
Alignment and collaboration with different teams (i.e. mostly humans, sometimes AI)
Understanding the business (the people), its products, and all of those nuances
Tool and product development for SEO (e.g. AI agents that do SEO tasks and AI-built “products” that have search demand)
It’s time to throw those (soon to be outdated) hard skills out the window, because it's mainly those soft skills that'll keep you in the building. From my experience, 80% of working in enterprise SEO has been about the soft skills and the actual hard things.
Thought prompt: Which of these four areas are you strongest in? Which ones do you think you’ll need to improve on? How can you use AI to help you?
Thank you for getting this far. Because I truly want to make this worth reading, I’m rethinking my publishing cadence to prioritize quality. I’m also working on what I should focus on so that it’s valuable to you, so bear with me as I adjust. 💙
Yours truly,
Debbie Chew
P.S. We’re calling it “CEO” now instead of SEO. Customer Experience Engine.
P.S.S. Note to future self that I shouldn’t post “Is AI art considered art?” and think nobody will care. People cared. People had opinions. Lesson learned — especially the one about when to just back away. Now I see why everyone left X/Twitter…😢
Have feedback for me? Find me on X/Twitter or LinkedIn because I’d love to hear from you!