*note - "SEO" is used throughout this article as search engine optimization(e.g. I need SEO services) and as search engine optimizer(e.g. I need an SEO).

“SEO is a dying industry”. This is a claim I’ve heard whispered - or yelled- a few times in SEO circles. It parallels the shift happening in my freelance writing communities - either you believe your job is about to disappear like your husband does when it’s time to watch the game on Sunday, or you’re doubling down on what must be true: you are not replaceable.

SEO, though, is a little more nuanced than that. ChatGPT can write SEO-friendly blog posts for us, lackluster as they may be, although one must ask why that’s the best long-term strategy when it’s already hard enough to rank on the 1st page.

Shoot yourself in the foot, why don’t you? However, ChatGPT cannot delete unnecessary code off of each of your web pages or magically fix your core web vitals - at least not yet.

While SEO is shifting toward needing to appear in AI-generated search engine results, SEO is not disappearing - it’s changing. Amsive, massive digital marketing/SEO/e-commerce etc. agency agrees.

SEO will never disappear as long as Google exists. With 68% of online experiences beginning with a search engine and 60% of marketers saying that their best leads come from inbound marketing, anyone with a business needs good SEO — even if what that means is constantly in flux.

[“Pro” tip: it’s worth it to invest in monthly SEO services].

If you never do SEO, you’ll never know how it could have benefitted you, and SEO generates 1000% times more organic traffic than social media — so it’s kind of your best bet in our digital world.

What makes a good SEO in a rapidly evolving landscape? How do you, a business owner, know you’re getting what you pay for?

Let’s discuss the components of SEO as an industry, but first, I’ll give you a hint: great SEOs are not static or fixed in their knowledge. They’re adaptable and dynamic professionals who never stop learning.

The evolving landscape of SEO

There’s a big idea that AI built into search engines will make content obsolete and make it much harder to get organic traffic and reach on social media. And maybe one day that will be a reality we’re facing down.

However, if you’ve seen a decline in organic traffic on your website or reach on your socials, here’s another reason why that may be: everyone and their grandmother is a content creator now.

Getting noticed is hard. Ranking is hard. The internet is saturated with content being combed by humans who are very selective with their attention.

Social media and blogging are not what they were in 2015 or even 2020. And that’s what’s difficult, I think more than anything.

It is essential to learn to work with AI and even use it to help with SEO. However, Google made it pretty clear that it still prioritizes original content. So if you’re not ranking, it’s probably because:

1. Someone else has been around longer than you and is more authoritative. SEO is a bit of a waiting game.

2. Your content needs work

3. You aren’t leaning into the digital marketing trends of 2023

It is becoming harder to rank. I’m not going to sugarcoat that. More people are trying to get noticed. So, how does a good SEO help you stand out?

1. Build trust with your audience! Against the backdrop of more and more people competing for the attention of internetgoers, trust and authenticity are key. Remember: you don’t need a huge audience — just a loyal audience.

2. Don’t shy away from video content. It’s dominating every social media platform and driving organic traffic.

3. Put time into providing real value for your audience. This is one of many reasons why writing your blog posts with ChatGPT would be detrimental. Writing and hitting publish is not enough; you need to create something unique.

4. Write for the audience you’re trying to attract

The last two things I’ll say about keeping up in a world where it’s harder and harder to rank are these: Google is constantly updating its algorithm, which may cause a shift in organic traffic. We are all at the mercy of Google at the end of the day.

And isn’t it nice that you can pay someone to do all of the s**t that helps you get back into Father Google’s good graces?

The other is that most, if not all, of your competitors are deploying an SEO strategy.

Setting a match to SEO simply because it’s getting more challenging is not the way to keep up.

A strong foundation makes a good SEO

A lot of people write technical SEO off or choose to emphasize content marketing and on-page SEO as opposed to technical SEO. It shows in the two dominating schools of thought on technical SEO - “content is king” vs. “SEO is nothing without technical SEO.”

In reality, a good SEO strategy will incorporate all facets of SEO - technical, on-page, and off-page.

Technical SEO can sound very out there, from schema markups to SSL certificates to some things that can slow a site down, like large contentful paint - one of the factors that goes into Google’s Core Web Vitals score.

Technical SEO boils down to 2 main things: crawling and indexing.

And you can indeed have the most informative, engaging content in the world - but if Google can’t crawl your site, runs into broken links and code that doesn’t do anything anymore, and can’t index pages you’d like to have indexed, you’re cut off at the knees already.

That content you worked so hard on will never be seen. So, while technical SEO isn’t everything, it is the foundation of a good SEO strategy.

A good SEO can handle your technical issues, research what they may not have the most experience dealing with, and understand when to refer a fix to the web dev team.

It cannot be understated that while a good SEO can handle some pretty technical issues, they are not a coder or a web developer - and you shouldn’t expect them to be one.

Adaptability to Algorithm Changes

I already touched on this earlier, but Google’s algorithm changes are unpredictable. They usually make a few big ones in a year that cause everyone to flip out because they’ve gone from consistently great traffic to nothing.

However, Google is constantly updating its algorithm with thousands of updates a year by now.

I point to this to say that if your traffic plummets, it's probably not your SEO’s fault. I know - rich coming from an SEO, right? But seriously - we feel as blindsided as you do.

So what am I paying you for, then? you might be screaming into a pillow.

You’re paying us for our time poring through good SEO resources like Search Engine Journal, SEMrush, HubSpot, Moz, and Ahrefs. Search Engine Journal has a comprehensive list of impactful algorithm updates that I love.

You’re paying an SEO for helping you build lasting relationships with your client base. You’re paying us to explain how the recent update impacted you, so you don’t have to go it alone.

Simply put, a good SEO will make dealing with Google much easier. We aren’t omniscient, but if we’re good at what we do, we’re constantly adapting our strategies to meet the most recent change - whether it’s a change in how customers are responding to our strategy or a change from Google.

Content Optimization and Marketing

Everyone’s favorite! On-page SEO. Remember earlier when I said, “Content is king?” Well, that is so true when you have a good technical foundation.

Here are some stats from a 2023 Ahrefs article on blogging to back it up:

• 77% of internet users report reading or skimming blogs

• 44% of people report reading 3 to 5 blogs or pieces of content before actually engaging with the person trying to sell them something

• 71% of bloggers say SEO is their most significant traffic source

Those stats are crazy! What are you doing if you’re not blogging? Even if AI changes our search engine experience, blogging is alive.

People want to know what you’re all about before considering purchasing from you - but they won’t stick around long enough if your content isn’t engaging.

Moreover, they won’t find your content in the first place if you aren’t answering your target audience's questions.

How good SEOs integrate into your content marketing strategy

That’s where we come in. SEOs can write optimized content that brings your target audience to the page, provide you with suitable keywords, or give you content outlines based on target keywords to work with.

SEO and content marketing are historic partners because SEO drives good content marketing.

If you’re getting visitors to your website or have thousands of Instagram followers but aren’t getting any conversions from those visitors, consider that content is king(or queen) and that maybe yours isn’t where it needs to be to get your ideal buyer from viewing a sales page to hitting "Buy".

A good SEO - one you’ll pay a decent chunk of money for - will be heavily involved in your content strategy. They'll point out content gaps, make actionable suggestions about what you could do better to convert visitors, and suggest different types of content that may engage users for longer periods.

Content strategy and SEO have a long history because when content strategy falls flat, SEO does, too. Bounce rate increases. Time on page decreases. Exit rate increases. And if we want to succeed, content marketing has to succeed, too.

User Experience (UX) Focus

Have you ever been to a website that was slow to load? Maybe it was ugly? Difficult to navigate? Were the tabs in the weirdest place?

The role of UX in SEO is pretty easy to understand — the more someone is frustrated by or simply displeased with the layout and look of your website, the more likely they are to leave.

Websites are getting faster and prettier by the day. 60% of searches are performed from mobile. People are selective with what they choose to pay attention to. Slow website? You’re out.

A poorly designed website may not give you the boot, but it may not help you close the deal depending on what you sell. For example, if you’re in the beauty industry, you want a pleasing website. It adds to the overall aesthetic of your business.

Mobile first is no longer an option. Websites have to be optimized for mobile or risk less traffic. Technical, off-page, and on-page SEO are all important - but remember who matters at the end. The user.

I’d say the same for writing content. Write first for the user. Then, optimize for the search engine.

Link Building Strategies

Ah, link-building.

[Note: building backlinks is not the same as internally linking to other pages within your website - although internally linking is an important way to structure your website and ensure proper page depth].

Backlinks are when other sites link to your site. This can increase your domain authority (which isn’t a ranking factor used by Google but usually a good web performance metric) and traffic to your page from other high-authority sites.

Content, content, content

Again, content is king. The more high-quality content you produce, the more likely it is that someone else will link to it - as long as you’re targeting the right keywords so that people looking for authoritative content to link to can find you. See how it all needs to fall into place?

Also, guest content is king. Here are a few ways to build backlinks:

1. Buy them. This often ends badly.

2. Own 15 high-authority websites that all link to each other. This works(?) if you have a lot of time on your hands.

3. Guest posting

4. Reach out to business partners, industry colleagues, or affiliates and ask if they’d post a link or ask for a link exchange - you backlink to them if they backlink to you.

However, 60% of bloggers write 1 to 5 guest posts monthly.

A good SEO will know that quality >> quantity when it comes to backlinking. Backlinks from high-authority domains tell Google you’re an authority in your niche and increase your chances of ranking high in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Social Media and SEO

We’ve established that social media doesn’t drive near the amount of organic traffic that Google does. So why bother?

Social media is a place to build relationships and raise brand awareness. If you’re a newer website or business, ranking for anything significant at first will be hard. Social media is your friend here.

Remember what I said about this being an age of high-quality relationship building instead of high traffic? Just like you don’t need a ton of traffic to your site to build trust with your ideal client base, you don’t need a huge following on social media to attract your ideal buyers on the platforms they hang out on.

It’s about consistency, authenticity, and leaning into the trends defining the moment in a way that feels true to you.

You’re a business. You need to market. Cast a wide net - including social media. It’s a great place to market the killer content you’re producing.

Many SEO strategists aren’t going to be as hands-on with your socials, but a great SEO will ask questions and make recommendations about how best to use socials to drive traffic to your website.

What makes an SEO successful in 2023 — key takeaways

I’ve been pointing to a few themes throughout this article.

1. A great SEO comprehensively understands the role social media, content, and actual SEO play in marketing a website. Some may say, “that’s not my job!” or “that’s outside of my scope of work!” and while I would never encourage doing more work than you’re getting paid for, a great SEO is going to look at every area where improvements could be made and suggest them to you. You’re our client, and your success is ours. SEO, copywriting, and marketing are separate jobs, ideally. However, marketing is so integrated now that it’s hard not to pick up on current trends in marketing, blogging, and what ultimately draws people to a website no matter what role you’re currently filling.

2. A great SEO will grow with you, adapt alongside you, and do their absolute best to see you succeed. They will not be omniscient, superhuman, or procure incredibly fast results.

A great SEO in 2023 isn’t going to pop up a Google Analytics chart in a monthly presentation and say, “Great job, team! Organic search volume for these 3 keywords was up this month!”

They’re going to tell you what they did, why they did it, make recommendations, tell you what they think any graphs and charts mean, ask for your input where appropriate, and keep whittling away at your website, month after month.

The best of us is going to flop from time to time. But we learn from our mistakes and come back better.

It’s a team effort.

Here’s my final secret: great SEOs aren’t magicians. Or wizards. Or geniuses. We just work hard. SEO isn’t sexy. It can be tedious and extensive.  The best part, though? It’s seeing you get those results you’ve been waiting for.

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