Search as a model is changing and so as SEOs we take stock and adapt, except, Googles own "latest" guidelines are NO FUCKING DIFFERENT to how they have been for years.
1. Make content accessible (robots, internal links, render)
2. Make good content not shit content (unique, e-e-at, blah blah blah)
3. Offer good user experience
Same shit different day, different week.
Here are the facts
1. Google has PR spin what they say is different to what they do
2. Google lies - it has consistently lied to webmasters
3. Google profits off the back of the very people it harmed
Here's the reality of conversational search:
1. You get less clicks
2. Google lies about clicks but refuses to make the data available in search console
3. Google gives you no way to see true attribution
4. The hype distracts people - Oh wow I can create videos and text without relying on creators oh so amazing
There are 2 kinds of people out there:
1. People who brown nose Google and adore their products and ecosystem - without realising that the corporate giant is a giant cash machine for investors - so all that hype comes at the expense of MILLIONS of creators
2. People who just want their chance to do work and earn a living and aren't fucking stupid
So, as for SEO?
Well - the long and short of it
1. You will still need to rank
2. A lot of users who are "conditioned" to click on the organic results will continue to do so even if there's a wall of shite to scroll past
3. Google will still rely on websites being discoverable, crawlable and indexable to leach from, so you'll HAVE to make that same effort even if it means less clicks - ultimately this will mean MORE EFFORT to convert more users from less clicks
4. SEO should be more closely interconnected with brand building and social strategy - to leverage visibility outside of search results whilst strengthening the brand and visibility for LLM inclusion
I spent 25 years optimising websites for Google, I've seen it go from a plain search engine with no ads to a corporate giant that will harvest everything on the planet to profit from it at any expense - destroying millions of livelihoods and creators, running a monopoly, abusing, stealing and cheating businesses of revenue.
It's not about hating Google, it's about drawing a line at what's fair.
If Google had been fair, it wouldn't keep getting dragged through lawsuits / DOJ trials.
So whilst MILLIONS celebrate the fanfare of Google I/O remember there are millions of people that lost ALL of their income at the expense of Google penalising their content (wrongly) and then stealing it for training gemini.
As an SEO myself, I will show up EVERY DAY, and irrespective of shifts in search, I'll adapt as will my team.
We'll broaden our strategy for clients to capitalise on chatGPT, Perplexity, Claude as well as TikTok and other avenues where CREATORS are actively rewarded.
seo
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