A new definition of SEO.

*This post is in-progress and will be finished in the coming days.

The times are a changin’.

Buckle up.

But first off, why does SEO need a new definition?

Well, personally, I think SEO (as we knew it) is dead.

I spent 9+ years of my life focusing on SEO, from content strategies to technical audits and custom consulting work.

It was a lot of fun, and I was glad to help out a lot of businesses.

This summer, however, I chose to make the switch to become a holistic marketer focused on brand storytelling.

The reason is that I see the writing on the wall.

The future is AI.

And that future is built on brand stories.

When I published my most recent Hamsterdam recaps — a smart content marketer might just jump to the new SEO definition, but this post is more about the story than the definition itself 😉 — a huge topic was graphRAG, or the fusion of knowledge graphs and retrieval augmented generation.

Generative AI is skyrocketing in adoption, leading to more channels of information for answering informational queries. I mean, I hardly use Google anymore, myself. I typically go straight to Gemini, instead.

Additionally, Google just announced (on 10/3) the expansion of video search combined with AI Overviews, which I tested and found quite helpful.

So what does this portend for that new SEO definition?

Well, traditionally, SEO was about doing on-page, off-page, and technical website (or also Google Business Profile) optimizations to influence the organic rankings of content in search results.

There are a few problems with that.

For starters, traditional search results aren’t really the dominant way that information gets found organically anymore.

Another problem is that while those SEO tactics can help improve visibility, they’re no longer the driving force behind it. Google’s systems are much better at surfacing content known for its authenticity — see the rise in forums, for example.

These ranking systems can also use machine and deep learning, knowledge graphs, and semantic search to understand user intent at a more nuanced and holistic level than even we do as marketers.

All that’s to say, SEO needs a new definition.

Here it goes:

SEO is broader than website optimizations; it’s about optimizing your brand story telling through structured and unstructured data across your web presence and social media and video profiles, increasing your brand’s authority and organic visibility in traditional search results, new SERP features, generative-AI brand mentions and citations, within social and video platforms, as well across third-party and offline sources (PR) to establish an emotional connection and credibility with your target audience for the sake of business goals.

Is there a shorter way to say all of that?

Let’s try this:

SEO is brand story telling in the age of AI.

So why is this version of SEO different?

Well, we kind of explained the nuts and bolts earlier.

But let me take you back for a little bit of a deeper dive …

I’ve been involved in digital marketing since 2015.

First, I was a content specialist, and then I became an SEO strategist, even starting my own consulting business in January of 2024.

👉 As of this summer, however, I broadened my career beyond SEO to become a holistic and brand-focused marketer.

The reason why I made that change (from SEO to brand story consultant) doesn’t have one answer but several.

1️⃣ First, I saw more social content appearing in search results, often rivaling website content for visibility. (See here.)

2️⃣ Second, the SERPs I see today are so dynamic and personalized, based on semantic search technology, in part, that it’s a fool’s errand to try and do rank tracking or even strive for “the number one position.”

3️⃣ Lastly, the more I learn about deep neural networks, knowledge graphs, and RAG within machine learning, the more I understand the way of the future isn’t search but question-answering by AI chatbots and agents.

Your brand story still has a dog in those fights.

Don’t get me wrong, though.

You can still use SEO to make your website amenable to search engines. All I’m saying is that if you’re not focused on your brand’s story, as told through social and video content or AI responses, fueled by structured and unstructured data, you’re missing big pieces of the new puzzle.

So if you’re asking me what it takes to be successful at doing SEO in 2024 and into 2025, I’d say …

Throw away the tired strategies of doing keyword research and writing blog posts based on it — AI has you covered. (I wrote more about content marketing here.)

Instead embrace a more holistic strategy that focuses on your brand story, including social media, email lists that can yield user data, extrapolating other user data from paid ads, building your website to be amenable to search engines — typical on-page, technical, and off-page strategies — but also optimizing for organic mentions or citations in AI chat experiences.

In short, don’t optimize for search engines only. 🙅

Focus instead on your socials, video content, and influencing how AI chatbots will describe your brand story. 👈

Until next time, enjoy the vibes:

Thanks for reading. Happy marketing! 🤗