Is SEO Dead? Spoiler Alert—It’s Not! It’s Just Evolving

AI is upending organic search: Google and other companies are becoming more answer engines than search engines.

Five key elements for SEO in 2024:

1. Focus on branded search terms and choose carefully which non-branded terms to include in your SEO efforts
2. B2B businesses should include Bing in their SEO
3. Public relations and other marketing efforts often drive demand for branded search terms
4. Adjust and adapt to generative AI optimization as it evolves
5. Remember to optimize videos on YouTube for search

A question I get asked a lot lately is: “Is SEO Dead?”

The short answer is no, but it is evolving.

In the early years of Google, having pages ranked in the top ten spots on search engine results pages (SERPs) was valuable.

But in recent years, search engine optimization (SEO) has changed dramatically. A position on the first page of Google search results isn’t as valuable as it once was. Today, digital marketing experts must learn how to broaden their approaches to expand beyond traditional organic Google SEO.

The State of Organic Search in 2024

In 2024, SERPs are more crowded than ever before, especially on Google: Google Ads, featured snippets, people also ask, and the new AI Overview. All these new features can drive down the traditional organic search results so far down the page they might as well be invisible.

These changes to Google are all part of the tech giant’s move to become less of a search engine and more of an answer engine. That means search queries are going to result in fewer and fewer clicks to websites. This is known as zero-click searches and more than half (60%) of Google searches in 2024 ended without a click according to a study by Rand Fishkin of Spark Toro.

This reduction in organic search traffic is already evident: a recent Ahref study found that 95.66% of content on the internet gets no traffic from Google. This is an increase from an earlier study from just a year ago that reported 90.63% of pages get no organic search traffic. I expect the fraction of web pages that get traffic from organic search to continue to erode.

Organic Search Traffic is Often Driven by Other Sources.

Last-click attribution presents another significant challenge in SEO because it oversimplifies the user journey by crediting only the final interaction before a conversion. By focusing solely on the final touchpoint, last-click attribution undervalues the cumulative impact of other public relations, marketing, and communications efforts, leading to a misallocation of resources focused purely on SEO.

In reality, numerous other factors nurture and guide prospects toward searching for a business in Google, including:

• Public relations and earned media
• Organic social media
• Online advertising, including social media ads, podcast sponsorships, contextual ads, and display ads
• Podcast interviews
• Word of mouth
• Seeing a storefront IRL

These mostly drive branded search, which is the most important and highest-converting form of search. Branded search terms are also far easier to rank than most non-branded terms. So SEO experts should be sure to partner with other members of their PR, marketing, and communications teams to ensure that getting the business name more well-known helps to drive organic search traffic.

Focus on Branded Keywords and Only Select a Few Non-Branded Terms

This is not to suggest that digital marketing experts should only focus on external forces that drive search. All web pages should still be optimized for search by adhering to SEO best practices. However, I advise clients to prioritize branded search terms first.

And be sure that branded keywords are not just the name of the business, like Apple or Asics. Search phrases should also include the names of the products offered by the business, like the iPhone or Gel Cumulus 26.

Focus on variations of branded keywords as well. For example, Lululemon gets almost half of its website traffic just from the branded search term “lululemon” for which they rank #1 (per SEMRush). But they are missing opportunities for some related queries. Searches for terms like “lulu reviews” and “lulu discounts” have other websites that rank above Lululemon in organic search. So be sure to consider which variations of your branded keywords are important when planning your branded SEO efforts.

On top of that, the names of executives and subject matter experts (SMEs) at the company represent branded keywords for most businesses. Each executive and SME should have their profile page on the business’ website that is optimized for search built around their name.

As for non-branded keywords, I assert there is almost no value in trying to rank for every non-branded keyword. My advice is to focus on a select group of non-branded keywords that are most important for the business and to spend resources optimizing the right pages for those keywords. But recall that more than 95% of webpages are not going to get any traffic from Google search, so don’t waste time trying to get every single page on your site into the top ten on a SERP.

In short, part of the future of SEO is being prepared to cut your losses on a lot of non-branded keywords. This is hard. Clients want to rank for everything they can think of but it’s just not possible in many cases.

Consider Bing—Yes, Bing!

For certain businesses, Microsoft’s Bing search engine is arguably just as important as Google’s. It’s easy to forget about or neglect Bing because its market share compared to Google search is small—but it is growing. Bing helps B2B businesses because it is often used more by businesspeople in large, enterprise-size companies.

Why? Because they often work at organizations that exclusively use Microsoft Office suite and don’t allow employees to download other browsers like Chrome or Firefox. So, they are using Microsoft Edge in which the default search is Bing. And statistics show that Bing users have some key differences than Google users:

• 23% of business executives claim they prefer Bing to Google.
• 34% of Microsoft Bing users are college graduates.
• Microsoft Bing’s US market share on desktops in 2024 is 36%.
• 44 million desktop searchers use Bing exclusively and are not on Google

That means that for B2B businesses trying to reach users at Fortune 500 companies, make sure you are tracking your SEO performance on Bing, not just Google search.

How AI will Impact the Future of SEO

The line between traditional search and generative AI answer engines is going to continue to blur. And there is a potential for more zero-click search experience for users.

The biggest models (ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini) rely on traditional search engines to find sources for their answers. This means that traditional PR and earned media—especially in tier-one publications, like the ones AI companies are striking agreements with—will become increasingly important sources of information for these generative AI tools. So, good old-fashioned PR and media coverage must be key parts of generative AI strategy.

As for optimizing for AI, many of the same best practices for traditional SEO also apply to AI optimization:

• Expertise: Content should reflect firsthand knowledge or direct experience in the subject matter, enhancing its credibility.
• Experience: Content should be created by a recognized expert in the topic, showcasing a deep understanding and skill in that area.
• Authority: Content should come from a source known and trusted in the field, with a strong reputation and authority on the subject.
• Trustworthiness: The content should be reliable, honest, and backed by accurate information, ensuring users can trust what they read.
• Answer questions: Answering questions that may be similar to prompts given to a generative AI tool can help your content be indexed and used in responses. FAQ pages can be used for this tactic.
• Reviews & Recommendations The more reviews and the better the reviews a brand or business has, the more likely generative AI tools are to mention that business, company, or product.
• Brand Mentions: The more mentions a business has online the more likely it is to be picked up by one of these generative AI tools.

How to Leverage YouTube Search

YouTube is the most popular social media platform in the US (according to the Pew Research Center), and the second most used search engine, and because it is owned by Google, YouTube videos are often put at the top of search results. However, many businesses’ YouTube videos are not optimized for search.

In addition, there is evidence that many of the generative AI tools are scraping content from YouTube to train their models.

So digital marketing professionals should be treating every YouTube video as you would a web page you’re optimizing for search:

• Give each video an SEO-friendly title
• Add a robust, detailed, keyword-rich description
• Transcribe the content in the description
• Create an appealing thumbnail

Conclusion

It can feel exhausting trying to keep up with the pace of change in the SEO world. But by following these recommendations, digital marketers will stay ahead of the curve:

• Focus on branded keywords and choose your non-branded keywords deliberately and thoughtfully.
• Track performance not just on Google but also on Bing
• To optimize for generative AI, focus on many of the same things as you do for traditional SEO.
• Partner with your PR colleagues to ensure you’re getting good, earned media coverage.
• Optimize YouTube videos for search and generative AI

Thanks to Pierpont intern Darby Vrba for assisting with researching and drafting this blog post.