Let the Haters Continue to Say SEO Is Dead. Some of Us Know Better.
But should you get into SEO now if you've never done it? And what about SEO on Substack? Let's get into it.
I’ve been doing SEO for over 10+ years now, and for as long as I’ve been doing it, people have claimed it’s dead. Every year and after every major algorithmic change gets announced, there’s a fresh wave of people proclaiming the end.
It reminds me of what people say about my hometown of Austin, Texas. I moved here for college in 1993, and, yep, even 30 years ago, the hippies were complaining the “old Austin is dead.” Now, when I head downtown from the ‘burbs, I scarcely recognize the places I used to haunt as a journalism student at the University of Texas. But we’ve still got Lady Bird Lake (Town Lake, to us oldies), the Saxon Pub, where I go to listen to live music every couple of weeks, and Barton Springs, which is still chilling people on even the hottest Texas days.
To be clear, SEO—and Austin—aren’t what they used to be.
It is harder to rank through trickery, black hat tactics or cookie-cutter content, thanks to improvements in Google’s algorithms. It’s true that the most popular keywords are dominated by content giants with so much back-link juice it would be nearly impossible to compete with—let alone dethrone—them from the SERPs. But there is still a whole wide world web of searchers looking for quality content on less-popular topics, more niche content, new solutions, new advice and fresh opinions, and that’s where most of us can compete.
Think about it. How many times a day are you searching Google? I would argue most of us are searching way more than we did 10 years ago. Sure, over the years Google has claimed more and more of the real estate on the results page, but I’m still digging deeper and clicking on sites from Google all the time.
Understandably, many of us are weary about SEO this year in particular as Google prepares to roll out its Search Generative Experience, SGE, that will use AI to provide complete answers to search questions at the top of results.
While Google has delayed its rollout, it is (most likely) still coming. This won’t be a positive for most people who create commoditized content—that is content easily found all over the web. You can see from the example above, the top of the search engine results page is dominated by AI, but over to the right, there are still a bunch of sites being featured. If your content strategy has focused on thin or poorly written, highly commodified content, you likely already saw a hit to your traffic last year when Google Started testing SGE.
That doesn’t account for many of us content creators who are focused on creating quality content, niche, long-tail keywords. Just this week, Neil Patel wrote about “ultra long-tail keywords”—those 7 words or more—and how they are driving more and more conversions and revenue. At least in the short term, it doesn’t appear Google is going to aggregate AI for every topic or industry. I suspect that’s where most of us are going to shine.
To be clear, I think there will also be some winners from an SEO standpoint around commoditized content, especially if Google keeps its current SGE layout, which is offering prime positioning next to its AI content. Some of us might actually see an increase in traffic from that.
If you create content that is niche and nuanced, if you provide analysis, insight, and yes, opinion, on topics, if you provide highly specialized expertise in your areas of focus, you are in a prime position to see your content performance improve.
If you are a business owner, solopreneur or thought-leader, there has never been a more important time for you to share your expertise, opinions and insights.
Should You Get into SEO if You Haven’t Already?
This is a question only you can answer. Organic search is still an affordable way to bring in new audiences, but it is not a quick solution. It takes time and technical know-how—not just keyword knowledge—and many small businesses, solopreneurs, authors and other creators don’t have the time, knowledge or resources to do it well. This is why I suspect so many people say SEO is dead. It’s not a set it and forget it marketing tactic. There are benefits, though, to those who do.
Think about how many times a day you continue to search information on the web. Yes, eventually some of those answers will be solved by AI, but certainly not all of them (at least not in the short-term) and furthermore, how many times do you search the web and continue to look for deeper knowledge than the first three results, which are often just slightly different regurgitations of the same content?
The topics you’re searching for are the topics others are searching for. The problem you are solving for with your business or personal expertise is the content other people are searching for, too.
Should You Invest in SEO on Substack?
Since this newsletter is published here on Substack, and so many of you reading now are Substack writers, I want to talk about the platform in particular. There are many people here who will tell you, “Get on Notes! SEO is dead. Don’t mess with SEO on Substack. Just focus on trying to grow more subscribers from the existing Substack network.”
Yes, there are something like 40,000 people within the Substack network, and yes, it is growing. But there is a much larger audience on the World Wide Web than there ever will be on Substack. And those people aren’t already reading and subscribing to dozens of other Substack newsletters or subscribing to your newsletter just so you will subscribe back to theirs.
Wouldn’t you rather gain a subscriber from someone who is genuinely interested in your niche topic versus a subscriber who subscribed to you so you would subscribe back to them?
I don’t know about you, but as a fellow Substack reader who is already subscribed to dozens of newsletters, I think very carefully before I hit subscribe anymore. In fact, I am subscribed to so many people, every time a new newsletter arrives in my inbox, I weigh whether it’s worth continuing to subscribe to. And, I only pay for a handful of writers and feel like I have to get an overwhelming value before paying for more.
To those who say SEO is dead, I say, yes, more for me, because I know personally from publishing my own personal Substack newsletter for a year that I am bringing in readers from Google. And some of you are—or could be—bringing in more readers from Google. In fact, just yesterday, one of the people I read here on Substack told me a large portion of her audience is coming from Google.
By the way, you can get more insights about your performance by linking your Substack account in Google Search Console and Google Analytics. This is on my long list of topics to cover in coming weeks, so make sure you’re subscribed, so you don’t miss it. For those who are interested in more on this topic, I wrote last week about who should do SEO on Substack and where to find the Substack SEO settings.
Final Thoughts on the SEO Is Dead Proclamation
If you don’t wanna do SEO, don’t do it. Like everything else in life, it is a choice and if you don’t want to invest in it—because it does take investment—you won’t see the payoff. But with just a bit of regular nurturing, you could be bringing in new audiences—people who aren’t subscribing to you just so you’ll subscribe back, people who aren’t already following you on LinkedIn or Instagram, people who are genuinely interested in the topics you’re writing about.
Organic SEO remains a viable and low-cost way to do this.
If you have a niche topic and you know there are people searching for content just like yours online, that’s a pretty good reason to think about doing it.
Let me know your thoughts! In particular, I’d love to hear from those of you who have Substack newsletters. What topics do you cover and how much of your content comes from Google? Are you regularly reviewing your performance in Google Search Console? And for those of you who have no idea what I’m talking about, rest assured, this is a topic I’ll tackle in the future!
I know SEO pretty well, and so far, I’ve gotten two measly clicks to my newsletter via Google searches (according to Console). That’s since September. And all search terms have been for unrelated and really wonky search terms. (I edit my SEO data for each post and connected GA from day one.) I’m definitely not surfacing much in results or on Discover/News nor do I ever see other Substacks in results? (I could go on and on about what we’ve seen at my day job—it’s not good.)
I would love to know how I can connect my Substack to Google search console!