So you’ve spent a shit ton of money working on your SEO. Now you get the traffic but the leads aren’t following. What the fuck do you do now?
There’s a few reasons why this might be happening. And the most common mistake I see in client websites is prioritising Google’s constantly changing algorithms over the people who will actually be paying for your products and services.
SEO is only one way of getting traffic to your website. But you know how else people will stumble across you? On social media, in Slack channels, by word of mouth, from your talk at a conference, and a hundred other ways that don’t involve the search engines.
Google is constantly moving the goalposts
Spending your time (and money) trying to appease Google will only get you so far. And if in your pursuit of SEO success you’ve forgotten your customer, it’s not going to mean a whole lot.
Yes, SEO is important and it always will be. But it cannot be the only guiding light in your search for business success. Just this year (2025), we’ve seen several major changes including international rollouts of AI overviews and AI mode, search results battling for space among never ending additional SERP features, sneaky changes to the design of PPC spaces, and AI overviews dominating the People Also Asked section.
Over the summer, I worked on a large scale SEO content audit for a travel business, during which I found the following features dominating the SERPs:
- AI overviews (sometimes at the top, sometimes in the middle, and often in PAA)
- Discussions and forums
- Local pack (often multiple times in a single results page)
- Short form videos
- Long form videos
- Image results
- PPC (they have recently changed the design of these to make them harder to identify)
- Sources across the web
- Related products and services
- Find results on
- Activities and tours
Now of course, some of these won’t be relevant for service-based businesses, but the fact is that the SERPs are more crowded than ever. And on multiple occasions, I saw first pages with as few as 7 organic results.
The enshittification of the internet
The enshittification of the internet is a very real phenomenon and is (in my opinion) more obvious and pressing on Google than anywhere else. ICYMI, enshittification basically means that where a website, app, etc. began as a service to its customers, it slowly morphs into something that only exists to make money for shareholders regardless of how that impacts the end users who gave it market dominance in the first place.
Think Netflix and Amazon Prime’s additions of adverts even for paying customers. Social media algorithms are primed for rage bait because that drives engagement and keeps people there for longer. And of course, Google’s need to over-populate the SERPs with hallucinating AI, meaningless features, and hidden ads to keep you on their platform for longer.
Zero-click search is a direct result of this enshittification. As is your drop in traffic.
So is SEO dead? No, it’s not. But it can no longer be our main focus. It’s becoming an increasingly unreliable source of traffic for businesses of all sizes, especially those less established with a lower domain authority or less name recognition.
SEO isn’t dead, but we need to move on to bigger, better things
For decades, SEO has dominated content strategy but it’s time to move on and look at the bigger picture. Now is a great time to take stock of what your overall content marketing machine really looks like.
Parts of your content strategy that aren’t mostly focused on SEO:
- Messaging development and tone of voice
- Website copy
- Identifying your key target audience
- Understanding what you actually want from your business (beyond “make more money”)
- Email marketing
- Social media marketing
- Events, conferences, and trade shows
- Developing your marketing funnel and lead nurture strategy
- Middle and bottom of the funnel content like case studies, buyers guides, and research papers
Thinking about your content marketing as a lead nurture tool
Your blog content doesn’t have to merely be SEO fodder either. You can focus on more conversion-driven content, especially those targeting more commercially driven search terms. Your blog is also a great way to develop your relationships with folks who are already in your network. Whether that’s people you’re connected with on LinkedIn or other social platforms, newsletter subscribers, or those who come to see you at trade shows or events.
Content marketing is about the bigger picture. And so much of that gets lost in our obsession with SEO. For a long time, SEO was a hugely reliable source of traffic for many, many businesses. As the enshittification of Google continues, that’s the case for fewer and fewer business owners.
So, what, do I just stop investing in SEO?
No. Like I said earlier, SEO is still important but you know what matters more than traffic to your website? Traffic that converts. While it can feel impossible as an in-house content marketer with a boss who just wants to see numbers, it’s important to focus on quality over quantity of traffic.
This means taking the time to assess how well your website is converting, how clear your messaging is, and what it is you really offer.
How to actually stand out in an overcrowded market
Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but your offering probably isn’t that different to your competitors. So what is it that you bring to the table that helps you to stand out? Perhaps it’s a level of transparency others in your industry neglect. Maybe it’s a focus on personal customer support. Maybe it’s your experience and real use cases with good evidence.
Maybe it’s the fact that within 3 seconds of landing on your website, someone knows what you do and who you do it for. They know that you see them and understand their day to day struggles. Maybe it’s the fact that your website is clear, memorable, and doesn’t waste their fucking time with jargon and bullshit platitudes.
While the internet is getting shitter, how do we get better?
Shift your focus away from Google. Spend time developing your messaging, focusing on conversion, and using your content as a way to connect with your audience. Your actual audience. The people who will follow your guidance and pay for your products/services.
Don’t let people pleasing and “what if I scare people off” stop you from marketing your business in a way that actually brings in leads.
And if you need help doing that, I’ve spent the last twelve years helping businesses figure out who they are, why they do what they do, and how to communicate that in their website copy.