{"id":185984,"date":"2025-03-04T05:10:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T10:10:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/?p=185984"},"modified":"2025-03-04T05:10:37","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T10:10:37","slug":"seo-is-still-your-best-marketing-channel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-is-still-your-best-marketing-channel\/","title":{"rendered":"SEO Is the Worst It\u2019s Ever Been (And It\u2019s Still Your Best Marketing Channel)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"intro-txt\">Here are two ideas that can be true at the same time: SEO offers worse returns than it used to. SEO is still one of the best marketing channels.<\/div>\n<p>SEO really has changed:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>SERPs are drowning in <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-content-is-short-term-arbitrage\/\">AI-generated content<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>Google\u2019s algorithms seem <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/the-default-blocklist\/\">biased towards big brands<\/a> like Reddit.<\/li>\n<li>AI Overviews are <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-overview-keywords\/\">siphoning clicks away<\/a> from creators.<\/li>\n<li>Google is <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/best-ai-search-engines\/\">losing its monopoly on knowledge management<\/a> as more people turn to&nbsp;LLMs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Talk to website owners, and you\u2019ll even hear whispers that some companies are losing 20\u201340% of their monthly clicks from search. <sup><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/wilreynolds_gartner-said25-of-search-traffic-would-activity-7244078993241444352-nKEg\/\">1<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gartner.com\/en\/newsroom\/press-releases\/2024-02-19-gartner-predicts-search-engine-volume-will-drop-25-percent-by-2026-due-to-ai-chatbots-and-other-virtual-agents\">2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/pc4media_if-youre-in-seo-and-youre-looking-for-some-activity-7241464857789624320-PXUv\/\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_186000\" style=\"width: 1279px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-186000\" class=\"wp-image-186000 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gartner-prediction.png\" alt width=\"1269\" height=\"441\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gartner-prediction.png 1269w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gartner-prediction-680x236.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Gartner-prediction-768x267.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1269px) 100vw, 1269px\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-186000\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Including some not-so-quiet whispers from research firms like Gartner.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This sounds like the end of the road for SEO. What marketing channel could stand to lose 20\u201340% of its return and still warrant energy and investment?<\/p>\n<p>Well: SEO.<\/p>\n<p>SEO has historically been <em>such <\/em>a stupidly lucrative marketing channel that even today, during AI search Armageddon, SEO is <em>still <\/em>the best marketing channel at your disposal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"SEO was stupidly great\" data-section=\"seo-was-stupidly-great\">\n<h2><a id=\"post-185984-_yx92cvvyc0q5\"><\/a>SEO was stupidly great<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>When I first started selling content and SEO services some fourteen years ago, the main pushback I received was that it sounded too good to be true. With hindsight, maybe they had a&nbsp;point:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>It was predictable:<\/strong> you could generally make decent growth forecasts, estimating with some accuracy how traffic would grow. That was\u2014and still is\u2014rare in marketing.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It actually improved over time:<\/strong> a one-off investment in content or links would generate <em>better<\/em> results over time. This was very different from the linear input-output relationship of paid advertising. SEO was an asset that compounded in&nbsp;value.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It was precise:<\/strong> using <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo\/keyword-research\" data-ahr=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/keyword-research\/\">keyword research<\/a>, you could target particular people at a particular moment in time, and all but guarantee a steady stream of relevant visitors to your business.<\/li>\n<li><strong>It had a very low barrier to entry:<\/strong> you could get started in small, incremental ways. A few links or blog posts were still beneficial, without any need for big set-up costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Are there any other marketing channels that even come<em> close<\/em> to these benefits?<\/p>\n<p>SEO was an affordable, compounding asset that could be depended upon as the main growth engine of your business. And as a result, SEO became a near-universal marketing channel, used by small businesses and post-IPO giants, adopted in B2B and B2C. It was too good and too cheap to ignore.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, SEO was <em>so <\/em>good that many companies engaged in SEO solely to monetize the traffic it generated. Affiliate marketing boomed, as did what we now call \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/affiliate-publisher-site-reputation-abuse\/\">site reputation abuse<\/a>\u201d. SEO traffic became the end, and not just the&nbsp;means.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_185986\" style=\"width: 842px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-185986\" class=\"wp-image-185986\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-2.png\" alt width=\"832\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-2.png 832w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-2-589x425.png 589w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-2-768x554.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 832px) 100vw, 832px\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-185986\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Search interest for \u201caffiliate marketing\u201d peaked in&nbsp;2023.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"Now, it\u2019s \u201cjust\u201d great\" data-section=\"now-its-just-great\">\n<h2><a id=\"post-185984-_i7vr01etn8bg\"><\/a>Now, it\u2019s \u201cjust\u201d great<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>Today, generative AI has obviously changed SEO. It\u2019s easy for companies to spam search results with thousands of mediocre blog posts, and just as easy for Google to skip the middleman and use AI to answer the searcher\u2019s query directly. AI has simultaneously increased the supply of SEO content and reduced the demand for&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_185987\" style=\"width: 1610px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-185987\" class=\"wp-image-185987\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-3.png\" alt width=\"1600\" height=\"1322\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-3.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-3-514x425.png 514w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-3-768x635.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-3-1536x1269.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-185987\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">AI is eating up clicks from informational searches. In our research, we found that 99.2% of the keywords that trigger AIOs are \u201cinformational\u201d in their intent.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>This is the SEO monkey paw: we can create SEO content virtually for free, but it\u2019s now much harder to get clicks from&nbsp;it.<\/p>\n<p>Some people are quick to cry about the \u201cdeath\u201d of SEO, but I think of these changes in a different way: SEO is being downgraded from a <em>universal<\/em> marketing channel to an <em>extremely good<\/em> one. All marketing channels have pros and cons\u2014and now, SEO has acquired a few cons to complement the absurd numbers of pros it has always possessed.<\/p>\n<p>Importantly, I think most companies won\u2019t lose much from these changes. Even in a world of AI Overviews and AI-generated content, all of those absurdly great benefits of SEO still exist\u2014albeit with some modification:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>SEO traffic is still predictable<\/strong>\u2026 but we should lower our expectations of what \u201cgood\u201d performance looks&nbsp;like.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SEO investment will still generate more value over time\u2026<\/strong> just a little slower than before.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SEO will still be precise\u2026<\/strong> but we\u2019ll have more competition to reach that same audience.<\/li>\n<li><strong>SEO still has a low barrier to entry\u2026<\/strong> but the best results will require more money and skill to achieve.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Clicks might decline. But for most companies, SEO will remain one of their biggest drivers of growth. They will still want to deny their competitors monopoly access to lucrative SERPs. They will still want to be the biggest player in a smaller search landscape. The tactics that worked then will still, largely, work the same today: content, links, technical SEO.<\/p>\n<p>The contribution of SEO to the bottom line might reduce, but it will still contribute, and it will generate a significant return on investment. (This may not be a concern at all: who\u2019s to say that LLM traffic won\u2019t have a higher conversion rate, and contribute more to revenue than traditional search traffic?)<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_185988\" style=\"width: 1410px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-185988\" class=\"wp-image-185988\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-4.jpg\" alt width=\"1400\" height=\"1342\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-4.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-4-443x425.jpg 443w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/word-image-185984-4-768x736.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\"><p id=\"caption-attachment-185988\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">It\u2019s early days, but our research found that almost \u2154 of websites already receive attributable referral traffic from LLMs. It\u2019s not a stretch to think that referred traffic might have higher purchase intent than \u201ctraditional\u201d SEO traffic.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"The era of easy SEO is over\" data-section=\"easy-seo-is-over\">\n<h2><a id=\"post-185984-_7lel1m6i9io0\"><\/a>The era of easy SEO is&nbsp;over<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>There will be companies that find SEO too competitive or too expensive for their needs. That\u2019s a shame, but it\u2019s also true for every other marketing channel in existence.<\/p>\n<p>It will also be harder to build businesses solely on monetized search traffic. <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/affiliate-marketing-is-dead\/\">Affiliate marketing is harder than ever<\/a>. But that, too, should be expected. Affiliate marketing was a form of arbitrage, and all arbitrage opportunities are temporary. The window to easy profit has closed.<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, we\u2019re shedding the unhealthy and unsustainable expectations of SEO and learning to treat it more like a marketing channel, and not a magic money tap. The era of easy SEO has ended, and now we\u2019ll have to work harder to earn those same disproportionate results.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m okay with that, and I think you should be too.&nbsp;Or as Alex Birkett put it in a discussion on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/posts\/thinkingslow_here-are-two-ideas-that-can-be-true-at-the-activity-7285276034856353792-4Otl?utm_source=share&amp;utm_medium=member_desktop&amp;rcm=ACoAAAuygqQBwS0PzkfW8cQjYRk6Stra8lDgFLo\">LinkedIn<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"small\"><div class=\"quote-content\">\n<p>And I agree with this\u2014\u201cSEO was too easy for too long\u201d\u2014and actually think it\u2019s great that this isn\u2019t the case anymore. Did we really want to spend the golden days of our careers publishing ultimate guides and pushing links to them to drive vanity traffic? Not&nbsp;me.<\/p>\n<\/div><div class=\"quote-info clearfix\"><div class=\"quote-photo\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Alex Birkett\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Alex-Birkett.jpeg\"><\/div><div class=\"extra-box\"><span class=\"quote-author\">Alex Birkett,<\/span> <span class=\"quote-author-job\">Co-founder,  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:7285276034856353792?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7285276034856353792%2C7285320749509132290%29&amp;dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287285320749509132290%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7285276034856353792%29\" target=\"_blank\">Omniscient Digital<\/a><\/span><\/div><\/div><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewBox=\"0 0 14 14\" style><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\" \/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style \/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"The only test that matters\" data-section=\"the-only-test-that-matters\">\n<h2><a id=\"post-185984-_gi9kftac75c7\"><\/a>The only test that matters<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p>SEO is harder and less certain than before. But I am not going to stop doing SEO for Ahrefs.<\/p>\n<p>If I was advising a startup, or helping a scale-up, or starting my own business, SEO is still the very first channel I would test. I would go into it with different expectations, and less certainty of outright success, but I would still expect it to be a major source of growth\u2014and quite likely the best marketing channel at my disposal.<\/p>\n<p>This is the only test that matters: even today, when it\u2019s at its worst, is there anything better or more reliable than&nbsp;SEO?<\/p>\n<div class=\"further-reading\"><div class=\"reading-title\">Further reading<\/div><div class=\"reading-content\">\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/ai-content-is-short-term-arbitrage\/\">AI Content Is Short-Term Arbitrage, Not Long-Term Strategy<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/education-isnt-enough\/\">\u201cEducation\u201d Isn\u2019t Enough: How to Market When Information is Dirt&nbsp;Cheap<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/the-default-blocklist\/\">The Default Blocklist: Why Google Trusts Big Brands (But Not&nbsp;You)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEO really has changed: SERPs are drowning in AI-generated content. Google\u2019s algorithms seem biased towards big brands like Reddit. AI Overviews are siphoning clicks away from creators. Google is losing its monopoly on knowledge management as more people turn to&nbsp;LLMs.<span class=\"ellipsis\">\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\">Read more \u203a<\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[335],"tags":[462],"coauthors":[457],"class_list":["post-185984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-seo","tag-blog","odd"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>SEO Is the Worst It\u2019s Ever Been (And It\u2019s Still Your Best Marketing Channel)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Two ideas that are true at the same time: SEO offers worse returns than it used to. 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