The SEO silver bullet is...
Read on for the secret
This week’s newsletter is sponsored by North Star Inbound and Profound.
I will be in Atlanta on June 10th with Previsible, join me if you are around!
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I’ve been quietly testing something new: an AI version of me, trained on everything I’ve written, said, and advised when it comes to SEO, content strategy, and growth. It’s now live: Chat with Eli AI.
Every single lead call I take, whether at an established company or a startup, is looking for the same thing: an SEO silver bullet.
I never cease to be surprised at this request coming from people who know that no such magic exists in other parts of their company, but seem to think it should exist for SEO.
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Newsflash, no such magic exists for SEO either
Crafting a successful SEO strategy isn’t about finding a single, perfect solution that instantly propels you to the top of search results or opens up a floodgate of organic traffic. Even if you could be at the “top of results,” it’s not the position that matters, but the search intent. I have met many agencies that promise number one rankings, but for what? This gets even worse with AI visibility because they aren’t promising anything other than visibility “in AI”.
SEO is multifaceted and requires a deep understanding of all the various moving parts, none of which can be ignored if you want to see success.
If you read my newsletter regularly, you will know that the most important lever is to truly understand your users, what they’re searching for, and how they think about their problems. Without that insight, you’re just guessing what might work, hoping to stumble into success rather than building it deliberately. There are plenty of examples of companies that stumbled into success, but you can’t count on that kind of luck when building a business.
Don’t copy
If you’re copying what your competitors are doing, you’re not building anything unique or valuable; you’re just running behind them, trying to catch up. Most marketers know that even if you write the same content and build the same links, you can’t have the same results.
You need to differentiate which comes from offering something they don’t, a value prop that resonates with your audience in a way others haven’t managed.
SEO is not just keywords and links
SEO is about people, not users, but real humans sitting behind screens, typing questions into a search bar, looking for answers or solutions. If you don’t know who those people are, you’re working blind.
Imagine selling something to a stranger without knowing what they need or value. You might get lucky and guess right occasionally, but you’ll often miss the mark. Understanding your users means digging into their behaviors, needs, and frustrations. It’s about figuring out what they’re searching for and why.
Salespeople at brick-and-mortar stores begin a conversation with “Can I help you find something?” and don’t just walk you over to the section they assumed you were looking for based on your appearance.
The better you grasp this, the more effectively you can tailor your content to meet the buyers where they are and sell to them, not the algorithms. Even algorithms have improved to be more human-like. Search engines have gotten incredibly good at figuring out what users want, and they reward sites that deliver it. If your content feels generic or disconnected from your audience’s needs, no optimization will save it.
In all my consulting engagements, I advocate for the company to understand its users and their motivations. There’s no AI hack; it requires genuine empathy and creativity. Stay tuned for my new book on this topic!
It's the Product, Not the SEO
Even if you copied the top businesses in your niche and decide to mimic their every move, same keywords, same topics, same structure, you're not really competing. You're just chasing THEIR tail, hoping to siphon off a fraction of their success. But that's not why they are leaders and you are not, there's so much more to it than just the metrics you see.
Marketing doesn't exist in a vacuum. Great marketing will fail if the product doesn't meet the bar, and a great product can still be successful without any marketing. There's no SEO silver bullet because SEO is only an acquisition channel, which only works if the product is great.
Time takes time
SEO is a slow build, gathering trust and authority over time as search engines pick up on the positive signals your site earns. (There’s no EEAT score matrix, and you can’t be trustworthy if you aren’t.) Even if someone handed you a flawless formula, you wouldn’t know it was flawless for months, maybe years, because that’s how long it takes for the results to show. There’s no shortcut or magic wand here; it’s about patience and carving your path.
It's a marathon, not a sprint, a slow accrual of signals that tell search engines your site is worth trusting. Those signals come from many places: helpful content, mentions from reputable sites, and user engagement metrics like time on page and bounce rate. None of these things accrue fast.
You can't force rankings with links because the types of links you can manipulate are likely not valued by the engines anymore. The types of links that do work are challenging to get.
Even just launching a page or site takes time. Search engines don't re-crawl the web every day, and algorithms don't update rankings just because they found a new page. The algorithm may never reward you even if your metrics are better than a competitor’s.
That's why the idea of a silver bullet falls apart. It's not just that no single tactic can solve everything; it's that even the best tactics need time to prove themselves, and you don't know if they worked until you reach that time.
Shortcuts are addictive
Of course, it's tempting to look for shortcuts. The internet is full of them: promises of instant rankings, secret hacks, and tools that claim to game the system. Some of them might even work for a little while. But search algorithms are already intelligent and getting smarter every day. Chasing shortcuts is like building a sandcastle at the beach; it might stand until the waves come in, but it can’t last. Hacking AI visibility will disappear even faster because the innate feedback loops.
There's no SEO silver bullet because it's not a problem with a single solution. It's a 500-piece puzzle with every piece required to complete the picture. You need to know your audience inside and out, or you'll never reach them. You need to offer something your competitors don't, or you'll never outpace them.
Search is changing, but focus remains the same
Search is changing, but the fundamental job of connecting users with solutions remains. As more of the informational search space gets commoditized, focusing your SEO strategy on the mid-funnel creates a competitive advantage and higher business value.
The brands that will thrive aren't those fighting for top-of-funnel visibility, but those building deep, persuasive content that helps users move from awareness to decision. This isn't just an adaptation, it's an opportunity to align SEO more directly with business outcomes.
Remember that your competition isn't other websites, it's other products or the engine itself. If your product solves the problem better than others, users will find their way to your funnel regardless of the channel. SEO makes that path smoother and more visible.
Create something worth finding, and the rest will follow. This is as close to a silver bullet as you can get.
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