Why Traditional SEO is Dead and What’s Next
In Q3 2024, we witnessed a telling shift in our lead generation: two prospects for our agency came through AI search agents like Perplexity and ChatGPT, and one through a review site called Clutch. In contrast, organic search—once our primary source—generated just a single lead throughout the entire year. The rest? All from referrals and partnerships.
This stark reality represents a seismic shift in the B2B marketing landscape, one that many agencies are still reluctant to acknowledge.
The End of an Era: Inbound Marketing’s Decline
For nearly a decade, Inturact built its foundation on inbound marketing. We embraced HubSpot’s methodology, structuring our growth strategies around inbound pillar campaigns and supplementing them with additional growth levers—paid advertising, SDR outreach, and backlinking.
The contrast in results tells a compelling story:
May 2016 – Dec 2016
0 to 800 in six months.
Jan 2024 – June 2024
Almost no lift for another client also in B2B SaaS, same strategy.
While SEO still holds value in certain sectors like local businesses and eCommerce, even these traditional strongholds are facing disruption. Take TikTok’s growing influence on restaurant recommendations as a prime example—it’s not a matter of if these channels will be disrupted, but when.
Expert Insights on Search’s Transformation
We’re not the only ones that have seen the writing on the wall regarding the transformation that is occurring in search either. Let’s take a look at what some of the SEO experts we follow have said on the matter.
Chantal Smink – Content Strategist Since 2010
The SEO landscape of 2024 has fundamentally shifted from its traffic-driven roots. As highlighted in her post “Creating Content for SEO in a Zero-Click World,” Google now sends only about a third of search clicks to external websites, forcing a complete rethinking of content strategy.
The traditional SEO-first approach is giving way to a more nuanced, multi-channel content framework built on three key pillars: helpful customer-centric content, demonstrated thought leadership, and leading with audiovisual content.
Her article emphasizes a crucial shift toward expert-led content creation, suggesting that “Experts play a crucial role in this new approach… put the expert in front of a camera and let them talk about the customer’s QPAFFCGMIMs (Questions, Problems, Alternatives, Fears, Concerns, Goals, Myths, Interests, and Misunderstandings).” This expert-first approach aligns with the emerging focus on specialized, authentic content that serves specific audience needs rather than chasing search rankings.
While this new approach might generate less direct search traffic, success should be measured more holistically – through branded search growth, direct traffic increases, social engagement, and community building. It’s no longer about maximizing clicks but about creating meaningful connections and demonstrating genuine expertise in your space.
Peter Caputa of Databox
In his LinkedIn post, Peter Caputa, former HubSpot employee (#15) and current CEO of Databox, makes a compelling case against traditional SEO content strategy, comparing it to “buying real estate in an undesirable neighborhood.”
Despite his background in promoting educational content at HubSpot and using it successfully at Databox, he argues that the content marketing landscape has fundamentally changed. The cost of maintaining content has skyrocketed while consumer behavior has shifted away from search toward social media and subscriptions.
Most tellingly, “median search traffic across 1000s of websites is flat despite increased investments in content production.”
Instead of traditional SEO-focused content, Caputa recommends a more focused approach: “Only publish content on your website that generates conversions.” He advocates for shifting educational content to social platforms, building subscription-based audiences through newsletters and podcasts, and conducting original research.
Perhaps most importantly, he suggests publishing on high-authority websites, noting that “If I wanted to reach marketers, I wouldn’t publish content on a website with a SEMRush domain authority lower than 50.”
This strategy, he argues, better positions companies for an AI-driven future, as “getting yourself mentioned on a bunch of authoritative sites should increase the chances that you’ll be referenced when your buyers ask AI instead of Google.”
Rand Fishkin – Cofounder of SparkToro & Snackbar Studio
In his recent video on LinkedIn, Rand Fishkin also shared the traditional digital marketing paradigm of tracking every click and attributing conversions is dying. He explains that platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok are intentionally keeping users within their ecosystems, while attribution has been further compromised by things like Apple’s cookie changes, privacy laws, ad blockers, and multi-device user journeys.
“Every one of these platforms has an incentive to keep you there,” Fishkin notes. His research shows that while search engines drive about 70% of all traffic referrals, they account for only 10% of where people actually spend their time online. This creates a deceptive attribution picture – when someone discovers a brand on social media but later searches for it directly, Google gets credited for the conversion.
Rather than chasing perfect attribution, Fishkin advocates for a return to traditional marketing principles. “Getting the right message that appeals to the right people in the right places and at the right time to the right audience,” he said.
He suggests focusing on measuring overall lift and impact rather than direct attribution, emphasizing that marketers need to meet their audience where they’re actually consuming content, not just where the clicks come from.
Arun Maini aka Mrwhosetheboss
In his video “Why Google Search is Falling Apart,” Arun Maini aka Mrwhosetheboss shared that Google Search’s quality has deteriorated significantly. He says there are three major issues plaguing the platform.
First, the search results page has become overwhelmed with advertisements, often displaying four sponsored links before any organic results, pushing genuine content “below the fold.”
Second, there’s compelling evidence that Google may be deliberately making organic search results less accurate to drive users toward sponsored shopping results – a stark contrast to the company’s founding principle that “advertising income often provides an incentive to provide poor quality search results.”
This shift is reflected in Google’s current revenue, where 76.3% comes from ads, with about 75% of that specifically from search ads.
Third, the rise of AI-generated overviews threatens to further diminish the value of organic search results.
As Mrwhosetheboss notes, “What’s to stop Google from deciding to use its AI to eventually replace the need to visit any other website so you spend your entire browsing session within Google search page itself?”
This evolution follows what’s known as “enshittification” (or the more polite alternative, “crapification”) – where online services start with high-quality products to attract users, then gradually degrade the experience to better serve business customers, and finally maximize profits at everyone’s expense once users are locked in. The result is a search engine that increasingly prioritizes monetization over user experience, marking a dramatic departure from Google’s original mission.
Pedro Dias for Search Engine Journal
In a recent interview with Search Engine Journal, former Google employee Pedro Dias explains that Google is evolving from a “friendly librarian” into a “personal assistant,” fundamentally changing how search works.
Rather than simply directing users to resources, Google now aims to provide quick answers through AI overviews. Dias argues that this shift requires a strategic pivot in content strategy. He said, “We need to focus on producing what people want beyond quick answers.”
He suggests a two-tier approach where basic information can remain publicly accessible while more valuable, in-depth content should be gated and protected from AI systems. The impact will vary by industry, but Dias predicts AI will widen the gap between surface-level knowledge and true expertise.
“What AI came to do is further put a bigger distance between someone who knows something and someone who is a specialist in something.” He emphasizes the importance of building loyal communities and distinguishing between “Google’s customers” (those seeking quick answers) and “your customers” (those seeking deeper expertise).
Rather than fighting this evolution, Dias advises businesses to adapt by carefully determining what content to make freely available versus what to reserve for premium access, suggesting that true specialists with deep knowledge will prevail while those with superficial expertise may struggle.
The Path Forward: Beyond Traditional SEO
As we’ve seen from industry experts across the board, the future of growth lies not in chasing algorithms, but in creating genuine value. The most successful companies are now adopting a two-tier content model where surface-level content remains freely accessible for discovery, while premium, detailed expertise is gated and protected from AI crawling. This approach focuses on building knowledge repositories that AI can’t replicate, creating lasting value for your audience.
Building Communities Over Traffic
The shift from traffic-obsessed metrics to community building represents a fundamental change in how we approach digital growth. Forward-thinking companies are developing subscription-based content delivery systems, creating high-value tools, and building direct relationships with their audiences through newsletters and private communities. This approach creates a sustainable ecosystem where value flows both ways – from brand to community and back again.
Distributed Content Strategy
Success today requires a sophisticated approach to content distribution. Rather than hoping for organic search traffic, companies need to publish strategic content on high-authority platforms, create video content first (then repurpose it across channels), and focus their efforts on platforms where their audience actually spends time. This multi-channel approach ensures your message reaches your audience regardless of how search algorithms evolve.
How Inturact Can Assist Your Content Strategy
At Inturact, we’ve completely revamped our approach to align with this new reality. Our content development strategy now focuses on expert-led creation that positions you as an authority in your space. We help develop premium content that drives real value and create interactive tools and resources that generate qualified leads. This approach ensures your content strategy serves both discovery and conversion goals.
Community-Centric Growth
Our team specializes in building and nurturing private communities that become valuable assets for your business. We implement sophisticated newsletter and subscription programs that keep your audience engaged, and develop content distribution strategies that reach your target audience across relevant platforms. This community-first approach creates a sustainable growth engine that doesn’t rely solely on search traffic.
Alternative Distribution
We can now target and personalize a single ad on LinkedIn for a single account you are focused on. Instead of using paid ads like a shotgun and hoping someone notices, our paid team renders extremely targeted personalized messages to the company level. With HubSpot plugins like Air Traffic Control, that use AI to create an interest graph mapped to your content, we can nurture any new lead by giving them the exact right piece of content they need at that time. As they engage more and more, they eventually send a signal to your sale team that the grape is ripe for picking, ie. go make a personal touch. At the same time, target audiences are exposed to your content on highly reputation news sites using modern PR outreach techniques.
Rather than 8 blog posts culminating in an ebook each quarter, we’re looking for a single thought leadership piece, unique reports, hot takes, valuable frameworks; taking a single piece and mastering its distribution and its follow up flow.
A New Era of Growth: Your Next Steps
What we’re seeing is clear: traditional SEO-first strategies are no longer enough in the B2B world. As we’ve shown through expert insights and our own experience, success in 2024 and beyond requires a fundamental shift in how we think about digital growth. While others continue throwing resources at diminishing SEO returns or traditional PPC markets, you can build something more valuable: a loyal community of customers who see you as a trusted authority in your space. As HubSpot is now calling it, “The Inbound Outbound”.
Transform Your Growth Strategy
At Inturact, we’re ready to help you navigate this new era. Our team can help you:
- Develop a sustainable, AI-resistant content strategy,
- Build and nurture your own community,
- Create high-value content that drives real results, and
- Implement a multi-channel distribution approach that works.
We’ve already helped numerous companies adapt to this new reality, and we can do the same for you. Don’t wait for your SEO traffic to disappear.
Contact us today to learn how we’ve helped companies like yours thrive in this new chapter of digital marketing. Let’s schedule a strategy session to discuss your specific challenges and share our proven framework for sustainable growth in the age of AI. [Schedule Your Strategy Session Now]
