Is SEO still your best long-term growth channel (even in the AI era)?
Is SEO Still Effective in 2025?
If you hang out on LinkedIn or attend marketing conferences, you’ll know that SEO has been declared ‘dead’ more times than my son’s football has hit my newly planted cherry tree (I never learn). Yet here we are, still searching, still clicking, still Googling everything from ‘how to pitch investors’ to ‘why is my houseplant dying?’.
If you’re a founder, juggling limited resources against ambitious growth targets this creates a genuinely tricky question: Is investing in SEO still worthwhile in an age of AI chatbots and TikTok virals?
The data suggests a resounding YES!
But with important nuances that many startups overlook.
How SEO delivers long-term growth for startups
Unlike paid ads, which stop working the second you stop paying, good SEO continues to drive traffic for months (or even years) after you put in the effort. It works like compound interest for your marketing. The content you create today continues working for you tomorrow, next month, and often years later.
Real-life SEO success
One startup I worked with initially questioned the investment (quite reasonably). We created a hub-and-spoke content strategy around their core product benefits:
A comprehensive guide on their main solution (the hub)
12 supporting articles addressing specific pain points (the spokes)
Six months later, their organic traffic hit 45,000 monthly visitors - generating qualified leads weekly without additional spend. By month 12, organic search became their top customer acquisition channel.
Every client says they wished they’d focused on SEO sooner.
Why Google is still critical to your SEO success
Of course, people are discovering brands through social media, but Google is still where most people turn when they need answers they actually trust. The majority of website traffic still comes from search engines, making SEO an essential part of any startup’s long-term strategy.
But search results are very different to what they were a year ago. Google’s AI Overviews (AIOs) now appear in around 20% of searches (up from 7% in mid-2024), with industries like tech and business seeing AIOs in over 33% of queries.
How can startups use AIO to their advantage?
The good news is that AIO summaries cite around 11 sources on average. This means that even if you’re a smaller website without a top 10 ranking there’s a chance you can appear in the AIO.
Why AI-generated search can’t replace human-centric SEO content
Obviously AI search features have changed the search experience. But they've actually made strategic SEO more valuable, not less.
Google's SGE (Search Generative Experience) and AI-powered answer boxes now prioritise content that demonstrates genuine expertise and practical value. This actually favours organisations who truly understand their customers' problems, rather than those who are simply in it for keyword stuffing. I’ve recently seen a solopreneur’s shock when a lead said that they’d found her via ChatGPT who’d cited her book and website as an authority in her particular area.
What doesn't work anymore
❌ Shallow, keyword-stuffed articles
❌ Generic "how-to" posts that don't offer unique perspectives
❌ Purely algorithm-focused SEO without value
What works for SEO in the AI era
✅ Creating genuinely useful resources that solve specific problems
✅ Structured content with clear question-answer formatting
✅ Sharing data-backed insights from your unique market position
How to optimise for AI Search
Structure content with clear question headings and direct answers within the first 50 words
Use schema markup specifically for FAQs and HowTo content
Create comparison tables for product/service-related queries - these get picked up frequently by AI overviews
Address "People Also Ask" questions directly in your content
Search intent is more valuable than ever
SEO isn’t just about ranking for keywords - it’s about understanding why people are searching. Someone Googling ‘best budget running shoes’ is already in buying mode, while someone scrolling Instagram might just be looking for a distraction.
SEO helps you meet potential customers when they need you, not just when an ad pops up.
I’ve seen organic search visitors typically convert at 2-3x the rate of social traffic precisely because of they’re tuned in to their users’ intent. By mapping your content to search intent, you can:
Capture users at the perfect moment in their buying journey
Reduce wasted spend on audiences who aren't ready to engage
Build authority as the answer to specific problems
Practical SEO for time-strapped founders
The traditional resource-intensive approach to SEO doesn't work for most startups. Here's a better approach:
Invest in cornerstone content
Create fewer, deeper cornerstone pieces rather than constant content creation. One comprehensive, authoritative guide will outperform dozens of shallow blog posts.
Map your SEO to your customer journey
Focus on capturing search visibility at each stage of awareness, consideration, and decision.
Use this to influence your keyword research and shape your content creation.
Identify strategic partnerships to get backlinks
In my experience, guest contributions, podcast appearances, and industry collaborations often drive more value than traditional link building
Action step: Identify 5-10 complementary brands in your space and approach them to propose content swaps or joint research projects.
Create content that generates its own distribution
Original research, surprising data points naturally attract links and shares.
Action step: Survey your users, analyse their habits and share interesting takeaways. Use Canva to create shareable infographics and always include your brand logo or name.
The long view: Why SEO is a startup's best friend
I understand that the methodical pace of SEO can feel frustratingly slow when you're sprinting to reach milestones and satisfy investors. But if you want to grow sustainably, SEO needs to be part of your plan.
It’s dangerous to rely on platforms like Instagram or TikTok that you don't control or algorithms that change overnight. You’re better off owning direct relationships with your audience (talk to me about emails!) and creating assets that appreciate over time.
A strong SEO plan does exactly that.
Your next steps:
If you're ready to build sustainably through SEO:
Audit your current content for opportunities to create deeper, more valuable resources
Identify the highest-intent search queries in your market that align with your product or service
Create a content calendar focused on quality over quantity
Set clear metrics - don't just measure rankings, track conversions from organic traffic
Time-saving SEO tools for startups
Keyword research: Semrush (paid) or Ubersuggest (free version available)
Content optimisation: Clearscope or Surfer SEO
Technical audits: Screaming Frog SEO Spider (free version available)
Analytics: Google Search Console and Google Analytics
Or if you'd prefer expert guidance on building an SEO strategy tailored to your specific growth goals, let's talk. I help purpose-driven startups create sustainable, organic growth engines that reduce reliance on paid channels and build lasting market authority.
