A Moment of Upheaval and Opportunity
The search industry stands at a crossroads. I spent a few minutes this morning scrolling through LinkedIn, where nearly every post is an argument for or against SEO being dead, and about which new acronym best represents this change.
Today’s landscape is awash with talk of generative engines and AI-powered answers, raising urgent questions about the future of traditional SEO.
As platforms shift and new acronyms like GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) gain momentum, debate among professionals has intensified.
Is this an evolution—or a revolution?
Is it time to retire the SEO playbook, or simply update its cover?
I’ve been working in this industry since before it had a formal name, years before Google even existed. I’ve weathered every supposed upheaval, from the early keyword-stuffing era to mobile-first indexing, from Panda to ChatGPT. I still remember the gentleman during the Q&A at a search conference breaking down in tears after the Florida update, because it destroyed his business, bankrupting him.
And through all of it, I’ve stayed grounded in one core belief I wrote over 30 years ago, a belief that still holds true today:
“Search will be the best opportunity companies have to engage ‘interest-driven’ prospects who have self-identified their category, brand, and/or product interest somewhere in the world.”
That hasn’t changed.
What has changed is where and how people express that interest—and what it takes to show up at that moment with relevance, credibility, and clarity.
📡 SIGNAL: The Rise of Noise and Mismatched Messages
One of the most telling signals in today’s landscape is the disconnect between what executives are hearing and what teams on the ground are trying to execute.
As Bryan Casey noted:
“Even if we strongly believe one approach is right, we must understand where others are coming from—especially senior executives who aren’t in the trenches.”
Executives are being pinged from every direction:
- Thought pieces about the decline of organic search
- Sales pitches claiming SEO is dead and GEO is the new frontier
- Internal panic over traffic volatility, zero-click answers, or disappearing rankings
The result? An understandable—but dangerous—signal overload that’s prompting confusion rather than clarity.
💥 FRICTION: When Confusion Leads to Inaction
This overload creates organizational friction. The confusion becomes paralyzing.
“It’s not that SEO isn’t working—it’s that many organizations are now either distracted or paralyzed. They’re chasing hype, reacting to fear, or frozen in analysis, waiting for a perfect answer while the basics go undone.”
And that friction plays out in many ways:
- Projects stall.
- Teams waste cycles debating new acronyms.
- Budgets go toward shiny tools while core infrastructure deteriorates.
In this fog, performance suffers.
My Take: Increasing the Signal, Reducing the Friction
The answer isn’t to pick a side in the SEO vs. GEO debate. It’s to:
- Clarify what matters across stakeholder roles
- Connect strategy to business outcomes, not acronyms
- Give teams a shared vocabulary without reinventing the wheel
If we want to reduce friction, we need to:
- Bring executives into the conversation with clear, aligned language
- Anchor around user intent, content quality, and discoverability
- Reframe disruption as an opportunity to evolve—not a reason to panic
Signal helps us align. Friction tells us where to work.
By tuning into both, we can lead more effectively through the chaos.
To make sense of this moment, it helps to identify the core groups shaping the conversation:
1. The Traditionalists and Realists
These folks believe we’ve been here before. To them, GEO is just a new name for a familiar evolutionary cycle.
They argue that search fundamentals haven’t changed—intent, structure, value—and that effective SEO has always adapted, so why do we need a new name for it?
2. GEO Advocates and Terminology Shifters
This group sees the current shift as a full break from the past.
They argue that traditional SEO is obsolete and that GEO demands new frameworks, tools, and thinking.
This camp may use terms like GEO, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), DEO (Discovery Engine Optimization), or LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization). While these reflect different emphasis areas, for the purpose of this article, they are treated as broadly synonymous—each pointing to the broader shift in how search engines interpret, summarize, and surface content.
The more vocal in this group appear to be “hustle bros” trying to capitalize on the headlines of reduced traffic. The demise of Google and that everything has changed. Many in this group are building products and services around these concepts and advocating for a clearer break from legacy SEO mindsets.
3. Pragmatic Adapters
Adaptation without overreaction.
This group believes in evolution, not reinvention.
They’re updating SEO workflows to support things like:
- Structured content
- Conversational formatting
- Entity modeling and mathematical methods for content creation
- LLM readability and inclusion
- Broader awareness and brand awareness
They see GEO as an extension, not a replacement.
4. Strategic Elevators
These leaders want to zoom out.
They’re using the moment to elevate SEO/GEO to a boardroom discussion—not just a technical function. To elevate low-level SEO within the organization’s hierarchy, transforming this new environment into a more accessible form of findability.
They see search as digital infrastructure for:
- Brand visibility
- Information architecture
- Customer experience
- Competitive strategy
5. Other Voices & Outliers
Some are going all-in on optimizing for specific platforms (Google SGE, Perplexity, ChatGPT). Others remain skeptical and are waiting to see how the dust settles. Some are intensely focused on a specific feature acronym, be it Answer Optimization, LLM Optimization, or whatever gets them a meeting.
But what binds all of us?
A shared sense of disruption and possibility.
What’s Fueling the Disruption?
This isn’t just about AI headlines.
As I wrote in the article, Beyond the Hype: The Real Forces Reshaping Search, I identified several systemic forces that are reshaping search:
- Tech acceleration: LLMs, multimodal models, and conversational UX
- User behavior: More searcher intent moving “upstream” and fewer traditional SERPs
- Friction Reduction – getting the searcher the information they actually want
- Platform priorities: Engines are favoring what they can monetize, model, or retain
- Professional insecurity: “Will what I know still matter?”
We need to acknowledge these macro shifts, both collectively and individually, and only then can we both appreciate and develop a strategy for navigating this rapidly changing ecosystem.
Acknowledge the Fear, Respect the Past
Change creates anxiety.
Under every debate is a fear: “Am I still relevant?”
There’s no shame in that.
It shows people care deeply about their craft.
What matters is how we move forward—with respect for what works, and curiosity about what’s new.
What Still Unites Us
Despite the debates, there’s still common ground:
- Serving the user is still the main focus
- Driving traffic that converts to leads and sales is everyone’s goal
The need for quality, credibility, and clarity still wins
No matter what it is called, we all believe search, in any format, is the best opportunity companies have to engage ‘interest-driven’ prospects who have self-identified their category, brand, and/or product interest somewhere in the world.
⛔ Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Bathwater
In moments like this, I see two extremes:
- The clingers, who insist nothing has changed
- The chasers, who abandon everything familiar for something shiny
Both are wrong.
As we debate and experiment, it’s tempting to seek purity by either clinging stubbornly to old methods or abandoning them wholesale for the new. Both routes risk “throwing the baby out with the bathwater.” This will only amplify the paralysis we are experiencing currently.
There has been a major disruption, and there will continue to be – get over it and get on with it or, as we said in the Marine Corps, “Embrace the Suck.” The more dissent we have, especially in the public domain, the more confusion will be fostered in the marketplace, impacting everyone’s business.
The industry stands to benefit most from fusing tried-and-true fundamentals with innovative approaches. This spirit of synthesis honors both tradition and innovation.
Substance > Semantics
Industry voices like Bryan Casey of IBM summed it up brilliantly in this Tweet on X, offering a measured approach:
“Even if we strongly believe one approach is right, we must understand where others are coming from—especially senior executives who aren’t in the trenches.”
Casey suggests that the substance of our practices matters far more than labels.
If GEO and similar frameworks genuinely help teams succeed and communicate, they’re welcome. But no terminology, old or new, can substitute for results.
He cautions against knee-jerk reactions that either to rebrand everything instantly or to reject all change as mere hype. Honest adaptation and evidence-based evolution, he notes, are the keys to enduring progress.
A Strategic Way to Talk About This (Internally & With Clients)
If you’re trying to lead your team or support clients through this, here’s a clear framework:
1. Start with the WHY
Explain the fundamental shifts (technology, users, friction, platform).
2. Show the Landscape
Lay out a change roadmap. This helps people orient themselves and opens a conversation rather than a confrontation.
3. Bridge Perspectives
Use Bryan’s insight. Executives aren’t wrong—they’re just in a different headspace. Educate them, but don’t alienate, demean, or praise them for their understanding.
4. Avoid False Binaries
It’s not SEO or GEO. It’s understanding what still matters and what now matters more. Connect everything to the reality of revenue.
5. Build Adaptive Playbooks
Layer your strategy:
- Technical SEO and hygiene
- AI-readiness and structured content
- Business alignment and authority
6. Give People Agency
Most importantly, remind teams:
What you know still matters. But how you package, prove, and apply it is evolving.
Rational Optimism in a Time of Change
The future of search won’t belong to any one acronym.
It will belong to the practitioners who are:
- Open to learning
- Thoughtful about what they keep
- Honest about what they need to change
- Aligned with business outcomes—not buzzwords
Let’s not fall into fear, or get seduced by hype.
Let’s navigate this together—with clarity, context, and curiosity.
Originally Posted on my Substack Signal and Friction
