Is SEO Relevant Or Is It Overrated?
If something doesn’t make dollars, it doesn’t make cents. As a business owner, it makes no sense for me to think that SEO is overrated, because it has generated the highest ROI of any other marketing strategy.
In fact, the articles online that talk about how SEO is overrated are only relevant because of it. Without search engines ranking their articles, they would never see the light of day — they’d be lost in a sea of billions of other webpages, and nobody would ever see them.
Talk about ironic. It’s a good thing search algorithms don’t have feelings; otherwise, they would think them ungrateful and might not rank them. But Google ranks what’s relevant, regardless of whether someone thinks SEO is overrated.
But anyone who’s made a profit because of Search Engine Optimization sings a different tune, because to a business owner, ROI is anything but overrated.
“Is SEO Overrated” Search Simulation
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Don’t get me wrong, SEO has its place, but too many businesses chase rankings like it’s the only thing that matters. News flash: it’s not.
Google has released updates that penalize websites that “chase rankings,” and its guidelines state that to rank, content should be created for people, not search engines.
Personally I think SEO is total BS, is there anything…
The problem with trying to play by SEO is that it controls what you write, when to write, and how to write it. Writing is enough work…
If this were true, then why did your article rank?
I truly believe that the unimaginable energy, focus, resources, and money businesses seem to put into SEO is a little too much.
Energy, focus, resources, and money that someone else puts in can only be unimaginable to you, not the person putting in the work.
Business owners can’t just imagine energy, focus, and money into existence. You can, because it’s not yours, but they can’t, because their focus, resources, and money are real.
The only thing they imagined was something greater for their business, but all the elements to make that possible are far from unimaginable. Could it be that your stance on SEO is just a product of your own imagination?
Posts from individual people writing articles… LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, but no real businesses in sight.
Is SEO Relevant?
Yes, SEO is extremely relevant, even in 2025. There are more than 6 billion searches on Google every single day, around 46% of which are for local products or services. That’s approximately 3.6 billion opportunities for high-ranking websites to increase their brand awareness or get customers every day. If that doesn’t state the relevance of SEO, then ask yourself, when was the last time you used a search engine? Can you remember the last time you didn’t?
- First page ranking gets the majority of clicks.
- Even without immediate clicks, SEO increases brand awareness, which can result in higher-quality clicks in the future.
- Clicks lead to purchases, and purchases drive revenue and profit.
Is SEO Overrated?
No, SEO is not overrated. 96.55% of websites get no organic traffic from Google. It’s easy to say that Search Engine Optimization is overrated when the people saying it are part of the majority that get no organic search traffic from Google. Experiencing the benefits of SEO is a sure-fire way of understanding its importance.
- SEO produces an industry average of 826% ROI.
- It is the most effective means to connect consumers with business through search engines.
- Google has a satisfaction score of 80%.
The Relevance of SEO in 2025
2025 is a peculiar year. AI is progressing, and with it, the way search results work. AI overviews (AIO) and other SERP features are evolving the way Search Engine Optimization is done. It’s important that websites consider ranking for AIO to keep from losing traffic to them. Those who want to rank for AIO can’t hope to do so without SEO specialty, because optimizing for various different search features requires knowledge of:
- Search Intent: What people expect to find when they search for a particular phrase or ask a question
- Content quality: The richness of the content that is created for the intention of being found
- Technical Optimization: The technical aspects of a website that make it easy for search bots to crawl
A Google crawler (or Googlebot) is the software that is used by search engines to scan and discover web pages across the internet. Technical aspects such as site speed and structure highly influence Google’s ability to crawl pages, and getting “crawled” by Google happens before ranking is possible for AIO or any other SERP feature.
What’s Next for Search Engine Optimization?
Google will always be a search engine, but it is also becoming an answer engine. While many people see this as a bad thing because AI overview (AIO) can take away from organic search traffic, it can actually be beneficial, because it’s created the opportunity to rank for various different SERP features that help broaden online visibility.
- Websites can now appear on AIO citations.
- AIO citations pre-qualify leads, making clicks more likely to turn into sales.
- The change in search has forced websites to produce more helpful content because “answers” directly address the needs of people.
- Helping people is essentially how businesses build up their trust and credibility, and this creates more business.
There are more Google searches in one year than there are people that have ever existed on earth. As long as there are consumers for products, services, or knowledge, Search Engine Optimization will stay relevant. SEO is far from overrated; it just needs to be done right.
