♾️ Is SEO dying an excruciating death?

You’re reading The Content Loop — a weekly 5-min read on how B2B SaaS marketers can use original research and product-led content as a growth lever.

Did someone forward this email to you?

Spend 5 minutes scrolling through your LinkedIn feed, and you’ll see at least one post declaring SEO “dead.”

But the reality is very different in 2025.

In the past month, I’ve spoken to multiple content leaders—including my clients—and everybody’s doubling down on SEO as a channel. 

You would think, with all the hoopla around Google’s new AI features and chat-based search (Perplexity, Claude, and ChatGPT), that wouldn’t be the case.

But search isn’t dead—but it IS evolving.

And SaaS companies are playing catch up this year.

The SEO landscape—then vs. now

Previously, you had to optimize for SERP features like featured snippets, People Also Asked (PAA) questions or top 3 keyword rankings, to name a few. 

That was hard enough as it is because it did require a significant upfront investment in SEO, which only paid off after 12 months or so (for the entire SEO program to be ROI positive).

Now, the game’s different.

For example, you have to start optimizing for AI overviews on Google’s SERPs. This means:

• You need to rank at least in the top 20 positions 

• You need to answer more nuanced questions

• You need to be incredibly specific about your answers 

You still need to write well and write with depth. But, the traditional SEO practice of “same, same, but different” content still applies—you still need to optimize the content as you always do.

With AI search platforms, that’s not the case. You have to think about natural language queries in a specific context.

Your audience isn’t typing “project management software” in ChatGPT. 

But they’re asking more specific questions like “How can manufacturers reduce document processing time?” or “My email deliverability is below 90%. How do I fix it?”

Three things matter here: your brand, messaging, and content’s depth.

So, how are content teams shifting their strategy?

I’ve received tons of requests to create more search-focused content in the past 3 months. But we’re not focused only on traffic volume anymore.

Even though I firmly believe that traffic is NOT a vanity metric (a conversation for another day), it’s nice to see how brands are changing their SEO approach.

Here are four trends I’m seeing now:

Trend #1: More focus on conversions and UX—not raw traffic

Marketing leaders want to squeeze more ROI out of their $$$. No matter the size of the traffic, they want to optimize for conversions.

It doesn’t mean you add a product CTA banner under every H2, but it does mean bringing more relevant visitors into your world.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• Does the content address your audience’s/ICP’s needs? 

• Does the content address the actual search intent?

• Does it build trust in your expertise?

• Does it give them a clear next step? 

For example, a “What is XXX?” blog post doesn’t need to redirect visitors to a free trial. Instead, encourage them to sign up for a newsletter or send them to a high-value gated resource.

In the same vein, think about the UX of the entire page. Are there too many CTAs that interfere with the reading experience? Do you have enough multimedia and white space to break up the text? Is the content easy to consume?

These questions matter more now than ever.

Trend #2: More demand for product-led content

Content teams are becoming more comfortable with product-led content.

We’ve gone from “We don’t want to be too sales-y” to “We need to be more strategic about what we’re publishing.”

Mentioning the product doesn’t taint the purity of your content. We’re not the arts and crafts department.

If you know a specific feature makes sense in the context of your content, say it.

As long as you acknowledge it’s just one way of doing things and offer realistic alternatives, you’re good.

Trend #3: Building a stronger foothold in AI search

Everybody wants to increase their “search footprint” beyond traditional search engines.

In October 2024, Ahrefs reported that AI overviews mainly get triggered for informational keywords.

It makes sense that informational keywords would be the first to be hit—but that also means there’s an opportunity here.

You want to appear in a specific context, especially if it’s relevant to your audience.

Consider doing the following:

• Conducting content audits to analyze content depth (word count and specificity)

• Create more specific pages—even if the search volume is low and it’s shorter

• Invest in off-page brand mentions like guest posting or social/communities

Trend #4: Higher investments in original research

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention original research 😆 

The bar to create content is much lower with AI now, but quality is still a hard variable to optimize.

And the smart teams are going all in on this. If I’m honest, there’s no playbook here. I can tell you to do more interviews or surveys or create branded campaigns. But it’ll come down to what’s realistically possible.

If you’re adding expert quotes to an article, that’s the bare minimum.

You need to build solid workflows to extract and incorporate first-party data into your content.

For example:

• Work on your brand’s POV and create “perception-changing” content

• Build a subject matter expert (SME) pipeline to tap into when you need it

• Review product analytics data and use data storytelling to answer burning questions

The goal is to create content that can’t be replicated by AI tools—and gets you more external brand mentions.

All in all, SEO isn’t dying an excruciating death. But we are being challenged to do better, which makes it all the more exciting 😉

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