The Future Of SEO & The Impact Of AI In Search

MARKETING UNFILTERED #29 - Carl Hendy On How To Be Strategic & Take Control Of Organic & AI

Author

Danny Denhard
May 16, 2025

Happy Friday Leaders, welcome back to newsletter #29.

Firstly, thank you! Actually, a huge thank you from me and Harry for your lovely feedback and kind words (on LinkedIn, on WhatsApp and replies to our email) on our first Marketing Unfiltered podcast together.
We had many great messages, and we will be back with more episodes, I’m sure 😉

This week, I spoke with Carl Hendy from audits.com, the SEO professional whom I hugely respect. I wanted to chat on a pod with Carl as he is helping various businesses on (i) how to be successful in SEO and (ii) recovering from several poor decisions and were hit with big Google updates, (iii) Carl understands the business side, which many in search can struggle with.

Carl offers thousands of £/$’s of free advice in this podcast episode, and I know you will find tremendous value in it.

In our SEO conversation: 

  • We explore the evolving landscape of SEO, going deeper into AI integration

  • Carl shares his extensive experience in SEO, discussing the challenges and opportunities that arise as search engines adapt to new technologies and AI search

  • We delve into the importance of long-term cross-team strategies, the significance of branded versus non-branded search, and the unique challenges luxury brands face in the digital space

  • Carl shares why share of search is an important metric most overlook, and it’s negatively impacting many Marketing departments

  • We call out the importance of understanding the customer journey to optimise search strategies effectively

  • We tackle why SEO is NOT dead and why the future of SEO might just be taking on more ownership of AI within the Marketing & Growth departments.

Enjoy, and do hit reply (or DM me) and let me know what you think

The Important Chapters To Share With Your Team

  • Where are we really at with SEO 01:45 

  • Is seo dead? 10:54 

  • How is luxury and Amazon going to fare in this AI driven SEO world? 22:33 

  • The different states of search - educate state, want state, need state, action state 29:55

  • Should SEO and LLMS search go together? 33:53 

  • The opportunity for SEO to reset 38:00 

  • Link building and the costs of link building 46:00 

  • The opportunity to open up editing webpages - not going into a product effort vs reward matrix 51:46 

  • Why share of search is underrated 53:15 

  • The big difference between tinkering and testing 55:43 

  • SEO helping the Marketing Department in appearing in search and apply SEO lessons across social platforms 55:48 

  • The big opportunity and misunderstanding of branded search 56:39

If you prefer listening, you can do so below ⬇️

The Key Takeaways

  • Why Now Is The Time For SEO To Grow Up Again (just watch on this knowledge bomb)

  • SEO+: SEO professionals can and should be optimising beyond just Google search and helping their colleagues to optimise across different platforms (like Instagram, TikTok etc)

  • Brand Struggles: 

    • Brands are still struggling and need to adapt to the changing search environment.

    • Branded search is often overlooked, but incredibly valuable - knowing how to optimise is critical

  • SEO has to evolve - with the integration of search and adding in learnings from AI, across helping the Marketing team and Marketing leaders, integrating this across all channels

  • Marketing Leaders Seek Help: SEO is a complicated channel, seek out help from specialists and experts, especially if it is seen as a dark art internally

  • Lost In Vanity Metrics: Understanding the customer journey is crucial for effective SEOs, and so many have overlooked this and lost themselves in vanity metrics.

  • Lost In Luxury: Luxury brands struggle with visibility in AI-driven search results because they do not understand how consumers really search - maybe their brand isn’t as strong as they hope.

  • Amazon’s Slow Approach To AI - could send huge ripples across the business world, especially if they can roll out highly effective chatbots and complement their hugely impressive SEO and CRO landing pages

  • Reactive Is Not Enough: Long-term strategies are essential for sustainable SEO success - being reactive to every update is hindering your business

  • AI Search And Answers Is Already Here! AI search is changing the landscape of digital marketing and many are too worried about feeling sorry for themselves versus understanding what Google is doing to combat ChatGPT and other LLMs.

  • Lost Art Of X-Functional Collaboration: Collaboration across marketing teams enhances overall effectiveness - this is being overlooked.

  • Reporting Issues: The importance of data accuracy in measuring SEO performance is still not spoken about enough. It’s critically important to understand the role of direct in Google Analytics and ensure associated revenues are attributed to search.

If you missed The Evolution of the CMO Role podcast last week, please watch (or listen) below

We have a dedicated WhatsApp channel, so if you prefer your news in updates on WhatsApp, our channel will be great for you.

Thanks for reading and watching the podcasts this week. We will land in your inbox again next week with a two-parter.

Have a great weekend,

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