SEO isn’t just about being seen — it’s about being believed and chosen

Wil Reynolds, founder and CEO of Seer Interactive, is challenging SEOs to rethink what success looks like in a world increasingly shaped by AI.

In his SEO Week session, “SEO is a performance channel, GEO isn’t. How do you pivot?”, Reynolds said many marketers are focused on the wrong outcomes — and producing work that people don’t believe.

Marketing isn’t just about being seen

Reynolds opened by pushing back on the idea that visibility alone is the goal of marketing.

“Marketing was never just to be seen or be visible,” he said. “You had to turn that visibility into something — believing something about your brand… And then they ultimately have to choose you.”

He described a progression that marketers need to focus on: being seen, being believed and being chosen.

“It’s how you take your time with people, and turn them from seeing you, into believing something about you,” he said.

“I got the ranking, job finished,” he added. “Job’s not finished.”

Reynolds also questioned the value of surface-level success metrics.

“I got a lot more followers, but they don’t pay you,” he said.

Low-quality marketing is everywhere

Reynolds pointed to common marketing tactics — including automated outreach — as examples of work that doesn’t create value.

“That’s not marketing,” he said, referring to spam-like SMS messages.

Those tactics made him reflect on his own past work, he said.

“I started looking at the stuff that I used to do… was that really marketing?” he said.

“Some of us are strategists. Some of us are loopholists,” he said. “You’ve got to make a decision today.”

The industry is producing ‘zombie content’

Reynolds criticized the widespread use of scaled, templated content designed primarily to rank.

He used broad listicle-style pages as an example.

“Why would you write content saying best restaurants in Minnesota when nobody that’s a human looks for the best restaurant in Minnesota?” he said.

He described this type of content as “zombie content.”

“That’s what we do,” he said, describing how marketers repeat what already ranks instead of doing something different.

He also described how many marketers approach content creation.

“I’m going to look at the top 10 and look at what they did slightly wrong… and I’m only going to do it slightly better,” he said.

Short-term tactics vs. long-term brand building

Reynolds contrasted short-term SEO tactics with long-term brand building.

“Some people like to win in decades,” he said. “Other people like to win quarter to quarter.”

He described how many teams focus on immediate results.

“What works this quarter to get my boss off my back long enough so I can survive the next quarter?” he said.

That approach leads to work that people don’t actually want, he said.

“You will never produce a thing that anyone wants if you continue to play that,” he said.

SEO success doesn’t translate to AI visibility

Reynolds shared an example involving “ethical jeans” to show how SEO and AI results can differ.

One brand ranked well in Google without being known for ethical practices, while another brand that invested in ethical production ranked much lower.

In AI-generated answers, that outcome changed.

“If that worked, if it was the same, that brand would be showing up in AI models,” he said. “And they showed up in none.”

He connected this to credibility.

“Nobody believed them,” he said. “Nobody chose them.”

Visibility without belief doesn’t lead to outcomes

Visibility alone isn’t enough, Reynolds said.

“If you have all the visibility in the world and people don’t believe you or trust you, then you’re not going to get chosen,” he said.

Visibility is only part of the process, he said.

“This visibility is just an opportunity,” he said. “That’s all it is. … Iit is not the job to be done.”

What people say matters

Reynolds suggested looking at platforms like Reddit to understand how people actually talk about brands.

“Go to Reddit… look at all the brands,” he said. “You find out that humans don’t believe you. And they have to pay you for you to stay in business.

He contrasted that with how brands present themselves in content.

“Not only did they not think you’re number one — they don’t think you’re number 100,” he said.

The wrong metrics are being measured

Marketers often focus on metrics that are easy to track rather than meaningful, Reynolds said.

“We’re measuring the easy stuff to measure,” he said. “The real work is in the hard-to-measure stuff.”

He encouraged comparing visibility metrics with signals tied to outcomes.

“If your visibility is skyrocketing and your pipeline is flat, that’s bad,” he said.

Watching real users changes the picture

Reynolds described research his team conducted by observing real people using AI tools.

“When you actually watch people do the job… your eyes open so much wider,” he said.

One person typed four words, while another typed more than 100 words for the same task, he said.

He also noted that AI tools often suggest additional steps or actions beyond what users ask for, and people frequently accept those suggestions, he said.

Start with your brand

Marketers should focus on how their brand appears in AI-generated answers, especially for branded queries, Reynolds said.

“You spend all this money trying to get people to know your brand… and then you don’t want to make sure that answer’s right?” he said.

AI can shape your brand narrative

Reynolds shared an example where AI-generated responses surfaced incorrect information about his company.

“So now it’s showing up everywhere,” he said.

He described responding by publishing content to address the claim directly.

“If it’s false, then I’ve got to fight that,” he said.

There is too much content

“There’s too much content out there,” he said.

He described shifting his approach.

“I’m trying to become a curator,” he said.

Rethinking performance

Reynolds shared examples of how different traffic sources perform.

“My direct converts 1.5 times better than my SEO,” he said. “My social, five times better.”

A final question for marketers

Reynolds ended by asking marketers to rethink their priorities:

“Are you willing to sacrifice a little bit of this visibility game to be more believable?”

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