Eric Siu argues SEO remains relevant for those who adapt to change. He traces the field from Yellow Pages through early web spam on Excite and Lycos, and explains how modern multimodal LLMs are reshaping the profession for practitioners willing to stay curious.
Is SEO still a relevant career in this new world? Yeah, I mean, here's what I'll say, like the SEOs or the business owners who adapt, it's no different than anything, you just have to adapt. Yeah, like, by the way, what SEO worked back in the day? Oh, Yellow Pages. Oh, how did you game it? Oh, AAA. How the more A's you had, the more you showed up number 1, right? That's how you— that's how SEO was done with the Yellow Pages. People don't know what the Yellow Pages are today. And then eventually, oh, what happened? You started spamming Excite, Lycos, you started spamming a bunch of keywords, you know, maybe you hide it in the, you know, the background text, right? And now it's gotten more sophisticated. Now LLMs are multimodal, they're looking at a bunch of things. And, you know, I'm not, I think it's, there's no sacred cows when it comes to, you know, having a successful career. You just, the most important thing is that you're curious. The most important thing is that you're adaptable. And the SEOs who complain, the people that you see on X complaining all the time, these are people who haven't adapted. As long as you adapt, as long as you prepare, as long as you are curious, you will win. It's still a relevant career. I think more relevant than ever today if you really look at it.
