SEO is (probably) not for you

I’ve been in SEO for a while, and I can vouch for the fact that SEO is not for everyone. After reading this post, you may decide that it's not for you, and let me be the first to say that it's perfectly fine if that is the case.

SEO doesn't have to be for you, after all. And that can change over time.

Here’s a quick rundown on me:

• 8+ years experience in SEO
• Experience across industries and business sizes
• I’ve worked with almost 100 companies
• I built an SEO SaaS and coaching company (centori.io, and previously worked as a product manager at HubSpot)

I’ve been fortunate to work with dozens of companies over the years, and during that time I’ve seen where SEO works really well and where SEO should be the lowest of priorities.

I use these signs to try and steer people away from SEO when I hop on the phone with them, otherwise, it’s just a waste of their resources and will end in frustration.

Here are the signs I look for when trying to determine whether SEO makes sense for a potential client. I’ve turned away quite a few folks, but I like to think they are better off for it. I hope that this can do the same for you.

SEO is not for you if you need users or revenue NOW

SEO is a long game. We all know that.

When most people hear that, they think I mean it takes a while to rank.
It can, but if you pick the right spots there is no reason why you can’t land a few pieces of content on the first page of Google search results. I’ve seen it firsthand with clients, even in YMYL (stands for your money your life, which means finance and healthcare) niches.

But ranking is not the same as making a sale.

SEO is a channel to drive traffic, but if you are not answering the right questions, getting in front of users at the right point of the funnel, or your website is not converting - then no amount of traffic can help you. If your bounce rate is north of 90%, then all that traffic you are acquiring via SEO is going to be pretty much useless for your business (this is also the #1 ad killer in my experience).

The risk here is you invest the time into SEO only to find out that your website is bringing in customers. I like to “fail fast”, meaning that I like to learn whether or not something will work quickly. Before investing in SEO as a channel, I like to run an ad campaign or two just to see if my content will convert if it is clicked on. For $50, you can learn a lot from a Google ad campaign and then invest further into SEO.

If you need users now, there are much faster ways to acquire customers. You can network, ask for referrals from existing customers, or even cold email/cold call.

SEO is not for you if you have no product-market-fit or no idea of who your target customers are

This is a common one I see with early-stage companies looking to SEO as a channel. My advice is almost always “Please don’t try SEO.”

Having a degree of product-market fit and a solid idea of who your target customers are is essential to your SEO success. This is worth unpacking in more depth.

What do I mean by product-market fit?

When I say “product-market fit” I don’t mean the idealized idea of having your product and market nailed down so that your entire market is breaking down your door to use your product. That can take years, and there are plenty of semi-successful (and venture-backed) companies that aren’t quite there yet.

By product-market fit, I mean having a reasonable idea of who your target customer is, and what makes your product distinct from your competitors.

Not achieving this level of product-market fit means you have a very rough offering, are not sure who to sell to, and only have a hazy idea of what separates you from your competitors. Not only does this lead to a website that does not convert, it will set you at a serious disadvantage in your SEO strategy.

Why this matters (and is my #1 criterion)

The web is crowded. In almost every niche there are hundreds of competitors all vying for the top spot on Google. With so much content available and only 10 spots on page 1, SEO is a highly competitive channel.

Again, nothing new. We all know this.

Succeeding at SEO requires so much more than a brain dump of 1,000 keywords from an SEO tool - it requires knowing which keywords are the right ones to target, and you will only know that if you know who your target market is, their pinpoints, challenges, and what they are looking for in a solution.

To rank, you need a rock-solid idea of your target customer, their problems, and how you differentiate from the other search results already out there.

As they say, marketing to everyone is marketing to no one. To rank, you need a solid foundation of who you are trying to reach and create content with them specifically in mind. You can’t do that without clear personas and a decent idea of why they would buy your product.

SEO is not for you if you have no time to create content (or resources to outsource it)

This is a biggie, but it’s becoming less so thanks to AI-writing tools (I’m not against them, but they do need babysitting).

I most often see this with solopreneurs or teams that do not have a full-time marketer or someone to split time to think about marketing. Usually, this busy business owner is running from fire to fire while letting SEO (among other things) fall to the wayside.

Much like a gym subscription, SEO gets you nowhere unless you put effort into it. You cannot improve your rank and build traffic by neglecting SEO. It’s not a “set it and forget it” channel (though SEO does compound over time), so if you do not have time to create content or the resources to outsource content, then SEO is not for you.

While you do not need to create content every day (I’ve seen great results with as little as 2 content pieces per month), you do need to consistently create content and invest in your website. I’ve had to turn down some great clients in the past because I could see early on that they did not have the time necessary to invest in SEO. They were better served by other channels, and I was happy to see them be successful in trying something else.

So who is SEO for?

So you made it here!

I spent a fair chunk of this article dissuading you from SEO, if you still think SEO might be the channel for you, ask yourself the following. Do you have:

• Time to invest in it
• A solid idea of who they are targeting
• A good idea of the problems their product solves
• The runway to invest in a channel that will take a bit of time to develop

If you answer “yes” to any of these, then SEO is probably a good channel for you. If it is not, then I would prioritize:

• Customer discovery
• Cold or social outreach (to get your early adopters)
• Market research
• Run a few (low-cost) ad campaigns to test out your website and content
• Set aside funds to hire a part-time marketer (or time to do it yourself)

Still sure that SEO is for you? I'd love to chat. If I haven't convinced you to drop SEO as a channel, I can see how to point you in the right direction to make the most of it.