SEO is NOT Dead!

| billie@innov8gd.com

Why this Article exists

In recent conversations and market research I've been carrying out, 100% of the people I've spoken to have been stung in some way by so-called SEO services – spending money without really understanding what was done, or what benefit they got from it. That's something I find genuinely frustrating, because it doesn't have to be that way.

Add to that a bold statement made at a recent event – "SEO is dead" – and I knew it was time to put some clarity out there. Because it isn't. Not even slightly.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is simply the practice of including content on your website that has the potential to improve its visibility to search engines and the people using them. At its most basic, it's about matching what your ideal customer is searching for, so that you become the answer to their question.

It's free to appear in organic search results. The reason search engines exist at all is because Google wants everyone to get a successful result – the more successful the search, the more people use it. That's why this matters.

This is a fun sketch of stick people representing everybody in life.

The timeline: where it all started

To understand where we are now, it helps to look at where this all came from.

About 25 years ago, when I started working with websites in a charity marketing department, accessibility was absolutely central to everything we did. We needed every person who needed our services to be able to access the information online – and that meant understanding speech readers.

A speech reader (or screen reader) is software within a browser that crawls through all the code on a website and reads it aloud to the user. It was designed for people with visual impairments – but its relevance goes much further than that.

Here is where the key connection lies: search engines use exactly the same technology as speech readers. They both crawl through the code of every page on the internet, pulling out information – text, images, links – to understand what a page is about. The opportunities that exist for accessibility are a direct correlation with the opportunities for SEO. This is the foundation I have always built on, and it's why I've never struggled with SEO in the way many people do.

The statistics back it up:

  • 5.25 billion of the world's 7.9 billion population use the internet frequently
  • 2.2 billion people globally have vision impairments that may require a screen reader – that is 42% of internet users
  • Over 97% of the world's top 1 million websites do not offer full accessibility

It's not a niche issue. It's a business case.

The evolution of how we search

The way people search has changed over time – but the fundamental mechanics haven't.

  • Ask Jeeves launched in 1997, and for the first time encouraged us to ask a question rather than just type keywords.
  • Google launched in 1998, initially used for keyword searches.
  • YouTube arrived in 2005 – we began searching for answers in video form, using natural, conversational language.
  • Over the last 6–10 years, blog pages have consistently ranked higher than service pages, because people now search in long-form questions and blog content tends to answer those directly.

The pattern throughout all of this is consistent: someone searches for something, and the search engine finds the best match. How we search has evolved. The system itself hasn't.

Where AI fits in

AI in search is the latest step in that same evolution. AI can now interpret what we're looking for and present a summary answer rather than just a list of results. But here's the important bit: it still has to crawl your website to do that. The technology is the same. The principles are the same.

AI search results also include citation links – so you can still be the answer to someone's question, and your website can still be the source that's credited.

What AI is looking for, on behalf of your ideal customer:

  • Concise, human-centric answers to the questions being asked
  • Content that speaks the language your customers actually use
  • Validations – awards, accreditations, links from reputable organisations in your field
  • Consistency of keywords across every opportunity on your website

There is no need to panic. What you need to do is evolve alongside your users.

Practical things you can do right now

Images

Every image on your website is an opportunity. Both the file name and the alt text matter.

File naming: rename images with descriptive keywords separated by hyphens before uploading – for example: billie-sharp-speaking-inclusive-optimisation-ladies-who-latte-2025. This is read by search engines.

Alt text: describe the image using who, what, and where – for example: "Billie Sharp speaking to an audience about Inclusive Optimisation at a Ladies Who Latte event in 2025." This is read by speech readers and search bots.

Metadata tagging: Adobe Bridge (free) lets you add tags that travel with your image wherever it goes on the internet – protecting your work and increasing findability.

Links and buttons

Anchor text doesn't need to be a full sentence – a short, clear call to action works well. Use the title tag on each link to give context about where it goes. This is read by search bots and – in Chrome – appears when you hover over a link. The same applies to your heading hierarchy (H1, H2s): get this right in the code and you support both human readability and search bot understanding.

FAQ pages

One of the best things you can do for AI search visibility. Answer each question directly and concisely first (so AI has a sharp response to pull), then expand into the full context. Spread three relevant questions across each page of your site rather than keeping them all in one place – this brings those keywords onto every page.

Content that speaks to your customer

Rather than listing your services and years of experience, write content that gets into the conversation your ideal customer is already having in their head. When they land on your page and see themselves reflected in your words, they feel you're speaking directly to them – and that is exactly what AI is looking for too.

Google Alerts

Set up alerts for your business names, key topics, and relevant hashtags. You'll be notified whenever those terms appear online – so you can join conversations and stay visible on topics that matter to your audience.

Hashtags

Not dead. If people are searching for certain terms and hashtags will help them find your content, use them. Just don't let them interrupt the readability of your writing for the human reader. On LinkedIn, search hashtags in your field to find conversations already happening – contributing thoughtfully is a great way to build your profile.

Image licensing check

When searching for images on Google, go to Images ▸ Tools ▸ Usage Rights to check whether an image is licensed for commercial use. Images can carry invisible metadata tags tracing them back to their original owner – always check before using someone else's imagery. (Thanks Alan!)

The bigger picture

Everything we covered comes back to one thing: the human. The search engines and AI are tools that exist to help the human find the answer to their question. When you build your website with that human at the centre – speaking their language, answering their questions, making the experience as easy and clear as possible – you are doing SEO. You always were.

The concrete is basic, but without it the building falls down. These foundations are what everything else rests on.

 

What next?

If you have questions that came up while reading this – please do reach out. I genuinely love talking about this stuff.

I will be hosting this webinar again for anyone that wasn’t able to attend the last one and for those that want to share it with someone else too. The registration link is here: [https://inclusive-optimization.com/io-live-webinar-opt-in-page?utm_io-live-webinar-reg=live-webinar-registration]

Kind regards
Billie 💛