AI Didn’t Kill SEO It Raised the Bar

For the first time ever, Google searches in Safari dropped. It’s a small data point — but a big turning point.

This isn’t just about AI eating search. It’s about a fundamental rewiring of how people discover, decide, and engage. Prompts are replacing queries. Answers are replacing lists. And the behaviours we’ve relied on: clicks, backlinks, crawlability are eroding.

Many are reading this as the death of SEO. I see something else: a test.

Because every time the internet changes, we panic. Then we evolve. Remember when link farms were going to kill search? They didn’t. They made it better. More discerning. More human. They forced us to level up.

And here we are again.

The tools have changed, but the creative requirement has not. What rises to the top isn’t what’s most programmatic. What rises is what’s most powerful.

The most imaginative, most undeniable, most useful experiences will always outperform noise. Not because of keywords, but because of resonance.

That’s the insight. And that’s the shift

We are moving from optimisation to originality. From gaming systems to designing systems worth engaging with. From waiting for the next AI-powered SEO playbook to writing the future ourselves.

And yes, that requires risk.

Right now, I’m hiring for disciplines that don’t have scopes yet. Investing in capabilities clients don’t fully understand, and won’t budget for (yet). Why? Because that’s what creative leadership looks like. That’s how we stay ahead of the curve instead of chasing it.

If people aren’t coming to your brand, your site, your world, somewhere someone didn’t do their job. A bounce rate isn’t a number. It’s a red flag.

This is the moment. Do better. Make better. Try harder.

Because the next internet isn’t waiting for us. And it won’t be won by the cautious.

This piece came from Laurel's participation in a Group Chat on ON_Discourse