Stop arguing about whether SEO is dead and start thinking about Internet Visibility
There's quite a lot of discourse on the internet at the moment around whether SEO is dying and how you should pivot to AI chat optimisation. This whole debate is missing the point entirely.
There's quite a lot of discourse on the internet at the moment around how Google is dead, SEO is dying, and you should pivot to showing up in AI Chat tools instead.
I’m not an SEO expert. I'm not here to argue whether SEO is dead (it's probably not) or whether you should optimise for ChatGPT (you probably should). But while everyone's obsessed with replacing one channel with another, the real issue here is that this whole debate is missing the point entirely.
Your startup is probably invisible online. Not because your product sucks, but because you're thinking too channel-specifically – "what's our SEO strategy, what's our Paid Search strategy" – instead of focusing on showing up where your customers are actually looking.
Consumer purchase journeys are far more nuanced than ever before, which actually gives startups a massive opportunity. You don't need to outrank established players or outbid them - you can show up everywhere else instead.
Marketing is hard (says it on the tin) but strategy isn't really. When someone enters market and starts looking for solutions, how well are you showing up where they're looking? Build your strategy around that challenge. If you can do that well, you'll be off to the races.
So please allow me to introduce you to my patent pending search strategy I like to call Internet Visibility™
Show up where people actually research
I'm going on sabbatical soon and as an extremely inexperienced hiker (never quite got the hype, you're just… walking?) I suddenly need things like waterproof clothing. My purchase journey was all over the place but actually fairly typical of modern product discovery.
I asked friends, interrogated ChatGPT, dug through Reddit threads, read more TrustPilot reviews than I care to remember, devoured NYT Wirecutter listicles, watched YouTube videos, compared websites endlessly. And through this chaos, I was shocked at how many brands had amazing social presences but almost zero internet presence. They're nowhere when I'm actually looking to buy. These brands have to get serious.
This is the messy reality of how people research now. Purchase journeys aren't linear. What matters isn't ranking #1 for "best hiking pants" (good luck with that), it’s showing up across all the places people actually look when they're in buying mode.
How we think about this at Yonder
At Yonder, I made a conscious decision early on to skip traditional SEO entirely. The credit card space is completely dominated by comparison sites like Money Saving Expert. Trying to take them on would be a very funny and frankly frightening mismatch.
Instead, we focused on what I call "Internet Visibility" - showing up everywhere our customers actually research.
Earned media through awards and business news worked great for domain authority and early adopters, but mass market customers don't read TechCrunch. They read Money Saving Expert, search on YouTube, dig in forums, and ask ChatGPT "what's the best rewards credit card."
So we pivoted to where they actually are: featuring on comparison sites, paid PR campaigns with mainstream publications like The Independent and Money.co.uk, maintaining tight control over our Trustpilot and online reputation, and now specifically building for GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) to rank in ChatGPT and Claude responses.
Your Internet Visibility™ Playbook
Here's exactly how to build your Internet Visibility strategy and stop picking expensive fights on Google with brands that are a million times bigger than you:
Affiliates and paid reviews
The internet is a broken hellhole of paid content masquerading as authentic reviews. You can either abstain in protest or lean in. I recommend leaning in.
If your industry has them, then comparison sites like Finder and Money Saving Expert are also an important part of how your brand is discovered online. They hoover up all the search volume and drive that traffic to their listicles. You can either compete on the search or just show up where they send the traffic. I promise you the latter is easier.
Modern PR isn't what it used to be either. Most "honest reviews" are paid now. Get over it and get involved. Your goal is showing up in third-party listicles ("Top 10 Best Waterproof Hiking Pants") and standalone reviews ("We tried X and here's what happened").
No one does anything on the internet for free anymore. Stop making such a fuss about it. More on that here:
YouTube reviews
YouTube is often seen as a social media platform, but it’s actually the world’s second-biggest search engine. People scroll Instagram, but they search YouTube. It has a big impact on your strategy for each, so maybe read that bit again.
Find channels in your space by searching for the results you want to appear in, then contact creators that fit the bill. Yes, you guessed it. You’ll have to pay them.
Most creators will work on either a flat fee for a dedicated video or sometimes on performance terms if your product has strong conversion potential. The key is finding channels that your customers actually watch when they're researching - not just the biggest ones. A smaller creator with an engaged audience in your niche often outperforms generic review channels.
TrustPilot and other review platforms
TrustPilot might be the most toxic thing on the internet by holding your brand hostage and making you pay to maintain your own reputation. What a business model (genuinely impressive, wish I built it).
But it's non-negotiable. Your customers will definitely read reviews, so you need to be religiously maintaining your TrustPilot presence. Ask happy customers for reviews, respond thoughtfully to unhappy ones. Anything above 4.5 over time is great. Anything less than a 4-star rating starts to have a meaningful impact on your conversion.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
There are tools emerging that are the "Ahrefs of GEO" that show you how often your brand is showing in related searches in ChatGPT, Perplexity etc. Do your research and try them out. The strategy is similar to traditional SEO, but earned media and your own comparison pages perform much better.
I wrote a simple comparison page on our Yonder website pitting us against competitors, and it started driving ChatGPT visibility within days. The content was straightforward - "How Yonder compares to other rewards credit cards" with honest pros and cons. Here's the beautiful part: ChatGPT doesn't care if you're marking your own homework. If your content is genuinely helpful and well-structured, it can rank.
Traditional SEO and Paid Search
SEO works brilliantly, if you're not competing with massive established players. If you're in a less competitive space and have 6-12 months to see results, it's still valuable. But for most startups fighting comparison sites and big brands? Your time and money are better spent elsewhere.
The good news is that some of your SEO strategy will naturally help with your GEO anyway.
Same goes for Paid Search. If you can afford it and make the economics work, it's still got huge value when people are actively searching. Just don't make this your only play for visibility online, you'll eventually be drowned out by brands who can afford to overpay just to stop you showing up there.
Earned Media and PR
Some corners of the internet still offer free coverage, but it's getting harder for small brands nobody cares about yet. Push your founders for speaking opportunities, win industry awards for design or service, maybe pull off a PR stunt if you're feeling brave.
Don't spend more than 10% of your time on this - it's rare that it moves the needle significantly for early-stage companies. It’s easier to just pay for the coverage.
If you can only do three things
Feature on as many affiliate/creator pages as possible - whether that's YouTube, blogs, or industry publications
Get your brand review house in order - TrustPilot, Google Reviews, whatever matters in your industry
Start building for GEO - coupled with the above, create helpful comparison content that ranks in AI chat responses
Everything else can wait until you've got these working.
Getting found online is bigger than any single channel
Whether SEO is dying isn't actually the question. Whether you should pivot to AI chat optimisation isn't either.
The real question is: where are your customers when they're ready to buy, and are you showing up there?
Your customers are already researching across multiple channels, asking ChatGPT questions, reading Reddit threads, and checking TrustPilot before they even visit your website.
Internet Visibility isn't about replacing SEO with something else. It's about accepting that getting found online is bigger than any single channel and requires showing up everywhere your customers actually look.
While I’ve got you…
Do you also think Marketing is Hard!?
I sure do. If you're a senior marketer at a startup, this Substack is for you. I write about what actually works in startup marketing (and when I try it and fail, what definitely doesn't) for marketers on the verge of breakdown.
About me
I’ve launched products at some of the UK’s most loved consumer brands and been the founding marketer and now VP Marketing at Yonder, a modern day rewards card. Since starting Yonder, I’ve written about all my marketing learnings along the way.
Stay in touch
You can also find me on LinkedIn congratulating my mates on their new jobs, trolling Forbes articles about billionaires, and occasionally sharing something useful when absolutely forced to.
Work with me
I do some 1:1 consulting from time to time (I already work too much) where my speciality is helping you understand why your brilliant product isn't selling itself. Contact me on LinkedIn if you're into that sort of thing.
Who are you?
While I’ve got you, I’d love to learn more about who reads this so I can write more useful stuff. I know you ask your customers to take surveys, so one won’t hurt you. Thanks in advance.
Tell your mates
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Great shout! totally agree we (marketers) often think channel first rather than customer first. Much more importantly where are you going hiking?