A Love Letter to C-Suites Still Chasing 2013
By Lea Scudamore, Awarded SEO Expert, Aimclear’s Director of SEO
Dear C-suite, Boardroom, and That-One-Stakeholder-Who-Just-Googled-Themselves,
We need to talk. No, not about the fonts on your homepage (but yes, we see them). We need to talk about traffic—specifically, the kind you’re still obsessed with in a 2013-kind-of-way. Those of you watching your GA dashboard with a venti Starbucks and a dream.
Here’s the truth:
- Organic search traffic is going away.
- It has been for years.
- You just didn’t want to believe it.
And now that we’re standing in a post-March 2025 core update world, I think it’s time we all take a deep breath, pour a glass of reality, and say it together:
“Traffic isn’t the thing anymore.”
Wait… What?! But We Need More Visitors!
I know, I know. The KPIs on your slide deck still say, “Increase Organic Sessions by 27.45% YoY.” And every time the CEO types in a keyword and your site isn’t #1, someone Slacks your SEO like it’s DEFCON 1.
Let me hit you with a truth bomb:
Google has been slicing away at organic visibility for over a decade.
Let’s roll tape:
- Panda kicked off the “content must be good” crusade in 2011.
- Penguin came in hot in 2012 and said, “stop buying links, you weasels.”
- Hummingbird (2013) was the first step toward Google understanding people better than their own spouses.
- Mobile-first indexing told your clunky desktop site to get in the 2016 time machine and move on.
- Core updates? Well, they’re the equivalent of Google tossing your SEO efforts into a blender every few months and saying “surprise!”
And let’s not forget:
- Featured Snippets.
- Zero-click searches.
- AI overviews.
- Endless scrolling.
- Google straight-up answering the question before your link even gets a chance to shine.
Organic real estate is shrinking. Traffic is fragmented. And Google? She’s keeping more of it for herself like a jealous ex.
So What Do We Do? Cry Into Our Keyword Reports?
Nah. We’re SEOs. We’re built for change.
(We’ve already cried. In 2016. And 2018. And, ok fine, last month.)
Here’s the deal:
- Stop treating traffic as the only metric that matters. (If you’re a client of mine, you know I have told you, “I’m an SEO who doesn’t care about traffic.”) Gasp. I know, right?
- Start obsessing over visibility, brand signals, and how users interact with the real estate we actually do get.
- Optimize for intent, experience, and conversions—not just clicks.
- Get your brand on platforms off Google. YouTube, Reddit, forums, even Pinterest. If it has a search bar, it’s fair game.
In 2025, SEO isn’t about chasing blue links anymore. It’s about being unmissable wherever your audience hangs out—even if Google isn’t the one sending them.
TL;DR for the Boardroom Crowd:
- Organic traffic ain’t what it used to be.
- Google isn’t “broken.” It’s just not your free lead gen fairy anymore.
- Your SEO isn’t a wizard who can reverse-engineer a Core Update with sheer willpower.
- Evolve your expectations. Modern SEO is about relevance, trust, and brand presence.
- Let your SEOs be strategic, not scapegoats.
- Embrace the 2025 SEO model. It’s more about actually generating revenue than ever before, but you gotta get in the right mindset.
Final Thought (And It’s a Hug)
We get it. Metrics matter. Reports matter. Proving ROI matters.
However, chasing traffic for traffic’s sake is like investing in fax machines because they “used to work really well.” SEO is not dead—it’s just no longer playing by your 2010 rules.
So let’s evolve, together. Or, as I like to say:
Adapt or be invisible.
And if you’re ready to stop chasing ghosts and start owning your digital presence?
You know where to find us.
(Aimclear. Right here. Not in your organic traffic report.)
You can find me and the rest of the Aimclearians at the Zenith Conference on Thursday, April 10th here in Duluth. Discount code ZENITHAPPRECIATION takes $100 off the regular $299 registration fee.
