The Vicious Cycle of SEO - How We Got Here & Where We’re Going - OMR.pdf

Lily Ray explores the vicious cycle of SEO, and how SEOs can future-proof their marketing.

1. HOW WE GOT HERE,
WHERE WE ARE GOING,
& WHAT MATTERS NOW
The Cycles of SEO
By Lily Ray

2. VP, SEO Strategy & Research

3. 2025 marks my 15th year of
doing SEO

4. If there is one thing
you learn after 15
years working in
SEO…

5. SEO finds tactic for driving
organic search traffic
Shares tactics publicly,
competitors reverse-
engineer & duplicate
(‘SEO Gold Rush’)
Google develops
algorithms to counter
spam
Once-successful SEO
approaches demoted,
penalized, or treated
as spam
SEOs look for next
opportunity
The cycle
of SEO

6. But tactics to gain SEO visibility
often result in a poor experience
for searchers

7. How SEOs see
their projects
How Google sees
SEOs’ projects

8. If you want to know
how Google feels
about spam, watch
this 2019 video:

9. “Spam is one of the
biggest problems that
we face.”

10. “Fighting spam is a cat
& mouse game.”

11. “This is a war we are
fighting.
It’s not something I
think will ever be
solvable.”

12. “But my content is
high quality”
- Every SEO ever

13. THE RULES CONTINUOUSLY CHANGE.
THE DEFINITION OF SPAM EVOLVES.

14. SEO CYCLES OF THE PAST
✴Keyword stuffing, doorway pages,
cloaking, exact match domains
✴Link buying, blogroll & footer links,
spammy anchor text, private blog
networks (PBNs)
✴Ranking on‘Your Money, Your Life’
topics without expertise or
authority
Medic Update& core updates
Penguin & Link Spam updates
Florida & Panda updates

15. MORE RECENTLY:
THE GREAT AICONTENT FLOOD
(2022 onward)

16. AI content boom
Explosion of AI Content

17. ✴Quotes
✴Jokes
✴Riddles
✴Angel numbers
✴Horoscopes
✴Celebrity net worth
✴Most beautiful women
High volume + low effort
scaled SEO content
opportunities

18. Scaling SEO content with little effort and no original insights…
Is what Google means by
"content written for search engines."

19. ✴Publishing 3rd party content on a
high-authority website to boost your
rankings
‘Parasite SEO'
abounds

20. Types of Parasite SEO
Parasite
SEO
USER GENERATED
CONTENT
Reddit, Quora
Medium, LinkedIn
Pulse
HubPages Outlook India Jerusalem PostDiscover Magazine
Fake, AI-
generated
authors
Betting & casino
content on news
sites
Partnerships
w/undisclosed
content providers
Freelancers
publishing affiliate
content across
various sites
Coupon companies
SPONSORED
GUEST POSTS
3
RD
PARTY
PARTNERSHIPS

21. It felt like “SEO content” was everywhere.
But real searchers weren’t so excited.

23. GOOGLE ISSUES A
WARNING IN LATE 2024…

24. THE GREAT SEO
CRACKDOWN
(2023-2025)

25. Helpful Content Update
Little to no recoveries among thousands of affected niche sites
(SEPT 2023)
Before massive decline
✴Algorithmically targeted small niche blogs & publishers

26. ✴The biggest core update in Google’s history (45 days)
✴Reduced “unhelpful” content by 45%
March 2024 Core
& Spam Update

27. Core & Spam Updates: targets content written for search engines.
Even big brands known for “great SEO” are impacted.

28. ORGANIC TRAFFIC
VS.
ORGANIC PAGES
Crackdown on sites that scale low-quality content
(SCALED CONTENT ABUSE)

29. Recent full site ‘pure spam’ manual action
The site was growing until
it began publishing
thousands of off-topic
articles on too many
irrelevant topics, such as:
✴Happy Birthday Wishes
✴The Most Beautiful Women In
The World
✴Instagram Usernames for Girls
& Boys”

30. Parasite
SEO
USER GENERATED
CONTENT
Reddit, Quora
Medium, LinkedIn
Pulse
HubPages Outlook India Jerusalem PostDiscover Magazine
Fake, AI-
generated
authors
Betting & casino
content on news
sites
Partnerships
w/undisclosed
content providers
Freelancers
publishing affiliate
content across
various sites
Coupon companies
SPONSORED
GUEST POSTS
3
RD
PARTY
PARTNERSHIPS
Google responds to 'parasite SEO' with Site Reputation Abuse

31. WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?

32. 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
AI
CONTENTPBNS
ARTICLE
SPINNING
FOR EVERY SEO OPPORTUNITY OVER THE YEARS…

33. 2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
AI
CONTENTPBNS
ARTICLE
SPINNING
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020 2025
GOOGLE HAS PATCHED IT UP AS AN EXPLOIT
Panda Updates Penguin Updates Helpful Content Update
Reviews Update
Core Updates
Spam Updates
Site reputation abuse
Scaled content abuse

34. MEANWHILE,
GOOGLE
REVEALS
AI OVERVIEWS &
AI MODE

35. WITH AI OVERVIEWS, ORGANIC CLICK-
THROUGH-RATES ARE DECLINING FAST…

36. Is the opportunity all gone?
MANY SEOS ARE
WONDERING…

37. BUT THIS
REQUIRES
A SHIFT IN
MINDSET

38. YOU CAN DO GREAT
SEO WITHOUT BEING
STUCK IN THE CAT &
MOUSE TRAP

39. New tools for measuring LLM & AIO visibility

40. The importance of tracking LLM traffic
To understand which LLMs users use to find you & track their on-site experience

41. Many sites are seeing higher
conversion rates from LLM traffic

42. SEO IS NO LONGER JUST ABOUT
RANKINGS & TRAFFIC…
Monitor brand visibility & sentiment within various LLMs

43. Google AI Overview Monitoring with ZipTie

44. Analyze ‘Scroll to Text’ highlighting within AIO responses

45. Based on subtopics and
individual products and
services
Monitoring
sentiment within
LLM responses

46. New ways to monitor accuracy of
generated answers within LLMs

47. Controlling the narrative
Ensuring your website & branded assets contain up-to-date, accurate information

48. MONITOR HIGHLY CITED SITES WITHIN LLMS

49. Use regular expressions to filter by question queries
in Google Search Console
✴Surfaces potential AIO queries (cross-reference with AIO tracking tools)
✴Use to get ahead of common questions with FAQ and Q&A on your site

50. Maintain Q&A on personal/brand website

51. Watch out for “pronoun
resolution failure”
Easy fix: add more clear language

52. Guiding questions in interviews & podcasts
Podcasts & video transcripts can be cited in LLMs – optimize questions & responses
Answer pulled from
podcast interviews

53. Look toward the winners
who have thrived in
recent years.
*Sistrix VI data:
Jan 2023 – March 2025
SEO IS NOT ALL
DOOM AND
GLOOM.

54. SEO WINNERS BETWEEN 2023 – 2025 (SISTRIX)
Health & Medical AuthoritiesUser Generated Content & Social E-commerce & Marketplaces
SaaS, Tech & SoftwareMedia & Entertainment Travel, Hotels & Real Estate
Marketplaces

55. Strong E-E-A-T
for YMYL topics
Direct providers of
products & services
User-generated content, real
world experience & authentic
reviews
Brand awareness &
navigational searches
COMMON TRAITS AMONG WINNING SITES:

56. What about affiliate sites?
31K keywords in positions 1-3 (Ahrefs)2.2K keywords in Google AI Overviews
FITNESS REVIEW SITE
Reviewed by professional trainers
Original photography
Robust review methodology
Videos of review process
First-person opinions & insights

57. THERE IS STILL A LONG LIST
OF APPROACHES THAT
SEARCH ENGINES
CAN NEVER TAKE AWAY FROM US

58. Original data, opinions
& research

59. Original research & surveys
Article Title Total Ranking KeywordsMonthly Organic TrafficReferring domainsLinks to target
Happiest Cities in America in 2025 9,288 2,780 1,203 8,825
States With the Best & Worst School Systems in 2025 4,849 9,414 1,140 2,926
States with the Highest & Lowest Tax Rates 3,392 516 760 2,347
Best- & Worst-Run Cities in America (2025) 2,326 307 876 2,046
Best Places to Shop on Black Friday (2025) 1,560 1,296 775 1,875
Tax Burden by State in 2025 1,255 2,705 1,638 4,174
Property Taxes by State in 2025 1,208 3,172 1,317 2,817
Best States to Live In (2025) 1,100 10,256 961 2,320
Safest Cities in America in 2025 1,059 1,010 1,112 3,016
Most & Least Educated States in America in 2025 976 3,793 808 2,264
Happiest States in America in 2025 953 4,007 964 2,282
College & University Rankings in 2025 785 114 677 2,221
Best Small Cities in America in 2025 754 1,182 742 2,841
Best States to Retire in 2025 690 4,406 1,017 3,350
Wallthub surveys, Ahrefs data

60. ORIGINAL RESEARCH IN LLM CITATIONS

61. ORIGINAL
CONTENT
LONG
& SHORT
VIDEOS(REELS)
PODCASTS &
INTERVIEWS
REDDIT & FORUM
CONTRIBUTIONS
VISUAL REFERENCES
&
INFOGRAPHICS
CONFERENCE
PRESENTATIONS
& SLIDE DECKS
SOCIAL MEDIA
POSTS
& OPINION PIECES
ON UGC SITES
Repurposing & Reformatting Original Content

62. AS AN EXAMPLE…

63. I conducted a survey about historical SEO tactics with 160 respondents
& SPOKE TO SOME INDUSTRY VETERANS

64. Leveraged AI to map
survey responses into
different historical
periods of SEO

65. Created infographic of 7 historical SEO eras

66. REPURPOSED SURVEY RESPONSES
INTO LONG & SHORT VIDEOS...

67. Showed up in LLMs
within 2 days

68. HAVING A STRONG PERSONAL
BRAND & AUTHENTIC SOCIAL
MEDIA PRESENCE

69. Become a
recognized &
trusted entity in
Google’s
Knowledge
Graph

70. Appear everywhere & post often
“Build on rented land” – Rand Fishkin

71. SEO winners: social media sites

72. “What people are saying”&
power of video content

73. Social posts heavily cited in LLMS

74. LinkedIn Pulse + E-E-A-T & a Strong Social Following
AI Overviews
Featured Snippet &
top rankings
AI Mode
Earned top rankings & LLM mentions within 6 hours

75. TAKEAWAYS

76. DON’T GET STUCK IN THE CAT AND MOUSE
GAME. YOU’LL EVENTUALLY GET CAUGHT.

77. INVEST IN ORIGINAL RESEARCH,
COMMUNITY BUILDING, AUTHENTICITY
AND THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

78. STRONG PERSONAL BRANDING +
SOCIAL MEDIA GENERATES
SIGNIFICANT LLM VISIBILITY

79. FOCUS ON THE THINGS
SEARCH ENGINES CAN NEVER
TAKE AWAY FROM US

80. THANK YOU