SEO Builds Trust, Not Just Visibility

Wil Reynolds, founder and CEO of Seer Interactive, is urging the SEO industry to fundamentally rethink what success means in an era dominated by AI-driven search. Speaking at SEO Week in a session titled “SEO is a performance channel, GEO isn’t. How do you pivot?”, Reynolds argued that many marketers are chasing the wrong outcomes, ultimately producing work that lacks credibility.

Marketing isn’t just about being seen

Reynolds began by challenging the notion that visibility is the ultimate goal of marketing. “Marketing was never just to be seen or be visible,” he said. “You had to turn that visibility into something , believing something about your brand… And then they ultimately have to choose you.”

He outlined a clear progression: being seen, being believed, and being chosen. “I got the ranking, job finished,” he said. “Job’s not finished.” He also questioned the value of vanity metrics, noting, “I got a lot more followers, but they don’t pay you.”

Low-quality marketing is everywhere

Reynolds pointed to common tactics like automated outreach as examples of work that fails to create genuine value. “That’s not marketing,” he said, referring to spam-like SMS messages. These practices even made him reflect on his own past efforts. “I started looking at the stuff that I used to do… was that really marketing?” he asked.

The industry is producing ‘zombie content’

Reynolds criticized the widespread use of scaled, templated content designed primarily to rank. He highlighted broad listicle-style pages as a prime example. “Why would you write content saying best restaurants in Minnesota when nobody that’s a human looks for the best restaurant in Minnesota?” he said.

He described this approach as creating “zombie content,” where marketers simply replicate what’s already ranking. “I’m going to look at the top 10 and look at what they did slightly wrong… and I’m only going to do it slightly better,” he explained.

Short-term tactics vs. long-term brand building

Reynolds drew a sharp contrast between short-term SEO tactics and long-term brand building. “Some people like to win in decades,” he said. “Other people like to win quarter to quarter.” He described teams focused on immediate results, asking, “What works this quarter to get my boss off my back long enough so I can survive the next quarter?”

That mindset, he argued, leads to work that nobody truly wants. “You will never produce a thing that anyone wants if you continue to play that,” Reynolds said.

SEO success doesn’t translate to AI visibility

Reynolds shared a revealing example involving “ethical jeans” to illustrate how SEO and AI results can diverge. One brand ranked well in Google without being known for ethical practices, while another brand that invested heavily in ethical production ranked much lower.

In AI-generated answers, the outcome flipped. “If that worked, if it was the same, that brand would be showing up in AI models,” he said. “And they showed up in none.” He connected this directly to credibility. “Nobody believed them,” Reynolds said. “Nobody chose them.”

Visibility without belief doesn’t lead to outcomes

Visibility alone is insufficient, Reynolds emphasized. “If you have all the visibility in the world and people don’t believe you or trust you, then you’re not going to get chosen,” he said. He framed visibility as just an opportunity. “This visibility is just an opportunity,” Reynolds said. “That’s all it is.”

What people say matters

Reynolds suggested turning to platforms like Reddit to understand how people actually talk about brands. “Go to Reddit… look at all the brands,” he said. “You find out that humans don’t believe you.” He contrasted that with how brands present themselves in polished content. “Not only did they not think you’re number one,” Reynolds said, “they don’t think you’re number 100.”

The wrong metrics are being measured

Reynolds said marketers often focus on easy-to-track metrics rather than meaningful ones. “We’re measuring the easy stuff to measure,” he said. “The real work is in the hard-to-measure stuff.” He encouraged comparing visibility metrics with outcome-driven signals. “If your visibility is skyrocketing and your pipeline is flat, that’s bad,” Reynolds said.

Watching real users changes the picture

Reynolds described research his team conducted by observing real people using AI tools. “When you actually watch people do the job… your eyes open so much wider,” he said. He noted how differently people approach the same task, including large variations in prompt length and structure.

Start with your brand

Marketers should focus on how their brand appears in AI-generated answers, especially for branded queries, Reynolds said. “You spend all this money trying to get people to know your brand… and then you don’t want to make sure that answer’s right?” he asked.

AI can shape your brand narrative

Reynolds shared an example where AI-generated responses surfaced incorrect information about his own company. “So now it’s showing up everywhere,” he said. He responded by publishing content to directly address the false claim. “If it’s false, then I’ve got to fight that,” Reynolds said.

There is too much content

Reynolds said the sheer volume of content being produced is part of the problem. “There’s too much content out there,” he said. He described shifting his own approach. “I’m trying to become a curator,” Reynolds said.

Rethinking performance

Reynolds shared data showing how different traffic sources perform. “My direct converts 1.5 times better than my SEO,” he said. “My social, five times better.”

A final question for marketers

Reynolds ended by asking marketers to reconsider their priorities. “Are you willing to sacrifice a little bit of this visibility game to be more believable?” he said.