How Google’s Algorithm Updates Have Forced a Fundamental Shift from Technical Optimization to Real-World Business Building
Search Engine Optimization has undergone a seismic transformation. After decades of focusing on technical tricks, keyword density, and link manipulation, Google’s algorithm updates have fundamentally changed the game. Today’s successful SEO strategies mirror traditional business development more than they resemble the tactical optimizations of the past.
Through conversations with leading SEO professionals—Cyrus Shepherd of Zippy SEO, Garrett Sussman of iPullRank, and Jesse Ringer of Method and Metric—a clear picture emerges: the future belongs to brands that build genuine authority, create meaningful connections, and demonstrate real-world expertise.
The Death of “SEO Content” and the Rise of Brand Signals
Google’s War on Content Created for Search Engines
The most jarring shift came with Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU), which explicitly targeted content “created for search engines instead of people.” In March of 2024, Google incorporated what was previously the Helpful Content ranking system into its core ranking systems, and now uses a variety of signals to determine overall website helpfulness.
Cyrus Shepherd witnessed this transformation firsthand:
“Google saying they don’t want to reward SEO content. They want to people-focused content. That’s good and fine, but what do they mean by that? So we’ve been looking at things around over optimization, doing things that only SEOs do.”
His comprehensive research into Google’s disavow tool and 50-site case study on Google updates revealed patterns that challenged traditional SEO thinking.
The implications were immediate and devastating for many publishers. As Garrett Sussman observed:
“The conversations I have with our clients, like they’re like, well, what’s the point of writing blog content now? You know, what’s the point of creating new information to put on our website if Google is just going to take it or conversely like all the AI content out there, like our content won’t even rank.”
Sussman’s team at iPullRank, which has helped generate over $4 billion in organic search results, witnessed this transformation across enterprise clients as Google’s algorithm updates became increasingly aggressive.
The Brand Authority Revolution
Perhaps the most significant discovery was the correlation between brand signals and search performance. Cyrus Shepherd’s research revealed staggering differences between winners and losers:
“The top 1% sites that have never lost a Google update had on average 20% branded anchor text from different domains. The bottom 1% had on average 2%. And it was correlated ridiculously high, above 50%, which is not even real in the SEO world.”
This data, documented in his internal linking case study analyzing 23 million internal links across 1,800 websites, represents a fundamental shift in how Google evaluates content quality and trustworthiness. The implications for link building strategies are profound.
Beyond Keywords: The New SEO Fundamentals
From Keyword Optimization to Human Connection
The traditional SEO approach of targeting specific keywords has given way to something more nuanced. Jesse Ringer explained the transformation:
“SEO for a long time was just kind of keywords and that. And now it’s like, it’s all of it. It’s the brand entity. It’s that brand experience. You know, people are searching on a variety of things, not just Google, you know, and that’s a real thing that we have to not battle against, but consider it.”
This shift requires a more sophisticated approach to keyword research and forecasting, moving beyond simple volume metrics to understand the full customer journey.
The Practical Impact of Over-Optimization
One of the most counterintuitive discoveries was that traditional SEO “best practices” were now working against sites. Cyrus Shepherd found:
“Sites that are doing those things really hard are seeing higher declines than sites that are just, you know, publishing content where the title tag matches the H1 on the page and, you know, doesn’t have as many internal links.”
This phenomenon, explored in depth in technical SEO discussions, led to a radical new strategy:
“Probably one of our most effective strategies of recovering sites that have been hit by HTU and other updates is de-optimizing and removing internal links, making our title tags much more boring, making sure our titles match our H1s.”
The Real-World Business Integration
Moving Beyond Digital-Only Strategies
The most successful SEO strategies integrate real-world business activities. Jeremy Rivera described implementing community cleanup events that generated both brand recognition and high-quality backlinks:
“I’ve been doing community cleanups in physical locations like I’ve got one going on in San Diego coming up. I did one in Sarasota… you get the event aggregators, the event aggregators then show up on local news sites. So there’s a rich ecosystem of backlinks and you get physical bodies out to participate in the event.”
This approach represents a return to authentic business building practices that create genuine value in local communities while building digital authority.
The Death of the Content Farm Model
The business model of creating content primarily for search traffic faced an existential crisis. Jesse Ringer captured the fundamental problem:
“It doesn’t even feel like the businesses that have created all this content, know, all of the information that is in Google search results now, have any recognition to their work, to their ideas that have been created.”
Garrett Sussman identified the core issue with traditional content marketing:
“More and more informational searches commodified. It’s like, you see the same 10 brands saying the same exact thing. It’s like, who goes back to earlier on our conversation, who is like the best version of that if you’re basically saying the same thing every time.”
The Human-First Content Revolution
E-E-A-T in Practice
Websites in high-authority industries (healthcare and finance) faced increased scrutiny to ensure accuracy, trustworthiness, and compliance with E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) principles.
The successful implementation of E-E-A-T went far beyond adding author bios and schema markup. Cyrus Shepherd explained:
“I love putting the author photo big and center on every page just so we know who created the content because there actually seems to be some evidence that Google is rewarding that people first content, creator first content, rewarding those signals.”
This approach aligns with broader SEO best practices that emphasize authentic expertise over manufactured authority.
Case Study: The Mattress Review Revolution
The transformation is perhaps best illustrated through Cyrus Shepherd’s example of NapLab, a mattress review site that defied conventional SEO wisdom:
“They violate every rule in the book. They are over-optimized. They have too many internal links. But… if you look at any one of their articles, they review every mattress to a T. They probably have 50 pictures of the mattress. They’re jumping on the mattress. They have videos. They’re doing scientific studies of the thickness. They’re publishing the data on the results. They’re doing things that don’t scale.”
The key insight:
“If you read one or two of their mattress reviews, you know who these guys are. You start to recognize them because they have made themselves the brand. It’s not just about the mattress. They have put themselves into the content.”
The Technical Evolution: De-Optimization as Strategy
The Internal Linking Paradox
One of the most surprising discoveries was that aggressive internal linking—a cornerstone of traditional SEO—was now harmful. Cyrus Shepherd’s team found:
“Looking at sites hit by these updates, they oftentimes have far more internal anchor text variations than regular sites. So our job is to go through and start removing those links… out of the sites that I work with that have seen the most recovery, removing those internal links at the sites that have gone hardest on removing those internal links have seen some of the best results.”
This finding contradicts decades of technical SEO wisdom and forces a complete reconsideration of site architecture strategies.
The New Link Building Philosophy
The approach to link building underwent a complete philosophical shift. Instead of focusing on keyword-rich anchor text, the emphasis moved to brand building:
“We forget the keyword and the content. We want links and mentions that are about you and the site. So we’re going to do the same digital PR. We’re going to do outreach. We’re going to spend that budget, but we’re going to shift it from the keyword and the anchor text to being about you.”
Branded anchor text, which includes the name of the brand in the hyperlink, has been a significant factor in SEO ranking for years. It helps in building brand awareness and credibility, strengthening the association between the brand and its related keywords.
The AI Overlap: Content Quality in the Age of LLMs
The Content Quality Crisis
The proliferation of AI-generated content created a new challenge for both search engines and content creators. Jesse Ringer observed:
“The traditional bell curve of content, you know, where there’s like really bad content, there’s the mediocre content and then great exceptional content. You know, that bell curve has really shifted now that LLMs are like becoming so common that they are learning off of even more mediocre and crappy content.”
Google wants the web pages listed in a search to be read by people, not by search engines. One of the most controversial aspects of the update is that Google signals no longer focus on a single page when evaluating helpful content. This shift has profound implications for content strategy development.
The False Promise of AI Content
While AI tools promised efficiency, they delivered mediocrity at scale. In 2024, Google released its AI-powered summaries in search results: AI Overviews. These are AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of the search results for certain keywords.
The irony wasn’t lost on practitioners. As Garrett Sussman noted:
“There are two things that can be true. Google can be editorial in the results. They can ultimately be choosing what they consider the best content… And the other part is the algorithm can also be broken.”
This perspective, informed by iPullRank’s deep analysis of Google’s algorithm leak and internal documentation, reveals the complexity of modern search ranking systems.
International SEO: A Success Story
While many struggled with algorithm changes, some found success by focusing on fundamental business needs. Jesse Ringer shared a particularly compelling example from Method and Metric’s international SEO work:
“We’ve been working with this Portuguese company… being able to really take our technical expertise and help them, you know, make sure that their French content shows up in France, you know, their American content shows up in the States and like their European content is only showing up in Europe.”
The key was solving real business problems:
“They were having issues where European content was showing up in the American results and like hindering their ability to generate meaningful revenue… That part does bring me a lot of joy.”
This approach to technical SEO implementation demonstrates how traditional SEO skills remain valuable when applied to genuine business challenges.
The Measurement Revolution: From Vanity Metrics to Business Impact
The End of Traffic-First Thinking
The traditional focus on traffic and rankings gave way to business-focused metrics. Jesse Ringer explained the shift:
“You know, like to echo that point to like we as SEOs too often got to coast on rankings as a metric and clicks as a metric. And now we kind of have to be like, okay, what is the revenue impact? What is the kind of lead impact? Like how many qualified sales qualified leads are we generating?”
This evolution requires more sophisticated approaches to measuring SEO success and connecting organic search efforts to business outcomes.
Jeremy Rivera captured the broader philosophical change:
“I think SEOs have started to become in the last year, you know, far more brand conscious. I’m guilty of it. I know that at some point, I think it was 2016, my starting process for SEO audits would sound something like, okay, here’s our Google Search Console traffic. We’re going to filter out all of those useless brand clicks so that we can focus and see what we need to grow in SEO.”
That approach is now completely backwards, requiring new frameworks for SEO forecasting.
The Future: Post-Google SEO Strategies
The Rise of Alternative Search Platforms
While Google maintains dominance, the landscape is shifting. In 2024, Google released its AI-powered summaries in search results: AI Overviews… These kinds of features have led to a rise in “zero-click searches.”
Garrett Sussman identified the emerging opportunities:
“For everyone to hold their horses on the market impact because Google still has 90% of market share… but like, it hasn’t happened yet. You know, like people aren’t using that technology as the default for their search in 2024. Now it could be the next six months, a year, it could be five years from now.”
His analysis of the Google antitrust trial and status quo bias provides crucial context for understanding how search behavior might evolve.
The preparation involves understanding how AI search engines work differently:
“What’s interesting about thinking about those is A, we have to take into consideration the two different models… Now you have Perplexly and SearchChat GPT, which actually does connect to the internet using retrieval augmented generation, check for results on the internet, and then integrate that into their answers.”
The Content Strategy Evolution
For AI search optimization, the approach differs fundamentally from traditional SEO:
“What makes it really challenging for SEOs is that the nature of search through AI search channels isn’t going to be the head-level keywords that we’re used to. It’s much more going to be natural language searches which lead to more granular granularity that won’t have the same sort of search volume.”
Jeremy Rivera provided a practical example of how to prepare:
“You can ask these LLM models, okay, what is the best sous chef in Seattle? And once they do say, what sources did you use to determine that? And they’ll tell you, unlike Google. They’ll actually tell you and say, hey, I was referencing this article that I read and this article and from this newspaper.”
Practical Implementation: The New SEO Checklist
Brand Building Over Link Building
The most successful strategies now focus on building genuine brand recognition:
Brand name anchor text is crucial in the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for several reasons. It enhances brand visibility, helps in establishing brand authority, and contributes to a website’s overall link profile quality.
Cyrus Shepherd provided practical guidance:
“You want to look at your branded search. Moz has a great tool, brand authority. You can run like 10 searches a month for free… You want to look at, and you can do this yourself in Google Search Console or whatever tool, what percentage of your inbound traffic is branded and compare that to your competitors.”
Modern SEO professionals need tools that can forecast the revenue impact of brand-building efforts, moving beyond traditional volume-based metrics.
The De-Optimization Strategy
For sites hit by algorithm updates, the counterintuitive approach often worked best:
“If every page of your site has 50 unique anchor texts from every other page, you might be over optimized. We’ve done a lot of work with clients removing internal links. Things like… places like the navigation, the mega menus, things like that, related articles, SEOs like to add at the end of every article, 12 most popular articles, we just wipe them out.”
This approach challenges fundamental assumptions about technical SEO implementation and requires careful analysis of site architecture.
Content Strategy Transformation
The focus shifted from volume to value:
“Start creating helpful content by satisfying search intent. Then use an SEO strategy to get relevant information in front of your audience. The truth is, a lot of people—when they’re playing the SEO game—focus on keywords. Keywords and SEO will help, but it’s really content quality that will help you rank.”
Helpful content puts people before search engines. But it doesn’t mean abandoning your SEO best practices. You still need SEO to improve the chances of searchers finding your material.
The Existential Challenge
The Professional Identity Crisis
The changes forced many SEO professionals to question their fundamental approach. Garrett Sussman captured the existential dilemma:
“I really hate that I keep siding with Google on this, but I think there’s a major challenge for them to try to play this cat and mouse game where they’re trying to incentivize and point SEOs and content creators in a certain direction to improve the results of the internet. Whereas not giving away the secret sauce that would allow people to manipulate it.”
Jeremy Rivera posed the central question facing the industry:
“How do we as SEOs have to step back and say how much of my heart is in the process of creating content with the purpose of getting it to rank?… Because if Google is facing this intractable problem of, well, if people keep intentionally creating content that’s just designed to rank, and we don’t want to rank content that’s just designed to rank, how do we as SEOs continue to exist to optimize for search if we’re not supposed to optimize for search?”
This existential challenge requires new approaches to SEO education and professional development.
The Resolution: Authentic Business Building
The answer emerged through practical experience. Jesse Ringer articulated the new paradigm:
“I think SEO is fantastic… Being able to, it’s not like, okay, get the keywords right, boom, great. It’s like figuring out how do we build a brand… That part does bring me a lot of joy.”
Cyrus Shepherd provided the philosophical framework:
“But even after you de-optimize, then we start focusing on brand. We’re starting to focus on how can we make this content more human.”
Supporting Research and Industry Evidence
The transformation described by our expert practitioners is supported by extensive industry research and Google’s own statements about algorithm changes.
Based on our evaluations, we expect that the combination of this update and our previous efforts will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%. This represented one of the most aggressive content quality improvements in Google’s history.
This update integrated Google’s helpful content system into its core algorithm, prioritizing human-first content and penalizing AI-generated, thin, or spammy content.
The impact was measurable and immediate. Websites relying heavily on low-value, AI-generated, or generic content saw ranking declines. Brands that demonstrated expertise, thorough research, and [human connection] saw improvements.
Research confirmed the importance of brand signals in modern SEO. Understanding the role of anchor text in search engine algorithms is a crucial aspect of SEO strategy. Anchor text, which is the clickable text in a hyperlink, remains an essential signal that search engines like Google use to determine the context and relevance of the linked content.
Branded anchor text helps reinforce your brand identity and trustworthiness, while partial-match anchor text offers a more natural way to incorporate keywords and variations. Both types are essential for a balanced and effective anchor text strategy that aligns with search engine guidelines.
The shift toward brand-focused strategies was driven by algorithmic sophistication. Search algorithms have become even more sophisticated, understanding not just the keywords within the anchor text but also the intent and quality of the content it points to.
Better SEO Forecasting: Connecting Strategy to Revenue
One of the biggest challenges facing SEO professionals in 2024 is connecting optimization efforts to business outcomes. Traditional keyword research tools provide volume data but fail to translate that into actionable revenue forecasts that speak to executive stakeholders.
The future of SEO requires sophisticated forecasting capabilities that can predict not just traffic, but conversions, sales, and revenue potential. Modern practitioners need tools that can help them communicate the business value of their work in terms that CFOs and CMOs understand.
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The New SEO Reality
The transformation of SEO represents more than algorithm updates—it’s a fundamental realignment with authentic business building practices. The strategies that now succeed mirror traditional marketing and public relations more than they resemble the technical optimizations of the past.
As Garrett Sussman concluded:
“SEO is not going anywhere, man. Like even if Google is not the way that we search, humans are curious. They need to find a way to search for information. And there’s going to be some platform and ecosystem that marketers and SEOs will want to optimize for visibility for. So it’s a game that’s changing, but it’s not a game that’s ever going to go away.”
The winners in this new landscape are businesses that:
- Build genuine brand recognition through real-world activities
- Create content that serves human needs first, search engines second
- Focus on demonstrable expertise and authority in their field
- Integrate SEO with broader business and marketing strategies
- Measure success through business impact, not just traffic metrics
The losers are those who:
- Continue to create content primarily for search engine consumption
- Over-optimize with traditional SEO tactics
- Focus on volume over value in content creation
- Treat SEO as separate from brand building
- Measure success only through rankings and traffic
This update prioritised rewarding websites that adopted a user-first approach and demonstrated strong E-E-A-T signals—Expertise, Experience, Authority, and Trust. Sites that excelled in these areas either maintained or improved their rankings.
The future belongs to businesses that understand SEO as business building, not technical trickery. The most successful practitioners in 2024 combined deep technical knowledge with genuine business development skills, creating sustainable competitive advantages that transcend any single algorithm update.
The question facing every business owner and SEO professional is no longer “How do I rank higher?” but rather “How do I build a brand and business worthy of ranking higher?” The answer lies in the integration of digital marketing with authentic value creation—a return to fundamental business principles enhanced by sophisticated technical implementation.
As the industry continues to evolve, one thing remains certain: success in search will increasingly mirror success in business. The organizations that embrace this reality will thrive, while those clinging to outdated optimization tactics will continue to struggle against an algorithm designed to reward genuine value over gaming attempts.
Authentic Link Building: Community-Driven SEO
As the SEO landscape shifts toward authentic business building, traditional link acquisition strategies are giving way to community-focused approaches that create genuine value while building digital authority.
The most successful link building campaigns in 2025 will combine digital marketing expertise with real-world community engagement, creating sustainable competitive advantages that transcend algorithm updates.
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This article is based on interviews conducted for the Unscripted SEO Podcast with Cyrus Shepherd (Zippy SEO), Garrett Sussman (iPullRank), and Jesse Ringer (Method and Metric). The insights represent real-world experiences of SEO professionals managing dramatic algorithm changes.