SUMMARY BY CHATGPT

In this episode of Screw the Commute, host Tom Antion discusses why he believes search engine optimization (SEO) is no longer a viable strategy for online success. He argues that Google’s evolving AI-driven search features are reducing organic traffic to websites, making SEO efforts less effective and unpredictable.
Key Points:
• Google Lawsuit & AI Overview Impact:
o Google is being sued by Chegg for allegedly using its vast database of Q&A content to generate AI overviews, reducing the need for users to visit external websites.
o If a large company like Chegg is struggling with lost traffic, smaller businesses face even greater risks.
• Tom’s Personal Experience:
o He was once a top SEO expert but abandoned SEO over 15 years ago because it became too unreliable.
o Google's frequent algorithm changes can wipe out rankings overnight, making SEO an unstable long-term strategy.
• Basic SEO is Fine, but Don't Overcommit:
o While basic SEO best practices (covered in episodes 469, 466, and 525) are still useful, investing heavily in SEO is not worth it.
o Instead, focus on more reliable strategies.
Alternative Strategies to SEO:
1. Paid Traffic:
o Paid advertising offers immediate and controllable results compared to the long wait for SEO to take effect.
o Episodes 127 and 424 cover paid traffic strategies.
2. Email Marketing Over Social Media:
o Rather than focusing on social media followers, Tom recommends capturing emails to build a direct and sustainable marketing channel.
o His website offers numerous email marketing tips.
Final Thoughts:
Tom emphasizes that Google's AI advancements are reshaping online traffic, making SEO less valuable. Instead, business owners should prioritize paid traffic and email marketing to maintain control over their audience and revenue.

===

Episode 980 – Nix SEO
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody! It's Tom here with episode 980 of Screw the Commute podcast. Today, I'm going to give you another reason to nix SEO or search engine optimization. Hope you didn't miss episode 979. That was a bunch of phone tips. We have tons of them if you go to screwthecommute.com/training. That's all my training episodes, minus about 500 interview episodes, and you just search on the page for the the term phone and you will get tips that will make you lightning fast on your phone and tablets. Because a lot of people don't know a lot of these tips. All right. Hope you didn't miss getting a copy of my automation book at. Free. And check out my mentor program at GreatInternetMarketingTraining.com. It's the longest running, most successful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. Also, I've got a school, the only licensed, dedicated internet marketing school in the country. IMTCVA.org. And it's certified to operate by Schev, the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia. But you don't have to be in Virginia because it's distance learning. All right, let's get into this. So what I'm talking about now is another reason that you shouldn't kill yourself trying to do search engine optimization. I have mixed this. I haven't done this for 15 years and still make a fortune online. All right, I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

[00:01:59] But this particular episode is another reason besides the fact that you could go six eight months and never get anywhere. Search engine optimization. But the thing is, is Google is getting sued by a company called, I guess it's called Chegg. Because Google's AI overview, when you do searches on Google, this company is claiming that Google's AI overviews are pulling directly from their extremely vast database. I'm talking like 135 million question and answers they have in their database. And what this is doing is causing a massive decrease in traffic to that company. And they're also claiming in this lawsuit that Google's AI is is using their data to train Google's AI so that people never even have to know about this other company and what it's causing them is to lose money from reduced ad impressions. You know, if they have less traffic, people see less ads on their site and they make less money, and they're not getting any compensation or even attribution from Google for the use of all their stuff. And their organic traffic has fallen off like crazy. So they're suing Google over this. Now, if they can do this to a massive, powerful company like this Chegg. I guess it's pronounced Chegg. What could they do to you? All right. And that's why probably it's been at least 15 years, and I was one of the best of the best in my in the early days at this, I was taught by Michael Campbell.

[00:03:50] I had the top three spaces in Google on major keywords for what I was selling for 12 years straight. And then it just got to the point it just not was not worth it anymore to do the things necessary to hopefully get up at the top of the search engines. And I say hopefully because the chances are close to slim and none for you to do it anymore. All right. For anything that's even less than the most obscure thing on earth because of the competition. And again, Google apparently is grabbing stuff from sites and given an overview. And then people say, oh, I got what I wanted. I don't need to interact with that site. See, that's what this company is claiming. And, you know, I've seen that lots. Lots of that stuff. So certainly not worth it to to wait. You know, even if you do good at SEO, you're looking at six months to a year to get any kind of real good traction. And then as soon as Google turns one little dial, you disappear off the face of the Earth. It's just not worth the trouble anymore. Now? Yes. Do I believe in basic SEO? And and I have episodes on that just things that there's no sense to do them incorrectly when it's so easy to do them, so you're not shooting yourself in the foot.

[00:05:15] So there's three episodes I want to refer you to. One is for 69. Anytime you want to get to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com, slash, then the episode number, the basic SEO, just the things you should be doing whenever you put a web page up is episode 469. Screwthecommute.com/469. And then if you were going to spend any time doing something on SEO episode 466 on backlinks. These are extremely valuable and can bring you traffic from other sites and make you look great to the search engines, but again, I don't care about that as much now as the amount of traffic that could come directly from another site. And then episode 525 is once you do get them in your site, if you do a better job of internal linking and your site, you'll keep them on your site longer and getting them to see more of your stuff. All right, so so that's basic SEO stuff. Yes, I want you to do that. But you just can't waste time and money on massive SEO. And a lot of these SEO people are going to be hurting because nobody's going to want to pay them any more to do this kind of stuff.

[00:06:32] Um, let's see here. So what's the what are you supposed to do about this? Well, I've got a couple episodes that I suggest, and what I've been doing the past 15 years is you. You need to get good at paid traffic, because paid traffic is things that you can turn on and turn off on a dime. Now, I don't want you to screw yourself over by messing up and letting a runaway ad, you know, give, uh, have you paying thousands of dollars in ad fees? No, but the thing is, is if you take the time to learn paid traffic, you can turn something on and they go directly to your site no matter where it's at in Google. Okay, there's two episodes I want to tell you about that is episode 127. So it's 127 paid traffic and then more paid traffic tips is episode 424. That's the story. I don't know where this lawsuit's going to end up. Like I said, none of us have the resources to go against Google for something like this, unless it was a class action suit, but still. Then it would drag out for 100 years and you'd be broke before anything happened. If you just took the time to learn paid traffic and besides paid traffic, I should also throw in that, you know, I don't look that great on social media.

[00:07:57] I don't have anything that says, oh, he's got 100 million followers. No, I've spent my whole time since social media was invented, getting them the heck off of there onto an email list. That's where I've made all my money over all these years, is getting people on an email list so I can reach them over and over and over again for free. See, not necessarily just for free because you have to pay for your online services, but it's technically for free compared to paid ads. So I want you to learn paid traffic, and I want you to concentrate on getting them over on email. And I probably if you just go to that screwthecommute.com/training. And you know, there's a million email tips there too. So so there you go. Another reason to nix search engine optimization. And you know, everybody's using this AI. But Google is using it bigger than anybody. And and they could be stealing your traffic. I don't know. I can't say that I don't want them coming after me. But but that's what this company says. And, uh, we'll see what happens. All right. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. We'll catch you all in the next episode. See you later.