The Skill That Builds Every Other Skill: Why SEO Still Matters
SEO: The underrated skill that teaches you all other skills you need to learn in the modern age.
I asked ChatGPT and Claude AI about the reputation of SEO. The consensus? It’s mixed. SEO has a history tainted by “Black Hat” tactics like keyword stuffing and link farming. Admittedly, those were before my time, and I thank God for that. If I had entered the field back then, I probably would’ve left it before realizing what SEO could actually be.
Because what it is today is something entirely different.
Modern SEO is rooted in empathy, creativity, technology, and adaptability. It’s not just about rankings anymore. It’s about understanding how humans search for and engage with information.
SEO Is Misunderstood
When people think of marketing, most people think ads, influencers sponsorships, social media, or maybe even some fancy billboard. SEO is a bit different. It’s quieter. Less glamorous. Often misunderstood even by so-called “experts” on social media.
It’s a fast-evolving field full of nuance. Full of “it depends.” It’s constantly changing, and anyone in the field knows that certainty is rare and predictability is basically nonexistent.
And yet, I believe it’s one of the best ways to develop modern skills, especially in this AI-driven future we’re heading towards.
Why SEO Is a Crash Course in Modern Skills
Mastering User Psychology
Search intent is healivy based on consumer paychology. Understanding what people really want when they type something into a search bar is what we’re all about. And few other marketing fields incentivize you to map human needs so directly to useful content.
But a lot of SEOs still don’t get this. I see it all over social media with people clinging to keywords and outdated link-building techniques. In reality, keywords are dead. And this will become even more appareant as people increasingly do their searching with prompts instead of keywords.
Backlinks are still very useful, but not the edge they once were.
What matters now is this: understanding what information people need and actually delivering on that. It sounds idealistic, but it aligns with the incentives of the search engines themselves. Google and ChatGPT succeed only if users consistently find what they’re looking for on their platforms, maintaining returning users. That means these platforms are designed to promote helpful content, resources, and tools. The better you understand user needs and how to satisfy it, the better your content performs.
Understanding How AI Thinks
Even before ChatGPT, AI was baked into search engines like Google, and therefore, something SEOs needed to learn about. Google’s BERT and RankBrain were early efforts to decode how humans speak, think, and search so machines could better surface results. The Knowledge Graph was built to create relationships between entities, making AI better able to understand the relationships between different people, places and things.
Now we’ve got GEO, AEO, LLMO (whatever name the community settles on). They’re all still SEO, but in the age of modern AI. And if you’re in SEO, you’re already working within, and feeding , these systems. That puts SEO professionals in a uniquely advantageous position. It’s our job to understand AI.
Standing Out In The Age Of AI
SEO is becoming more and more about originality. That’s what Google will be doubling down on — and it makes total sense.
AI learns from the web. But if all the content out there is recycled or AI-written itself, there’s nothing new to feed it. That’s where Information Gain comes in.
Information Gain means adding something new to a topic — not just rewording what’s already ranking.
This does two major things:
1. It counters the sameness of AI-generated content, which can’t create truly novel ideas or perspectives by itself.
2. It signals to search engines that your site is offering something of value, not just noise.
It’s an opportunity to think outside the box and ask yourself “What can I add to this discussion?”, “How can I take my content a step further?” or “How can I make this extra useful to my users?”
But this isn’t just about search engines. It’s about art, uniqueness and what we are contributing to the world. As AI raises the bar for what qualifies as “good enough,” our challenge becomes: How do we make content that goes beyond that?
The Other Skills SEO Teaches You
Beyond human psychology and AI, SEO also trains you in skills like:
Web Development: Tech SEOs know this well. To operate at a high level, you need at least a working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JS, hosting structures, and how websites actually function. SEO and web development overlap more than people realize.
Data Analysis: SEO without data is like flying blind. Data is the bedrock of good strategy.
Writing: Writing with purpose is core to SEO. Even if you don’t do the writing yourself, good SEO learns to recognize how good writing helps users.
UX Design: You learn to see content through the eyes of the user. What makes a page feel good? What makes it confusing?
Adaptability: Google changes constantly. Strategies evolve. You learn to let go, pivot, and rebuild.
Cross-Functional Collaboration: You don’t do SEO alone. You work with developers, writers, designers and more, learning how to communicate confusing SEO concepts in their languages.
Comfort with Uncertainty: This used to bother me, but now I love it. SEO is full of ambiguity. There’s a lot that’s left to interpretation, and there’s lots of assumptions that need to be tested. It’s half art, half science
Hopefully by now you understand how SEO is truly a one-stop-shop for a lot of incredibly valuable skills that can serve you far beyond an SEO career.
SEO is messy. It’s uncertain, and I don’t really know where it’s going. But I’m grateful I get to do it now — while it’s still this weird mix of everything.