SEO in 2025: How I'd Learn it if I Were Starting Over

since 2009 I've generated hundreds of

millions of visitors from Google search

But for the first time in 17 years I'm

questioning everything I know about SEO

SEO used to be simple You'd find a

keyword post optimize content get back

links and boom huge traffic huge income

But that playbook is dead Why mostly

because of AI AI has flooded Google with

cheap mass-produced content And in

response Google has cracked down harder

than ever erasing perfectly legitimate

websites from search results But that

doesn't mean SEO is dead Google still

gets 5 trillion searches a year That's

roughly 100 times more conversations

than Chat GPT is expected to have this

year SEO has just evolved And if you

don't evolve with it you're going to

waste months or years on strategies that

don't work anymore So in this video I'm

going to share exactly what I'd do if I

was learning SEO from scratch in today's

AI era Now despite all the changes AI

has brought to SEO fundamentals haven't

gone anywhere People still search using

keywords and topics You still need to

create content that search engines can

find index and understand And backlinks

they still help pages rank high in

Google So the first thing I do to learn

SEO in this new AI era is to learn the

fundamentals of search engine

optimization because they haven't

changed Now learning the fundamentals

and getting good at executing them used

to be enough to drive tons of free

search traffic before AI tools but

they're no longer enough to stay

competitive And the reason comes down to

a mental shift most people even pro SEOs

haven't figured out yet Before AI

content tools became mainstream ranking

on Google was easy People would copy the

top ranking page add a few extra points

to make it feel original Sprinkle in

some keywords and cover subtopics get a

few backlinks to the page and first page

rankings would come fast And because it

worked everyone did it SEO copywriting

became so mechanical that writing for

SEO became an industry phrase But here's

the flaw Search engines don't buy from

you people do Now that AI can

mass-produce this kind of content it

doesn't seem like Google wants to reward

writing for algorithms the way it once

did Instead it seems like Google is

doubling down on what it's always wanted

to deliver the most relevant and useful

result for any given search query And

are they getting it right all the time

not even close but they're trying So if

I were learning SEO today I'd ignore

many of the outdated mechanical

approaches to writing for search engines

and instead focus on creating genuinely

useful content with a user obsessed

mindset What does that mean well let's

say you wanted to rank for the query how

to start a YouTube channel Instead of

asking how do I rank for this keyword

what do I have to cover start by getting

obsessed with what the searcher actually

wants to know Are they a total beginner

do they need gear recommendations are

they struggling to find a niche or

something else then dig deeper Why do

they want to start a YouTube channel is

it a creative outlet or a way to make

money how do they want the information

would a checklist step-by-step tutorial

or interactive guide help most if you

don't understand the searcher's intent

you'll end up creating content that

doesn't actually help the people you're

trying to serve But if you nail what

they're really looking for you won't

just rank higher You'll keep people

engaged build trust and convert more

visitors into customers Now that doesn't

mean you should ignore AI tools In fact

I think that every SEO new and

experienced should be embracing AI tools

rather than resisting them The problem

with generic robotic AI content isn't

the tools it's how people are using them

AI tools are faster and better than most

of us at brainstorming writing and

analyzing data But the quality of its

output is only as good as the guidance

it receives Take Joe Schmo a guy who

knows nothing about SEO He can't guide

AI to produce good content or to

optimize his site for better performance

because he doesn't understand SEO

himself So what happens ai ends up

guiding him But take Sam Edward O a dude

that's helped millions of people learn

SEO and get traffic to their site He'll

probably do keyword research on his own

do some audience research and collect

clues about that audience from Google

search results Then he'll take what he's

found feed it to a tool like Chat GBT

and guide it to help him execute on his

SEO strategy And I actually shared the

exact tactics and processes in a video

when I used Chat GPT to rank number one

in Google in 1 hour AI isn't going

anywhere It's one of the most

revolutionary technologies since the

internet itself So instead of avoiding

it learn how to use it properly And SEO

goes way beyond just content creation So

the use cases are truly endless Bottom

line use AI as an assistant not a

replacement train yourself to be the

operator and you get those operating

skills through strong SEO fundamentals

and firsthand experience All of which

you can learn for free in our free SEO

course for beginners Now learning SEO

shouldn't just be about learning what to

do It's also about knowing what to

prepare for because once the traffic

starts rolling in it's going to feel

like free money And that's when things

get dangerous Google's going to keep

sending you free and consistent traffic

that doesn't fade over time because

that's SEO by design The harsh reality

is that that traffic can vanish

overnight It's happened to hundreds of

creators and we've actually heard their

stories and shared them on our YouTube

channel It's real It hurts and it's

unpredictable So if I were learning SEO

from scratch today I would be preparing

myself to diversify beyond just Google I

know that sounds counterintuitive in a

video about learning SEO but SEO isn't

just about Google The skills you'll

build while learning and doing SEO like

keyword research understanding search

intent link building and technical SEO

will apply to nearly every searchdriven

platform in some way shape or form For

example when I first started with

YouTube SEO I knew nothing about it But

I applied my Google SEO skills to

YouTube and we're now consistently

getting over a million views from

YouTube search alone that are important

to our business I've done the same with

Pinterest Reddit eBay Quora and the list

goes on From my experience any platform

that sorts and surfaces content based on

user queries follows similar core

principles But if you can master Google

SEO you'll be way ahead of the curve

when optimizing for other search engines

At its core SEO is still about one thing

connecting searchers with the best

search results But in a world where AI

can turn out endless mediocre content

copying what already exists isn't enough

And honestly it shouldn't be enough You

need to be worth finding So if you want

to learn SEO and actually succeed in the

AI era check out our free SEO course for

beginners and then apply the rest of

what I've shared with you today