The Founder’s Corner

The Past, Present, and Future of SEO | Scott Orth

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If you’re an agency doing over $40k a year in profit, then message me on LinkedIn and I’ll send you some of our best stuff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliclark1000/

This episode of the Founder's Corner Podcast Corner featured Scott Orth, the Founder of Thrive Business Marketing.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

  • If you’re just getting started, build up a contact list. That way when you move out on your own, you have some business at the ready.
  • Getting clients is the hardest part. From there, the challenges of running an agency are all about delivering on your promises. Say yes to everything then figure out how to do it.
  • Google has never really lost market share. Over the last 25 years, Google has remained dominant despite changes to search and search behavior.
  • Search behavior has changed drastically. In the beginning, search queries were very archaic. Now with the help of NLP, search intent and SEO has become more complex.
  • AI has amplified long-tail search. The evolution of AI overviews and NLP models have helped people realize that they don’t have to search for the same thing 3-4 times.
  • AI search is the first thing in 20 years to take away market share from Google.
  • Right now, AI tools are causing chaos. With new AI tools entering the market, seemingly everyday, it’s causing a sense of chaos among the business owners.
  • After the chaos, the market will backstep. The AI noise will fade away and business owners will start to realize that they still need marketing experts to support them.
  • AI creates a lot of problems as well as solutions. Eventually it’ll work as a tool in your toolbox, as long you know how to use it properly.
  • Leverage AI as a content writing tool. It’s great to help you outline ideas and overcome writer's block.
  • Use AI as the starting point. Creating great content with AI starts with good prompts. Then you need to take time to edit, change things around, and write it in your own voice.
  • Test if AI generation content works for you. In Scott’s experience, AI written content with human edits does better than 100% AI content.
  • You can’t just set it and forget it. Use AI tools as another tool in your toolbox. They don’t completely solve the problem and most require significant human input.
  • Content is still relevant for SEO. Even with AI and NLP, discoverability is still largely based on content.
  • Use the question, answer, citation format. FAQ content ranks really well on Google and AI search. The better you can back up what you’re saying with citations, the better you'll show up in AI search.
  • New, fresh content is the foundation of AI search. Strive to write new content daily if you can but at least weekly.
  • Showing up in AI summaries is going to be key. Traffic to websites will mostly likely go down, but if you’re showing up in AI search queries, then people are still finding you.

    • EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • Thrive Business Marketing: https://thrivesearch.com/
    • Scott Orths’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottorth/

      • ABOUT YOUR HOST:

      If you’re new to this show, my name is Eli Clark. I’m the co-founder and CEO of onebridgeaccounting.com.

      I graduated from college Summa Cum Laude and in 2023 jumped into the deep end by starting OneBridge Accounting with my business partner Cromwell Barredo.

      In this podcast I sit down and interview marketing firm and agency leaders from all over the world. Why? Because I want to deliver insights to help you level up and build the agency of your dreams.

      And candidly, we’d like to be there to support you along the way. If you’re an agency doing over $40k a year in profit, then connect with me on LinkedIn and I’ll send you some of our best stuff: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eliclark1000/

      CHAPTERS

      00:00 Intro

      02:05 Scott’s background

      05:30 The beginning of Thrive

      08:07 Early challenges

      10:56 Search over the last 25 years

      15:39 Google dominance?

      17:30 Shorter timeframes

      18:07 Impact of AI on agencies

      19:42 The flood of AI tools

      21:38 AI is the new catch phrase

      23:15 AI generated content

      26:46 Best practices for AI & SEO

      28:22 You can’t just set it and forget it

      29:39 Relevant or obsolete?

      31:20 New fresh content

      32:27 Marketing trends

      34:53 Get in touch with Scott

      LISTEN TO THE PODCAST:

      • Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founders-corner/id1819767641
      • Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3qhTJEH7Wu8ktNOx9M1Nik 
      • Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/253304b6-ad60-445b-855c-5580b3614c65/the-founder%E2%80%99s-corner

        • DISCLAIMER:

        The information on this channel is for educational purposes only and does not constitute professional legal or tax advice.

        Copyright © 2025.

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