Today, I want to talk about a few reasons why I wouldn’t invest in SEO right now. They’re very specific. They may apply to you, they may not. If you’re a regular listener, you know I like to bring nuance to these topics that feel so black and white in marketing online.
It can be so easy to hear me online talking about how SEO is the best thing you can invest in… and then hear someone else say Instagram is the best thing to invest in. There’s just so much noise around where you should be putting your time and money. Especially right now, coming off Black Friday, heading into Boxing Day, Christmas, all of it, the noise is loud. So it felt important to talk openly about why SEO might not be the right move for you at this moment.
Now, if you’re listening in real time and you hear this episode and decide that you do want to invest in SEO, this is actually a great time. I currently offer blog batching packages, where you can purchase a set of three, five, or ten blog posts — one and done. There’s no ongoing monthly commitment required.
Table of Contents
A Couple of Guest Episodes To Tune Into This Week
There are a few updates I want to share and since I’m really not posting on Instagram anymore, you might hear a couple minutes of housekeeping at the beginning of these episodes.
If you’re interested in some additional content to listen to, I was a guest on two podcasts last week.
The first was episode 267 of The Business First Creatives with Colie. We talked all about how I updated my CRM emails using Colie James framework. I took her Email Like You Mean It course, and honestly, it’s been a total game changer for new leads. That episode is all about my sales process — how I manage sales as an introvert who avoids sales calls and would rather shut her business down than rely on high-pressure tactics. It was a really great conversation.
The second podcast I was on is called The Podcast Café with Hayleigh Hayhurst, who actually joined this podcast back on episode 78, What Nobody Tells You About Starting a Podcast. She’s an incredible podcaster, and her show is all about podcasting, so I got to talk about podcast SEO which was really fun.
I’m on episode 67, and you know I’ll always share both the good and the bad about podcasting, but podcast SEO is one of my absolute favorite things. So if you’ve been even a little curious about it, you’ll definitely want to check that episode out.
Now, let’s get into today’s topic, which is all about the reasons why you shouldn’t invest in SEO (either ever, or at least not right now).
Why Investing in SEO Is a Good Idea
Before we get into that, though, I want to talk briefly about why SEO is still a good idea overall. SEO isn’t going anywhere. And honestly, right now it feels like everyone is sharing their 2026 goals, maybe it’s just my algorithm, but it seems like Instagram is out. People are tired of social media. They want to diversify, and a lot of people have SEO on their radar, which I love to see.
There’s also been some big news recently, and I want to share this quickly. I promise this isn’t a sales pitch — I just want you to be an informed business owner. Adobe is acquiring SEMrush for $1.9 billion. I don’t know exactly what this will mean for SEMrush long term, but to me, it reinforces that SEO is still a strong, valuable investment.
Big companies are spending big money on search, and it’s not going anywhere.
SEO is changing — especially with ranking on AI tools, whether you call it GEO, AEO, or whatever new acronym shows up this week — but getting found online is still incredibly important.
2025 Google Search Console Update
The other thing I want to talk about is a recent Google Search Console update. Less than two weeks ago, Google Search Central announced that Search Console is getting a bit of a facelift. I’m already seeing this across accounts: the homepage and insights views look cleaner and easier to read, which I love.
What’s especially interesting is that Google Search Console is starting to show your social media platforms as well. Let me explain what that means. When you log into Search Console, you’ll be able to see the keywords you’re ranking for and the content that’s showing up — not just from your website, but also from places like YouTube and even Instagram.
It’s very cool. There aren’t a ton of details yet, and this is rolling out slowly, starting with a limited set of websites. But I love the direction this is heading. I’ve talked a lot on this podcast about building a larger digital footprint and making sure everything feeds into everything else, and this feels like a step in that direction.
With Pinterest, for example, I often show clients side-by-side data where the posts that perform best on Pinterest are also the ones that perform best on Google. That’s not a coincidence. Pinterest backlinks are a positive SEO signal, and when you’re driving traffic that has a good user experience, you’ll usually see both platforms grow together. It would be really exciting if those insights eventually show up in one place.
I don’t know if Pinterest is included yet — YouTube seems to be the main example they’re using — but they do say social channels, so we’ll see. Either way, I’m very excited about it.
According to Google, the new view will show familiar performance insights for each channel, including total reach, content performance, search queries, audience location, and additional traffic sources. It will also show total clicks your site receives from things like image search, video search, news search, and Discover.
I think this is another sign that companies are paying attention to what people want — and what people want is search-driven marketing. I’ll probably do a full episode on this at some point because it’s a really exciting shift and speaks to how important a strong digital footprint is becoming. But that’s not today’s topic.
So now, let’s get to the real question: should you wait on SEO? Is SEO actually the right investment for you right now? Because there are five reasons I honestly don’t think it is.
1. You’re In The Very Early Stages Of Business
The first is if you’re in the very early stages of business. In that case, I would wait.
I’m not saying you can’t have blog posts. If you want to invest in learning how to blog, whether that’s through a $100 course or something else, I think that’s a great skill to build and absolutely worth your time. But I would be cautious about spending thousands of dollars on SEO early on, because your business model, positioning, and ideal client tend to change a lot in those first few years.
Generally speaking, I consider the early stage of business to be the first three-ish years. That can vary, of course. Some people start their business with a lot of prior experience, which can put them at an advantage. In those cases, investing in SEO sooner can make sense — especially if you’re confident in your business model, committed long-term, and have the budget to invest upfront.
But for most people in the early stages, I’d recommend DIYing it. And this might be my own bias — and I know things are different now with tools like ChatGPT, which I don’t want you relying on for this — but writing your own content forces you to research your industry, clarify your thinking, and develop your perspective in a way that’s really valuable early on.
When you’re blogging yourself, it forces you to do research and learn your industry more deeply. One of the challenges with being new is that it’s easy to end up repeating what already exists — which, frankly, AI is already doing very well.
Having a unique perspective is becoming more and more important when it comes to what actually ranks online. I’ve said this so many times on the podcast, but it matters.
Sometimes when you’re newer, you just don’t have that perspective yet because you don’t have enough experience. And again, that doesn’t mean “never invest in SEO.” It just means that SEO isn’t always the first move.
2. Your Offers Aren’t Selling
The second reason I’d tell you to wait is if your stuff simply isn’t converting.
For example, if you have a large audience — let’s say 100,000 followers — and you can’t sell a T-shirt, SEO is not the answer. In that situation, the first thing I’d tell you to do is fix the leaky conversion funnel.
Now, sometimes the issue isn’t conversion — it’s data. If you don’t have at least a hundred people going through your evergreen funnel, you don’t have enough information yet. I see this a lot when people first start investing in blogging or Pinterest. Things move slowly at first, and they immediately ask, “What should we change? What should we fix?”
And the honest answer is: we don’t know yet. Not enough people have seen it.
That’s not what I’m talking about here.
I’m talking about when you know there’s a conversion issue. Leads enter your orbit, but they never buy. That could be an offer problem, a messaging problem, a positioning problem — whatever the buzzword is right now — but something isn’t working. And until that’s fixed, sending more traffic to it won’t help.
The best candidates for SEO are businesses with a proven model — people are already buying, and now you’re just turning the dial up.
3. You’re In An Incredibly Competitive Niche
The third reason I’d tell you to wait is if you’re in a very competitive niche and don’t have the resources to commit long-term, whether that’s time, money, or both.
When I say “competitive,” I’m talking about industries where you’re competing on a global scale and SEO is already heavily used. I would absolutely include myself here. It has been hard to grow my own SEO traffic because I’m competing against other marketers who know exactly what they’re doing — and a lot of this simply takes time. Marketing keywords are challenging.
I also want to be clear about what I don’t mean by competitive. I’m not talking about industries like photography. Coming from the wedding industry, I know how saturated it can feel. I felt that too. But from an SEO standpoint, most local businesses are not overly saturated.
If you’re competing for something like “city wedding photographer,” that’s not the same as competing for a global keyword like “SEO setup.” I’m not saying it’s easy or that Google will just hand it to you — but it’s a completely different level of competition.
4. If What You’re Selling Is a Commodity
That brings me to number four — and this one is a little more nuanced. If what you’re selling doesn’t really require content or education, SEO may not be the best investment.
When I think about this, I’m thinking about commodity-type products — things people just need. Toilet paper is the example I always come back to. There isn’t much convincing or educating required.
I talked about this briefly in my Ask Me Anything episode, but that episode was over an hour long, so I wanted to break it down here. There are four main types of keywords:
- First, informational — when someone is simply looking for information.
- Second, navigational — when someone is trying to get to a specific website.
- Third, commercial — when someone is researching products before making a purchase.
- And fourth, transactional — when someone is ready to buy or convert.
Informational keywords are the sweet spot for blogging. And while you don’t have to be in one of these industries for SEO to work for you, you’re especially well-positioned if you are in a space where people do a lot of research over a short period of time and then make a big decision.
Think about planning a wedding. People do an intense amount of research in a relatively short window, and they’re spending a lot of money. The same goes for buying a house, going to college, or having a baby. When people are in those big life transitions, SEO works incredibly well because there’s built-in urgency — you don’t have to manufacture it.
That urgency is naturally tied to the niche, and people are actively seeking information. That’s why informational keywords work so well for blogging and SEO.
Navigational keywords, on the other hand, are usually not something we try to rank for. These are things like “Showit login” or typing a brand name directly into Google — like “Lululemon.”
Commercial keywords are all about comparison. Things like Flowdesk versus ConvertKit, Dubsado versus HoneyBook, Lululemon versus Spanx. These tend to be more competitive because they’re tied directly to purchasing decisions, which means they carry a higher value. If I were Dubsado, for example, ranking for “Dubsado versus HoneyBook” would be incredibly important because the person searching is actively deciding what to buy.
And then there are transactional keywords — when someone knows exactly what they want and is ready to purchase. This is where commodity products usually fall. Someone types in the keyword and they’re just looking to buy.
For most small businesses, I don’t think transactional keywords are worth investing heavily in from an SEO perspective. Maybe that changes when you’re Amazon or Walmart — at that point, you invest in everything. But for small businesses, transactional searches often come down to price, and that’s a tough game to win.
One of the reasons I love blogging is because it allows you to bring someone into your world. You can show them how you think, what you value, and why your approach is different — without feeling overly salesy. And that’s something transactional searches just don’t leave much room for.
Because with blogging, you’re able to provide value over and over again.
I’ll use a website designer as an example. If someone is searching things like, “How do I know if I’m ready for a new website?” or “Showit versus Squarespace,” or “best service-based website platforms,” you have a real opportunity. You can introduce yourself, show examples of your work, share your perspective, and offer guidance that positions you as an authority — without having to explicitly say, “Buy from me, buy from me.”
You’re guiding someone toward a decision in a way that feels natural and helpful.
When someone is searching a transactional keyword, there’s much less room for that. They’re already ready to buy. They’re just looking for flights to Cancun or something equally specific. There’s less opportunity there — especially for smaller businesses — to stand out through education or perspective.
5. If You Are Building a Business Model That Requires Huge Traffic Volumes To Make Money
Number five is if your goal is to be more of a lifestyle blogger. And I want to be clear here: I think the jury is still out on this one. But personally, I would wait.
When I say “lifestyle blogger,” I mean blogging as the business itself — where the goal is to grow traffic and make money through ads or a high volume of affiliate links. You can still make good affiliate income, especially with things like B2B software. When I first got into blogging back in 2017 and 2018, Bluehost was the big one. Every blogger was promoting it, and the payouts were significant.
That’s a very different model than relying on ad networks like Mediavine or Google Ads, or even Amazon affiliate links. Those models require massive amounts of traffic to be profitable.
With AI search and ongoing changes to Google’s algorithm, that space has become extremely tough. And I don’t just think that — I know it. A lot of bloggers have seen major drops in traffic and income over the last year.
I would never tell you not to try it. But would I personally invest thousands of dollars into SEO for that model right now? No. Would I invest a lot of time? Maybe — depending on how much time you have and what your goals are.
If I were pursuing something like that today, I’d likely look at YouTube as my primary search-driven platform instead. I think the demand for human perspective is only going to grow, and traditional blog-based models are being hit the hardest as more search traffic shifts to AI.
So, to recap: I’d either wait or pause completely on investing in SEO if you’re in the early stages of business and still figuring things out, or if your current offers simply aren’t converting. In both cases, those issues need to be addressed first.
Should You Invest in SEO?
I hope this was helpful. And honestly, there’s a good chance you didn’t see yourself in any of these scenarios — which means SEO is probably something you should be investing in, whether that’s with your time or your money. I’m good with either. I just want people to prioritize it, because I’ve seen firsthand how much it can change a business.
As I mentioned earlier, you can always work with me on a monthly basis. I also have blog batching packages available right now. I definitely need a better name for them, but essentially, you can purchase a set of blog posts written by me and my team — no ongoing commitment required. All the details are on the sales page at thekarareport.com/batch if that’s something you’re interested in.
And if you’re listening in real time, happy holidays. Merry Christmas. I love you so much, and I hope you have an amazing holiday season. I’ll talk to you next week.
