Episode 30

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Published on:

28th Jun 2026

I'm Proving SEO Isn't Dead - And Giving You Two Underused Strategies

SEO has been declared dead at least fifteen times since 1995. Fifteen. And it's still here.

In this episode I'm going back to the very beginning - 1993, 670 websites, celebrity names stuffed into meta keywords by people who genuinely believed all traffic is good traffic, the whole sorry mess - and walking you through every major "SEO is dead" moment in history, who caused it, who got destroyed by it, and what actually survived.

Because if you understand the pattern, you stop panicking every time a LinkedIn guru announces the next thing that's going to kill search.

Spoiler: it won't. It never does.

What I cover in this episode

Where SEO started - and how quickly people started gaming it. White text on white backgrounds. Doorway pages. Keyword stuffing so aggressive it'd make your eyes water.

Google's arrival in 1998 and the first proper "SEO is dead" panic - and how the industry responded by inventing link farms and article spinning. Same instinct, worse content.

The Florida Update in 2003 - like a smaller scale Panda and Penguin, but no less devastating for the businesses it wiped out overnight.

Panda (2011), Penguin (2012), Hummingbird (2013), Mobilegeddon (2015), and E-A-T - each one prompted a fresh round of death announcements, each one turned out to be wrong.

The AI content flood of 2022 onwards, and why pumping out AI slop was always going to end the same way as every other shortcut before it.

The actual search market share data from Q4 2025 via SparkToro: Google at 73.7%, ChatGPT at 2.86%. Yes, 2.86%. Let that sink in next time someone tells you to abandon your Google strategy.

And three things that have worked since 1998, survived every update, and will still be working long after the next death announcement hits your feed.

Links mentioned

How to use LinkedIn Articles for SEO

Non-Wanky On-Page SEO course

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If this episode made you roll your eyes at the next "SEO is dead" LinkedIn post - good. That was the point. Make sure you click follow or subscribe in whatever platform you enjoy this in, to ensure you never miss another one.

Mentioned in this episode:

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About the Podcast

SEO F**king What - Get Found on Google and make money from your website with practical SEO tips
SEO advice that cuts through the crap and doesn't treat you like an idiot
This podcast exists because you deserve better than the SEO bollocks currently being sold to you.

Every week, I'll give you 10-15 minutes of straight talk about SEO. Practical advice that actually works for B2B websites trying to get found on Google/search and make money. The kind of stuff that's been proven over years, not dreamed up last Tuesday by some LinkedIn tosspot.

Real SEO from someone who's been doing this since dial-up was considered fast. I'll tell you what works, what's complete nonsense, and which tactics will get your website buried faster than you can say "guaranteed first page rankings."

I'm calling out the bullshitters. The agencies promising the world and delivering fuck all. The LinkedIn gooroos flogging courses about things that don't actually exist. The AI SEO "hacks" destroying perfectly good websites. The expensive tools you don't need. The "experts" who learned SEO from a YouTube video three months ago. If someone's talking bollocks about SEO, you'll hear about it here.

More importantly, I'm telling you what to do instead. Every rant comes with actual, practical steps you can take. Real actions that get results, not theory that sounds clever but does bugger all for your rankings. "Do this, then do that, and you'll see movement." That's it. That's the format.

You're running a B2B business or managing a B2B website. You've probably been burned by an SEO agency before. Maybe they took your money and delivered a fancy report full of words that meant absolutely nothing. Or they promised first page rankings and disappeared after six months of bugger all results.

You're sick of reading blog posts that say nothing in 2000 words. You're tired of SEO "tips" that are either blindingly obvious or completely bizarre. You want someone to cut through the crap and tell you what actually matters for your business, not what works for some massive ecommerce site with a budget the size of a small country.

You don't need a PhD in technical SEO. You need to know what's worth your time and what's complete bollocks. You need to know which tactics will actually bring in leads and which ones are just expensive ways to make yourself feel busy. That's what I'm here for.

This isn't some sanitised, corporate-approved SEO podcast where everyone's lovely and we pretend all tactics are equally valid. They're not. Some are brilliant. Most are pointless. And some will actively fuck up your website while the "expert" who recommended them is off selling the same dodgy advice to the next poor sod.

I swear. A lot. If that bothers you, there are plenty of other podcasts out there with hosts who never offend anyone. Go find them. They're very nice. They're also very boring.

This also isn't a podcast that assumes you're stupid. You're not. You're just busy running a business and don't have time to decode the latest algorithm update or work out which SEO tactic is legitimate and which one's complete fantasy.

Fifteen minutes. One topic. I'll tell you what's pissing me off this week in the SEO industry, why it matters to your website, and what you should actually do about it. Then I'm done. You can get back to running your business.

New episodes drop weekly, because the SEO industry creates fresh bullshit faster than I can rant about it. Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts so you don't miss the next time some gooroo invents a new problem to sell you the solution to.

Welcome to SEO F**king What? Let's fix your website.

About your host

Profile picture for Nikki Pilkington

Nikki Pilkington

SEO consultant and copywriter who's spent 30 years watching people panic about algorithm updates while ignoring what actually works.

I help B2B businesses get found on Google without the jargon, false promises, or expensive courses targeting 0.19% of traffic. My morning starts with SE Ranking and Google Search Console because data beats hunches every time.

I don't do overnight results, premium-priced basic tactics, or clients I can't genuinely help. If you don't need my services, I'll tell you that too.

Fair warning: I'm a little bit sweary...