Double SEOFOMO 2025
I’ve been a lucky attendee of two SEOFOMO meetups already. Both this year. One in London, and the other just a few days ago in Barcelona. Given that these were the only ones I traveled to from where I am based in 2025, and had to undergo certain difficulties to attend, it is clear that I consider them so largely important, and ones of the best in our industry.
If you’ve been in SEO for a while, such meetups are a next step beyond huge conferences. As Roxana Stingu said in London, “There are so many smartest people in one room.” And they talk and share and it is so inspiring.
What is also important for me is that SEOFOMO meetups are organized by Aleyda Solis. Like someone said, “We don’t deserve Aleyda.” The pro who is also caring and empathetic to others, highly energetic, always giving and sharing more than your capacity affords.
Here are my takeaways, jump to any or read one by one.
- What exactly Gary Illyes said about originality
- What else Gary said
- What Nick Wilsdon recommended to SEOs to continue having clients
- Does Dawn Anderson think SEO is dead and why
- Were SEOs in Barcelona afraid of updates
- AI something something
1. What exactly Gary Illyes said about originality
Gary was clear that originality is going to be the biggest thing when it comes to updates. He said exactly this:
“That [originality] is going to be something that I know that search engines are going to focus on more. And it’s going to be something that other AI companies will have to focus on as well, because you cannot effectively train AI on AI-generated content. You can, it’s just it’s going to end up in a really awkward loop.”
He gave a specific example about affiliate sites that reminded him of 2007-2008. He talked about some creators who were hit by updates and said he guarantees those people did not test what they were writing about and gave concrete example for one specific case. But if that’s unacceptable to him as a user, “then why would it be acceptable to any provider of AI answers or search engines?”
The takeaway Gary emphasized: original content is going to be more and more valuable “from a multitude of aspects.”
2. What else Gary said
Gary shared some candid thoughts about the current state of SEO and AI. He expressed concerns about how LLMs and AI are currently being implemented, noting the challenges this creates for the industry.
On metrics, he suggested that focusing purely on clicks might not be the best approach and that conversions should matter more. However, he acknowledged the practical reality that when clicks decline, even with improved conversions, leadership teams often struggle to understand the bigger picture.
Regarding AI overviews and similar features, Gary mentioned that both Google and Bing are seeing better quality engagements, but admitted the industry is still figuring out what meaningful data should look like. He noted these features are constantly evolving internally, with development teams frequently adjusting metrics, triggers, and policies.
Gary was open about the competitive pressures in the AI space. He mentioned that Google had transformer technology internally since 2017-2018, but external market disruption accelerated launch timelines. He acknowledged that the rollout could have been more coordinated.
Looking ahead, he predicts the industry might move toward more gated content – sites requiring login to access information, similar to platforms like Stack Overflow. He also expects to see more content licensing agreements.
Currently, Gary is working with IETF and the Internet Architecture Board on developing controls for AI consumption preferences, which has shifted his focus away from ranking-related work.
3. What Nick Wilsdon recommended to SEOs to continue having clients
Nick’s main message was that SEOs need to evolve beyond just doing SEO. He said “frankly, at the moment, SEO isn’t enough. And if all you’re doing is SEO, you’re not going to be saying the right kind of things to the right kind of people.”
His solution: become business consultants. Nick emphasized that SEOs have knowledge and “knowledge is power,” but we need to branch out and understand how different things work together. He gave an example about Gary’s point on limiting bulk traffic – if you can’t get credited for reducing server capacity, “that means nothing to most SEOs.”
Nick also talked about opportunities in the current disruption. He’s been through multiple industry changes over 25 years and sees this as a phase that brings “massive opportunity.” His agency competes with “multi-billion pound enterprises” and wins because they’ve positioned themselves as more than just the SEO team.
He mentioned they’re getting into new areas like EdgeOps to deploy changes across entire websites and getting around platform blockers that have existed for years. They’re also exploring AI workflows because “you can’t ignore it.”
Nick was critical of the agency model, saying it’s “essentially being badly broken right now” because agencies have been focused too much on efficiency and billable hours, creating strategies like “we’re going to produce x number of blog posts every week.” He stressed that people need space, time, and money to learn and become proper business consultants.
His key advice for 2025: “Don’t put yourself in that box” of being just the SEO team.
4. Does Dawn Anderson think SEO is dead and why
Dawn doesn’t think SEO is dead, but she believes we’re in for a massive change. She said “this at the minute is a complete and utter rebuild of what search is from the ground up. They literally are rebuilding search. Not just Google. The whole concept of information retrieval is changing.”
Her take is that the entire industry needs to go through “a complete re-learning process” and “it’s going to be quite hard for all of us.” She was honest that “some of us, maybe, will leave the industry” because “I don’t think it’s going to be easy.”
But Dawn sees opportunity for those who adapt: “I think those that do stick with it and keep creative with themselves on the way it’s changing, it’s going to change a lot. We’ll do great things.”
She also emphasized the value of “un-SEO-ing” things. Dawn mentioned that people often try too hard to SEO everything, and sometimes the best results come from “just getting rid of lots of stuff.” She referenced John from Google saying you can get into trouble by making things too SEO-y.
Her advice was to stop the “cyclical conversations that we just spend going round and round” and focus on continuous learning. Dawn stressed that we need to “let go of some of these older habits” and move forward with the changes happening in search.
5. Were SEOs in Barcelona afraid of updates
In Barcelona, I didn’t take notes because being one of those on stage stresses me out so much still that I just cannot. But I’ve not seen anyone really afraid of updates or whatever else. I think we all got used to how it happens and what we get as the result. Most of us noted that they didn’t change their approaches to SEO and thus nothing has really changed for us as well. Nikki Halliwell mentioned all those technical aspects that are still neglected by many and what to look out for, starting from basics such as ensuring your content is actually indexed and then proceeding to making Product schema right.
6. AI something something
Lots of talks about AI, so many questions, so few answers. No one calls it GEO on such meetups.
Judith Lewis mentioned her course on how to optimize for these AI outputs. But said it’s not available publicly. I think we all need this course, Judith!
And…
There’s been so much more and more. Just go if you can to the next one. It might be in your area. But even if you need to fly, it’s totally worth it!
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aleyda_seofomo-activity-7369990423009906688-SlHP
