Recently, one of my colleagues asked me an interesting question.
“Do you think people are now going to focus more on social media channels instead of their own websites?”
The question came after Google introduced a new feature in Search Console that lets website owners see performance from other channels like YouTube, Instagram, and a few other platforms. It’s a good addition because it acknowledges something we’ve known for a while now—people don’t discover brands through Google Search alone anymore.
But the conversation quickly moved beyond that update.
My answer was simple.
No.
I don’t think people should stop investing in their websites.
I still believe your website is your home base.
It’s the only place on the internet where you have complete control over your business. You decide how your product is presented, how your services are explained, what journey visitors take, and ultimately how someone becomes a customer.
Let’s take the example of a SaaS company.
Your website is where you explain what your product does, who it’s built for, what problems it solves, what features it has, and why someone should choose your solution over someone else’s. No social media platform gives you that level of flexibility or ownership.
So no, I don’t think websites have become less important.
But I do think our marketing mindset needs to change.
Interestingly, many people are now realizing they need to be present across multiple platforms because AI is changing how people discover information.
Personally, I don’t think this shift started with AI.
I’ve been saying something similar for the last four or five years.
I’ve never believed SEO should be treated as the entire marketing strategy. To me, SEO has always been one part of a much bigger picture.
Sometimes I feel people think about SEO in isolation. They think the job is to write blog posts, optimize web pages, build backlinks, improve rankings, and eventually generate leads.
There’s nothing wrong with those activities.
But I think we’re starting from the wrong place.
Whenever I build a content strategy or start keyword research for a SaaS company, I don’t begin by asking,
“What keywords should we target?”
Instead, I begin with questions about the business.
Who is the ideal customer?
What problems are they trying to solve?
What pain points do they have?
How large is the addressable market?
What percentage of that market can we realistically reach?
Only after answering those questions do I start thinking about marketing channels.
Where does this audience actually spend its time?
Maybe they’re active on LinkedIn because that’s where they network professionally.
Maybe they spend hours reading Reddit discussions before making a purchase.
Maybe they watch YouTube tutorials.
Maybe they use TikTok.
Maybe they’re active on Bluesky.
Maybe they’re part of Slack communities or niche industry forums.
Every audience behaves differently.
Once you’ve identified those customer touchpoints, your job becomes much clearer.
You don’t try to force everyone onto your website.
Instead, you meet your audience where they already spend their time and create value there.
Sometimes those touchpoints aren’t even online.
In some industries, people discover products through conferences, networking events, trade shows, referrals, television advertisements, radio campaigns, or even billboards. They may not search for your company on Google until they’ve already heard about you somewhere else.
Those channels matter just as much.
This is why I think we sometimes become too focused on SEO itself.
We spend a lot of time asking questions like:
“How do I rank for this keyword?”
“How do I increase my organic traffic?”
“How do I improve my click-through rate?”
They’re good questions.
But I don’t think they’re the first questions we should ask.
The first question should be much simpler.
How do I generate more qualified customers for this business?
Once you know the outcome you’re trying to achieve, everything else becomes a process of reverse engineering.
Who are those customers?
Where do they spend their time?
What influences their buying decisions?
Can we genuinely help them on those platforms?
If you think this way, you’ll naturally stop looking at SEO as the destination.
Instead, you’ll see it as one of many ways to reach your audience.
Sometimes the answer will be SEO.
Sometimes it’ll be LinkedIn.
Sometimes it’ll be Reddit.
Sometimes it’ll be YouTube.
Sometimes it’ll be digital PR.
Sometimes it’ll be community building.
Sometimes it’ll be speaking at industry events.
Sometimes it’ll even be offline marketing.
Everything is fair game if it helps you reach the right people.
Interestingly, I think this way of thinking also helps explain why some brands are consistently mentioned by AI systems even though they aren’t necessarily the strongest SEO websites. They’re present across multiple channels. They’re discussed in communities, cited by other publications, invited to podcasts, mentioned in conversations, and recognized as authorities beyond search engines.
That kind of visibility compounds over time.
So no, I don’t think people should stop focusing on their websites.
Your website is still your home base.
But I also don’t think it should be your entire marketing strategy.
SEO is one marketing channel.
An important one.
One that I still enjoy working in every single day.
But businesses don’t exist to generate rankings.
They exist to generate awareness, trust, leads, customers, and revenue.
If another channel helps achieve that outcome better, then it deserves your attention just as much as SEO does.
This is simply where my thinking is today.
Maybe six months from now, or a year from now, I’ll look back at this article and disagree with parts of it. Search is evolving. AI is evolving. Marketing is evolving.
One of the reasons I enjoy writing on this website is because it lets me document how my thinking changes over time.
I’m sure this won’t be my final opinion.
But it’s my current one.