Spend less time on SEO for a better Google rank

In 2021 when the first version of this post appeared, I argued that SEO was a time-sink for anyone not running a massive e-commerce operation.

Five years later, the arrival of AI-driven "Answer Engines" has turned that opinion into a survival strategy. If you are still optimising for the "10 blue links," you are optimising for a ghost town. No-one cares. In 2026, the only SEO that works is the kind that doesn't look like SEO at all.

There is a place for search engine optimisation. This site has never been one of them.

Who needs SEO? Not me

You need SEO if you sell online. You need it if you run a business and want customers to find you online. Although good luck standing out among everyone else trying to rank for the same keywords.

Otherwise, search engine optimisation can be a huge time sink. This is even more true if you are not selling anything.

This is even truer today. In the age of AI Overviews, Chat-GPT and Gemini-powered search, the "middle-man" click is dying. If an AI can summarise your generic advice, it will. It won't send the user to your site; it will simply harvest your data and move on.

There's also a tension between SEO and, for want of a better term, journalism integrity. Sometimes it is better to keep old posts online even if they hurt your search performance.

SEO busywork

SEO involves a whole string of busywork that has the appearance of being productive without getting you anywhere in practice. There are an endless stream of tasks and tweaks that, in theory, can improve your site’s ranking in Google search.

It’s a moving target. Get on top of one set of algorithm changes and new ones appear to drag you back.

Businesses that need to sell online can spend money on search engine optimisation consultants.

It's an industry

SEO is a task best left to professionals who can stay on top of the constant change. An entire industry exists covering a range of nuanced ideas and concepts that, frankly, are baffling to outsiders.

It has its own jargon, its own myths. The people who work in it would like us to think there is secret knowledge.

Perhaps there is. More likely, it all comes down to a set of basic principles and being in the right place at the right time.

Secret knowledge

Today's secret SEO knowledge isn't about keywords; it’s about Information Density. AI models are trained on the "average" of the internet.

That means, if you write average content, you become invisible—you are just part of the training data. The only way to "rank" in 2026 is to have a "Human-in-the-Loop" advantage. This means having a name, a face and a reputation that an AI agent can cite as a trusted source. AI can't fake "skin in the game."

I struggle a little with this. My background and training as a journalist—it's almost 50 years since I first tapped out a newspaper story—told me NOT to insert myself in the story, but to stick with facts. These days, my personal insights and experience is what separates my copy from machine written text.

Time, energy, money

For most of us, there are better ways to use that time, energy and money.

A glance at Google Search Console shows this site rises and falls in the various rankings over time. The rises coincide with periods of more writing activity. Falls are in synch with when there are long pauses between posts.

It’s not an exact match. Yet one thing is certain. The less time is spent on SEO, the better this site ranks in Google.

The strangest, non-obvious stories can be runaway successes on Google. Those considered, well researched in-depth explorations of important issues can be sidelined, eclipsed in search by click-bait and trashy opinions. Although sometimes they surface weeks or months later like sleeping giants waking from slumber.

Just make the site better

Experience says the best investment of time and energy is building a quality site with interesting posts. Make that plenty of interesting posts.

No money required.

One thing has become certain: The less time spent on technical "tricks," the more time you have for the real business of writing.

In 2026, Google’s algorithms are looking for "Entities"—real people with real expertise. They want to see that Bill Bennett, the person, has a consistent voice across the web.

The strangest, non-obvious stories can be runaway successes because they offer what LLMs cannot: a first-person perspective, a counter-intuitive opinion, or a local New Zealand context that isn't found in a generic database.

The 2021 verdict is the 2026 verdict

Experience says the best investment of time and energy is building a quality site with interesting posts. Make that plenty of interesting posts. In the AI era, don't write for the crawler; write to be the source the crawler is forced to cite.

Key points:

AI beats keywords: Traditional SEO and keyword stuffing is now obsolete. AI search makes 'information density' and original data the priority.

Citations not clicks: Traffic remains useful, but these days it is more important to be the source quoted in an AI generated answer. You want your name to be in everyone's sights.

Being human: Your expertise and experience are two things AI cannot fake. Your personal reputation is even more valuable currency than in the past.

More on Media Process:

• Reviewing technology: Science and anecdotes – The methodology behind independent product testing.
• When the internet disappears – Why digital preservation and archives matter for the future of news.