I was going to write up my thoughts about the new AI data in Google Search Console this week but, quite frankly, there is simply not enough to write about yet. Yet another massively overhyped SEO event I am afraid.
So, I thought I would revisit my ‘Why SEO is like <insert random sport>’ reflections (see previous instalments for tennis, curling and sailing for context)…
In the crosshairs this time is football. More specifically, why being in charge of managing SEO campaigns is a bit like managing England at the World Cup. Very timely 🙂
There are few jobs in sport more heavily scrutinised than managing England, especially at a World Cup. Every supporter has a view on the starting eleven, the formation, the substitutions and the tactics. If England win, the performance could have been better. If they lose, the manager should obviously have done something completely different.
In many ways, managing SEO feels very similar. That might sound like a slightly laboured football analogy, but bear with me.
Whether you are Thomas Tuchel trying to guide England through a World Cup or an SEO team trying to improve organic visibility, the challenge is rarely as simple as outsiders think. Both jobs involve pressure, expectation, incomplete information, changing conditions and a huge number of people who are convinced they know the answer.
EVERYONE has an opinion
Football is very democratic in the sense that everyone is entitled to an opinion.
The trouble is that those opinions are often based on a fraction of the full picture. A fan watching from the sofa can see a misplaced pass, but they cannot see the training ground, the fitness data, the tactical preparation or the conversations taking place behind closed doors.
SEO suffers from the same problem. A client may have read an article claiming that AI has killed search. A sales director may want rankings by the end of the month. Someone on LinkedIn may be loudly declaring that backlinks are dead, blogs are dead, technical SEO is dead or that SEO itself has finally died for the hundredth time.
The reality is more nuanced.
Like Tuchel, an SEO manager has to listen to the noise without being ruled by it. There is value in feedback, but strategy cannot be built around the loudest voice in the room.
You need the right balance
England are blessed with talented players, but talent alone does not guarantee a winning team. The best eleven individuals do not always make the best team. You need balance, discipline, structure and a clear understanding of how each player contributes to the overall plan.
SEO is no different. Great content is important, but it cannot compensate for a poorly built website. Technical excellence matters, but it is of limited value if the content is thin and forgettable. Digital PR can deliver authority, but it needs to support a wider strategy rather than exist as a collection of isolated campaigns.
The strongest SEO campaigns are not built around one superstar tactic. They come from getting multiple disciplines working together. Content, technical SEO, UX, analytics, PR and commercial understanding all need to be pulling in the same direction.
That is very much a case of being easier said than done.
Preparation matters, but you still cannot control everything
A football manager can prepare meticulously and still be undone by an injury, a refereeing decision, a deflection or a penalty shootout. Football has too many variables to offer certainty, which is part of what makes it so compelling and so infuriating.
Again, I would argue that SEO shares this potential (likelihood?) of chaos and even the best laid plans can be derailed with next to no warning. Just think of the arrival of AI overviews, which had a massive effect on visibility and clicks from the SERPs.
You cannot control all of these things, but you can build a strategy that expects challenges and is resilient enough to cope with them. That means not relying on one tactic, one keyword, one traffic source or one short-term trick. It means building a brand that will withstand a bit of turbulence.
The boring work often wins
Supporters tend to remember the spectacular moments. The long-range goal, the last-minute winner and the inspired substitution. Managers, however, know that tournaments are often won through structure, discipline and doing the basics exceptionally well.
SEO is much the same. The work that makes the biggest difference is not always glamorous. Fixing crawl issues, improving internal linking, consolidating weak content, rewriting title tags, improving page speed and making sure important pages are easy to find rarely feels exciting.
But boring does not mean unimportant.
In fact, it is often the supposedly boring work that separates strong long-term SEO performance from a campaign that briefly looks busy but never really goes anywhere.
You have to adapt to the opposition
No sensible football manager prepares for every opponent in exactly the same way. Playing Brazil is not the same as playing a stubborn underdog who is happy to defend deep for ninety minutes. I am thinking of you Ghana!
The best managers understand the context and adapt accordingly.
The same applies to SEO. Every keyword has its own competitive landscape. Some search results demand detailed educational content. Others favour product pages, service pages, local results, video content or trusted editorial sources. Some sectors are dominated by huge brands, while others offer opportunities for specialists who can demonstrate genuine expertise.
A generic SEO checklist will only get you so far. Good SEO requires judgment. You need to understand what Google is rewarding for each query, what users actually want and where your best opportunities lie. That is an incredibly difficult skill to master and demands years of real experience.
Form is temporary, authority is built over time
Tournament football can be cruel because a single bad night can undo years of preparation. SEO is a little more forgiving, but it still suffers from the same overreaction to short-term form. Panic can often set in following a keyword drop, a drop in traffic or improvements made by a competitor.
This panic can be disastrous as dramatic decisions can be made but they based on a very small sample of data. Businesses often abandon a sensible strategy, rewrite everything, rebuild the website or chase the latest trend before understanding what has actually changed.
Strong SEO is built over time. Authority is earned gradually. Trust is developed through consistency. One disappointing month does not mean the plan is broken, just as one poor half of football does not mean the manager has lost the plot.
Ignore the noise from the stands
Tuchel should not build his tournament strategy around the mood of the nation after each match. If he were to change formation every time the pundits disagreed with him, England would have no identity at all.
SEO professionals are also subject to a similar pressure. The industry is full of noise, especially now that AI has given everyone a new acronym to sell. GEO, AEO, LLMO and whatever comes next may all contain elements worth thinking about, but they do not replace the fundamentals.
Search engines still need to understand your site. Users still need useful content. Brands still need authority. Websites still need to be fast, accessible and well structured.
There are always new developments to consider, but I would humbly argue that the basics remain stubbornly important.
Final whistle
I am not actually really a football person (is it really anything more than a bunch of overpaid prima donnas rolling around on the floor?), but I absolutely recognise that managing England at the World Cup is not easy.
The pressure is immense, the scrutiny is relentless and success depends on far more than simply picking the most talented players. It requires preparation, judgement, patience, adaptability and the confidence to make decisions that not everyone will understand at the time.
Managing SEO is not quite as dramatic, although looking at the SERPs does sometimes feel like a penalty shootout 🙂
The same principles apply. You need a clear strategy, the right people, a balanced approach and the discipline to avoid being distracted by every passing opinion.
As an agency, we definitely still believe that good SEO is built on fundamentals. Get the basics right and do them well. Keep learning / improving and adapt when the game changes.
Crucially, ignore the worst of the noise and try not to make your big tactical decisions based on some lager louts shouting from the stands.