I’m carefully watching the development of agentic SEO, as I believe over the next few years, as capabilities improve, agents will have a significant impact on the industry. I’m not suggesting this will be a seamless replacement of talent with a highly capable machine intelligence. There is going to be a lot of trial and error, but I do think we are going to see radical shifts in how the online space operates. Not unlike how automation transformed manufacturing.
Marie Haynes has long been a well-known expert in the industry who shared her learnings on E-E-A-T and Google’s algorithm through her popular Search News You Can Use newsletter.
A few years ago, Marie made the decision to retire her SEO agency and went all in on learning AI systems, as she believes we’re at the beginning of a profound transformation.
Marie wrote a recent article, “Hype or not, should you be investing in AI agents?” about what SEOs need to understand about this rapidly developing space. So, I invited her to IMHO to dive more into this topic.
Marie believes AI will radically change our world for the better, and she believes every business will have AI agents.
You can watch the full interview with Marie on the IMHO recording at the end, or continue reading the article summary.
“The idea that we optimize for appearing as one of the 10 blue links on Google is already gone.”
Experimenting With Gemini Gems
Marie’s practical advice for anyone wanting to understand agents is to start with Gems:
“If you take one thing from this conversation, it’s to try to create some Gemini Gems,” Marie emphasized. “Eventually I’m fairly certain that these gems will morph into agentic workflows.”
To illustrate, she shared a process she called her “originality Gem,” which contains a 500+ word prompt that captures how she evaluates content, along with examples of truly original content in its knowledge base.
“We’re not far from the day where all of my processes that I do for SEO can be handled by agentic workflows that occasionally pull on me for some advice,” Marie said.
The Power Of Chaining Agents
The next progression and real potential come from chaining agents together to create agentic workflows.
The power that this gives opportunity to is that we can use our knowledge and experience to teach AI like a team of assistants to do the work that can be automated.
We would then orchestrate the process and, like a conductor, sit and guide the agents to perform the work as we become the human-in-the-loop to review the output.
Once we have downloaded our knowledge to the agents, and the systems work, we can scale ourselves to handle exponential clients.
“Instead of me handling just a small handful of clients, all of a sudden I could have a hundred clients and do the same work because it’s all going through my workflow,” Marie said.
The challenge here is the skill in prompting the agents and constructing them to achieve the desired output.
“The future of our industry is not about optimizing for an engine, but about acting as the interface between businesses and technology, and we will be the human experts who teach, guide, and implement AI agents.”
Why Gemini Over ChatGPT
I asked Marie why she focuses on Gemini over ChatGPT, and her response was based on futureproofing: “The main reason why I use Gemini is not to accomplish things today, but to grow my skills in what’s coming tomorrow.”
Marie went on to explain that “Google’s got a whole ecosystem that you can see it coming together like right now,” and she believes that Google will be the winner in the AI race.
“I think that Google is going to win the game. I think it’s always been their game to win. So I make it a point to use Gemini as much as I can.”
Transformations Will Follow The Money
Marie’s prediction for the next few years is for workflows to become embedded. “Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, said this way back in March, that, in two to four years, every agentic workflow will be deeply embedded into our day-to-day work.”
However, she thinks the real transformations will come when businesses start making money from agentic workflows.
“It’s wild how many trillions of dollars are being spent on developing AI, yet there’s not a whole lot of financial output at this point,” Marie noted, referencing a McKinsey study showing 95% of businesses using AI aren’t making money from it yet [Editor’s note: McKinsey was 80%; MIT said 95%].
“It’s very similar to SEO. There was a day where there were just a small handful of people who figured out how to improve on Google. Once people started making good money from understanding SEO, there was a lot of attention. Tools were created and a whole industry popped up. I think that’s going to happen again. Will it be within the next 12 months? I don’t know. I feel like it might be a little bit longer.”
What SEOs Should Do Now
Overwhelm is a real issue to be aware of, and with developments moving so quickly, there is a huge learning curve to essentially retrain. Even for those working on this full-time.
Marie made a commitment when she went all in on AI research. “I made it my full-time job to stay on top of what’s happening, and even I get overwhelmed with all the stuff that’s happening with AI,” she explained.
Marie’s advice is to keep learning, keep trying things, and experiment with writing prompts.
“The next time you go to do a task, try to create an agent that would do this for you,” she suggested. Even if you don’t finish, you’ll learn skills for the next attempt.
Also, persevere instead of taking the first failure. “Try to figure out what they can do, instead of just telling everybody, ‘Oh, it can’t do this.’ Find ways you can use it.”
For development teams, she recommends vibe coding with tools like Google’s Anti Gravity or AI Studio. “You can deploy a whole website without even knowing any HTML,” Marie said.
She also advocates for deep research reports using either Gemini or ChatGPT to analyze how competitors are using AI, providing immediate value to clients while building skills.
The Future Of SEO
Marie referenced Sundar Pichai calling AI technology more profound than fire or electricity in its impact on society. Despite acknowledging her bias after investing significant time in understanding AI, she maintains there’s going to be societal disruption.
“Being able to understand what’s happening in the world and distill it down to what’s important to your clients will be a superpower,” she said. Although, she does admit, there is still a lot of learning and grey areas to move through as we navigate the edge of technology.
“If you’re feeling lost, you’re not alone because imagine right now we’re sort of at the forefront of all of these changes happening.”
For those who do persevere, there will be significant rewards. Eventually, business owners will be clamoring for people who can explain AI and implement it. The professionals who develop these skills now will be extremely valuable in the future.
“The people who know how to use AI, know how to create agents, and know how to make money from AI are going to be extremely valuable in the future.”
Watch the full video interview with Marie Haynes here:
Thank you to Marie Haynes for offering her insights and being my guest on IMHO.
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Featured Image: Shelley Walsh/Search Engine Journal
