For so long as I’ve been on this business, there’s been debate about whether or not search engine marketing is strategic or tactical. Most SEOs want to consider their work is strategic. Many executives see it as tactical. The reality is someplace in between, and the arrival of generative AI is forcing a brand new degree of readability.
This issues as a result of “technique” and “ways” are usually not synonyms. In enterprise, technique is the plan. Techniques are the strikes. Complicated the 2 doesn’t simply muddy language. It results in wasted sources, stalled initiatives, and misplaced expectations for what search engine marketing can and can’t ship.
Defining Technique Vs. Techniques
Enterprise literature has been clear on this for many years, and voices like Porter, Mintzberg, and Drucker formed how leaders all over the place speak about technique. Their framing applies instantly after we study search engine marketing’s function right now.
Michael Porter is widely known as the daddy of contemporary aggressive technique. A professor at Harvard Enterprise College, he framed technique as “selecting to run a special race, as a result of it’s the one you’ve set your self as much as win.” His e-book “Aggressive Technique” stays one of many foundational texts in enterprise pondering (his e-book on Amazon – not an affiliate hyperlink).
Henry Mintzberg is likely one of the most cited teachers in administration and organizational principle. He’s well-known for noting, “Technique will not be the consequence of planning, however the reverse: its start line.” He additionally developed the 5 Ps framework — Plan, Ploy, Sample, Place, and Perspective — which captures technique as each deliberate and emergent (Mintzberg’s “The Technique Idea I: 5 Ps for Technique”).
Peter Drucker is usually known as the daddy of contemporary administration. His work formed how corporations take into consideration management and decision-making. He emphasised that “the duty of management is to create an alignment of strengths so robust that it makes the system’s weaknesses irrelevant.” His e-book “The Observe of Administration” is taken into account a landmark in defining administration’s function in aligning technique with organizational outcomes (Drucker biography on the Drucker Institute).
Techniques, against this, are the sensible steps. They’re what frontline groups execute, normally with short-term horizons. A technique is perhaps to compete on buyer belief as a substitute of low costs. The ways are testimonial campaigns, return insurance policies, and coaching workers to ship distinctive service.
Different enterprise capabilities get this distinction. In gross sales, technique is deciding to prioritize enterprise accounts. Techniques are outreach sequences and demo scripts. In PR, technique is positioning the model as an business chief. Techniques are pitching journalists and writing press releases. search engine marketing isn’t any totally different.
The confusion comes as a result of search engine marketing usually has to “do all of it.” Practitioners are anticipated to determine alternatives, set priorities, after which execute the work. That’s the place the labels blur.
Technique And Techniques In Conventional search engine marketing
Trying again on the historical past of search engine marketing makes the divide simpler to see.
- Early 2000s, PageRank period: Technique was easy. Spend money on being discoverable on Google. Techniques included hyperlink constructing, listing submissions, and keyword-stuffed pages. Firms that handled search engine marketing purely tactically usually succeeded short-term however collapsed when penalties arrived. The technique was clear. Pursue visibility on Google, whereas the ways had been the hyperlink farms, key phrase stuffing, and listing submissions that executed it.
- 2010–2015, Panda and Penguin: Google cracked down on low-quality content material and manipulative hyperlinks. Technique shifted to “high quality and sustainability.” Techniques grew to become pruning skinny content material, disavowing dangerous hyperlinks, and investing in editorial groups. Content material farms like Demand Media scaled on ways, however lacked sustainable technique, they usually had been decimated by Panda. Right here once more, management set the strategic shift towards high quality, and search engine marketing carried it out by means of content material pruning and hyperlink cleanup.
- 2015–2020, Cellular and Core Net Vitals: Technique was “meet customers the place they’re.” They had been on cellular and needed quick experiences. Techniques had been responsive design, structured information, and web site pace audits. Firms that made this strategic shift early (e.g., information shops investing in AMP) gained benefit. The strategic objective was serving customers the place they had been, whereas search engine marketing applied the tactical fixes that delivered on it.
- 2020s, BERT and passage indexing: Technique tilted towards semantic relevance, competing not simply on key phrases however on that means and intent. Techniques had been writing for matters, structuring content material for passage-level retrieval, and emphasizing context. Technique tilted towards that means; ways adopted within the type of subject clusters and passage-level optimization.
At each stage, management set the technique (“we’d like development from search”), and search engine marketing executed the ways. Superior SEOs generally influenced technique by warning about dangers or alternatives, however the bulk of labor remained tactical.
Technique And Techniques In GenAI Optimization
Generative AI reshapes the panorama. As a substitute of 10 blue hyperlinks, customers now get synthesized solutions. That modifications each the strategic questions and the tactical execution.
Strategic decisions now embody:
- Deciding whether or not to compete for visibility throughout a number of AI engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and so forth.).
- Prioritizing authority indicators so your model is cited in machine solutions.
- Selecting the place to allocate finances: competing for evergreen visibility in broad matters, or dominating slim niches the place AI protection is weaker.
- Figuring out how a lot to spend money on retrievability testing and monitoring as an organizational perform.
Tactical execution now contains:
- Structuring content material into retrievable chunks sized for vector search.
- Operating retrieval checks throughout platforms to measure publicity.
- Optimizing semantic density so every chunk is information-rich and self-contained.
- Including schema and structured information to make clear entities and information.
- Monitoring machine-validated authority by measuring whether or not your content material is surfaced or cited in AI responses.
- Question fan-out work to find out alternatives and determine semantic overlap.
These ways look new, however they construct instantly on the inspiration of conventional search engine marketing. Schema is solely structured markup, refined. Semantic density is the following evolution of topical relevance. Retrieval checks are the fashionable equal of checking indexation. GenAI optimization doesn’t substitute search engine marketing; it evolves from it.
GenAI Optimization: Is It A Technique Or Tactic?
The sudden surge of curiosity in “GenAI optimization” is an ideal case examine on this strategy-versus-tactics debate.
Everyone seems to be speaking about chunking, embeddings, and retrievability as if they’re technique. They aren’t. They’re ways. And treating ways as technique is a traditional oversimplification, one thing the business has been responsible of for many years.
- On the strategic degree: Companies determine that GenAI visibility is crucial. They commit finances to turning into retrievable and authoritative throughout AI techniques. They set objectives to be cited in machine solutions for his or her core vertical.
- On the tactical degree: Groups restructure content material into chunks, add schema, run retrieval probes in ChatGPT or Perplexity, and measure quotation frequency.
Each layers are wanted. The danger comes when corporations mistake tactical execution for technique.
The Price Of Misalignment
When technique and ways are misaligned, companies lose, and the losses are measurable.
- Missed alternatives: If management hasn’t set a technique for GenAI visibility, tactical work is scattershot. Groups optimize content material however don’t know which queries, matters, or surfaces matter. Rivals with clearer methods win the bottom.
- Misplaced income: With out technique, corporations could safe citations in AI solutions that don’t align with buyer worth. The result’s visibility with out conversion.
- Wasted budgets: Chasing each GenAI pattern with no clear North Star results in funding in instruments and audits that ship no significant ROI.
- Eroded belief: When executives consider they’ve funded a technique however solely see tactical outputs, confidence in search engine marketing groups drops. Management anticipated market impression and the staff solely delivered structural updates.
The lesson is blunt: Companies don’t normally fail as a result of ways are poorly executed. They normally fail as a result of ways aren’t anchored in technique.
Why search engine marketing Has Been Seen As Tactical
For 20 years, search engine marketing has been outlined by tactical output. Executives set the technique (“We’d like natural development”), and search engine marketing was tasked with delivering by means of audits, fixes, optimizations, and publishing.
This framing wasn’t mistaken because it mirrored the organizational construction. Technique was set greater up; SEOs carried it out. That’s why search engine marketing usually struggled to win finances or a seat in strategic planning conferences. It was seen as execution.
The AI-Pushed Shift
Generative AI modifications that equation. Machines are absorbing tactical search engine marketing duties. In the present day, AI instruments can generate meta descriptions, counsel key phrases, construct inside linking suggestions, even create structured schema markup. Some platforms simulate retrieval patterns instantly. What as soon as required specialised search engine marketing execution is more and more automated.
That doesn’t get rid of search engine marketing. It elevates it. If tactical execution is turning into commoditized, the worth shifts to technique.
This mirrors Microsoft’s analysis on AI’s occupational impacts, which distinguishes between consumer objectives (strategic intent) and AI actions (tactical execution). People set the “why.” AI delivers the “how.”
For search engine marketing, the identical shift is underway. The tactical layer is being automated. The strategic alternative is to steer on visibility, authority, and belief in AI-driven ecosystems.
Drawing The Line With Examples
- Conventional search engine marketing in monetary companies: The technique is to dominate “retirement planning for millennials.” The ways embody create calculators, publish evergreen guides, optimize metadata, and construct related backlinks.
- GenAI optimization in sustainable investing: The technique is to make sure the model is a trusted quotation in AI solutions on ESG funds. The ways embody run retrieval checks in Perplexity, embed structured citations, optimize chunks for semantic readability, and measure quotation frequency in ChatGPT and Gemini.
One units the route. The opposite executes the playbook.
Why This Feels Sensitive
Many SEOs name their work strategic as a result of they join content material, technical structure, and authority indicators right into a broader image. In lots of organizations, they’re the one ones framing visibility in any respect, however that doesn’t make each motion strategic.
That deserves credit score. However precision issues. Operating an audit will not be technique. Updating a robots.txt file will not be technique. These are tactical actions. If we blur the road, we diminish our affect at exactly the second AI is eroding the worth of ways.
The place The Stability Lies
So, is search engine marketing strategic or tactical? The trustworthy reply is each, however not equally.
- Traditionally, search engine marketing has been tactical.
- In the present day, search engine marketing carries strategic implications, particularly as AI reshapes discovery.
- The chance is to make the leap: from executing optimizations to shaping how organizations seem in machine-driven solutions.
The steadiness is that this: Techniques nonetheless matter. You may’t ignore schema, chunking, or retrieval testing. However the differentiator is technique: deciding which battles to struggle, which surfaces to win, and the right way to align search engine marketing with the corporate’s long-term positioning.
Why This Issues For SEOs
This isn’t a semantic debate. It’s about affect and survival.
- If search engine marketing is seen as tactical, it’s underfunded, siloed, and introduced in too late.
- If search engine marketing is seen as strategic, it will get finances, sources, and a seat within the boardroom.
The GenAI shift creates a once-in-a-generation opening for SEOs to redefine their worth. As AI absorbs extra tactical execution, the true alternative is for SEOs to align with company-level technique and develop their scope into visibility, belief, and authority. Those that acknowledge the distinction between technique and ways will step into management. Those that keep targeted solely on tactical execution threat being automated out.
Closing Thought
For 20 years, search engine marketing has been tactical excellence in service of development. With GenAI, the tactical layer is shifting to machines. That makes technique the defining frontier.
Not as a result of SEOs all of a sudden grew to become strategists, however as a result of the atmosphere calls for it. The query now’s: will SEOs step into that function, or will another person declare it?
Extra Assets:
This submit was initially revealed on Duane Forrester Decodes.
Featured Picture: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock
