Dark SEO + getting your CEO onboard

Most teams understand it, but few will survive implementing it

Three weeks ago, a VP of Marketing DM’d me: “I showed your Dark SEO article to my CEO. He’s skeptical about it, but I’m seeing it when I look in our GA4 account. What do I tell him?”

I’ve gotten other variations of that question 25+ times since publishing that piece.

The problem isn’t understanding Dark SEO - it’s surviving the implementation + adaptation of it.

So Tim and Oliver from YOYABA asked if I’d join them for a masterclass on how to navigate this last week. Hundreds of marketers watched it as we went deep on the data, frameworks, + tactical shifts we’re seeing. (+ here’s the recording for anyone interested)

And the questions they asked revealed the real problem:

Although some are starting to understand Dark SEO conceptually, most have no idea how to operationalize it without losing their budget, their leadership’s trust, or their job.

This isn’t about what Dark SEO is (I covered that last month here). It’s about the 3 moments where your Dark SEO strategy dies before we even get it off the ground + how to survive those.

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Sponsor: HockeyStack

You just closed a $150k deal. The prospect had their badge scanned at an event, saw 94 ads, got 5 calls/emails from a BDR, and read 3 blog posts. Now the CEO asks: “Who gets credit for this deal?”

But what if I told you that isn’t the question we should be asking?

For years, this was the question I was trying to answer because for years I operated with the “additive” mindset. What happens if we hire 3 more BDRs? What happens if we add $15k more ad spend? And then I would simply map out the anticipated ROI of that effort through our funnel and add it to our current expected outcomes. Hence “additive.”

And then the lightbulb went off. We weren’t successful because of one of those specific channels. We were successful because of how we leveraged the interplay between them.

I’ve had multiple chats with Emir Atli at HockeyStack over the past year about this subject, and this is exactly what they’re helping marketers and GTM leaders solve for.

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Death Moment #1: The board meeting where you lose your SEO budget

Here’s how it happens:

The board asks: “What’s our ROI on SEO?”

You pull up your handy dandy dashboard: “Impressions are up 150%, we’re ranking for 47 new keywords, domain authority increased to...”

They interrupt: “Sam, how much revenue did that drive?”

You say: “Well, attribution gets tricky with organic search...”

(And this is where you lose the budget)

I’ve heard about this happening three times this past quarter. Different companies, but the same exact conversation + same outcome.

The problem: We’ve been answering with channel metrics when they want outcome metrics.

Here’s the exact fix

Stop reporting on “SEO performance” + start reporting on “organic impact on pipeline.”

Here’s what this looks like when asked about SEO/organic performance:

Bad answer
“We’re ranking #3 for ‘best ATS’ and getting 2,000 visits per month from it”

Good answer
“In Q4, 23% of our closed deals cited organic search in their buying journey. Brand search volume is up 48% since we started, indicating they were already familiar with us when coming to the search engine/LLM. That’s $12.34M in pipeline this quarter.”

What to show them:

1. Brand search volume trends (leading indicator of demand)

   • June: 6,600 searches

   • September: 8,100 searches (+23%)

2. Self-reported attribution (how many deals cite “web research,” “Google,” “ChatGPT,” etc.)

   • Track this in your demo form

   • Ask sales to note it in discovery calls/pull this from call recordings

3. Pipeline impacted from organic efforts

   • Use triangulation: CRM attribution + self-reported + sales call transcripts

   • Show the full journey, not just the last click

Here’s what an example of this looks like:

Instead of saying “organic traffic is up 12%!”

Say this: “Organic demos are up 42% QoQ. That translates to an increase of 126% in pipeline generated. And we had 17 deals won in September sourced specifically from LLMs.”

Same data. Different story.

One keeps your budget. The other kills it.

Why this works

Your board doesn’t care about impressions. They care about what drives revenue.

When you show pipeline + revenue influenced (not just last-click attributed), you’re speaking their language.

If you can’t connect your SEO work to pipeline/revenue in the next board meeting, your budget is at risk. It doesn’t matter how good your strategy is if you can’t communicate it in a way that they understand.

Death Moment #2: Your team revolts because “the metrics don’t make sense”

Here’s the scene:

You just came back from the masterclass, fired up about Dark SEO.

You tell your team: “We’re changing how we measure SEO success. Clicks don’t matter anymore. We’re tracking AI visibility, non-branded impressions, + brand search now.”

Your SEO manager says: “So... we’re not tracking rankings anymore?”

Your content manager says: “Wait, how do I prove my work is valuable if we’re not measuring traffic?”

Your demand gen manager says: “How will we have any idea what’s actually working then?”

(This is where your strategy dies from internal resistance)

Most leaders think the problem is getting team buy-in. It’s not.

Here’s the problem: You’re changing the metrics without changing the incentives.

Here’s what happens when you don’t fix this:

Your SEO manager keeps optimizing for rankings because that’s what they know how to do.

Your content manager keeps writing for pageviews because that’s how they justify their job.

Your demand gen manager keeps reporting MQLs because that’s what’s in their dashboard.

Six months later, you’re back in the board meeting. Same questions. Same awkward silence. Except now you’ve spent another quarter’s worth of budget + time on a strategy your team never actually implemented and your board is wondering if they’re taking crazy pills because nothing’s changed.

Here’s the exact fix

With it coming down to incentives, we can’t just change what we measure. We have to change what we reward. This needs to be done via the conversations had with your team.

“Here’s what’s changing + here’s why it matters to you.”

To your SEO manager

Old way:
“You’re measured on rankings + traffic. Success is ranking #1 in the SERP + driving more traffic to the site month-over-month.”

New way
“You’re measured on AI visibility, non-branded impressions, + brand search lift. This is better for you because when brand search goes up, leadership sees the direct correlation to pipeline. That makes your work more valuable, not less. Rankings that don’t drive brand recall = busy work. Visibility that drives brand search = revenue impact.”

To your content lead

Old way:
“You’re measured on pageviews + time on site”

New way:
“You’re measured on citability + findability. Here’s the new question: ‘When prospects compare solutions, does our content show up?’ We’re tracking: 1) How often we appear in AI Overviews for comparison queries, 2) How often sales hears ‘I saw your content about X’ in disco calls, + 3) Self-reported attribution citing ‘web research.’ Every piece of content gets audited: Did it influence a deal? If yes, that’s a win. If no, we learn + adjust.”

To your demand gen manager

Old way:
“You’re measured on MQLs from organic search”

New way:
“You’re measured on pipeline from organic. We’re not giving up on attribution. We’re expanding it. The old way was solely based on last-click/first-click attribution. The new way is triangulation across CRM data + self-reported + sales intelligence. Your job got more important, not less. You’re now connecting the dots that most attribution tools miss.”

Pro tip: Tie the new metrics to their performance/career advancement. (This is the type of tactical item that fits perfectly into a performance assessment that’s actually helpful)

Show them how measuring Dark SEO correctly makes their work more visible to leadership, not less.

Why this works

People resist change, especially when they think it hurts them (AKA, they don’t understand why the change is occurring). They embrace change when they see it helps them.

If your team doesn’t understand how the new metrics make their work more valuable, they’ll never be bought in + the new strategy will die before it makes it off the ground. They’ll keep optimizing for the old metrics + your Dark SEO efforts will be for nothing.

Death Moment #3: You published 47 blog posts + none of them drive pipeline

Here’s what’s happening right now at most B2B companies:

The content team publishes 20 blog posts per month. The marketing leader asks: “How’s content performing?”

Data shows things like:

• 50K pageviews this month

• Average time on page 2:43

• Bounce rate 67%

So the marketing leader thinks: “Love it, the content is working.”

Three months later

The marketing leader is sitting in their quarterly business review with leadership/their board. The CFO asks: “What’s our ROI on content?”

So the marketing leader pulls up that data + reads it out, leading to the inevitable question from the CFO that we’ve all been asked a million times: “How many deals did content influence?”

(This is where content becomes viewed as a cost center vs. a revenue driver)

Here’s the problem: We’re measuring output (posts published) instead of outcome (deals impacted).

Here’s the exact fix

Audit your content for findability + citability.

Stop asking: “How many posts did we publish?”
Start asking: “How many deals did our content influence?”

The 10-deal audit:

Pull your last 10 closed deals (won AND lost).

For each deal, ask yourself:

1. “Did any of our content come up in the buying process?”

2. “Did the prospect mention anything they read or researched?”

3. “What did they say when asked ‘how did you hear about us?’”

Note: these can be done with tools like HockeyStack OR through good old fashioned research. Leverage. your self-reported attribution data like in #3. Listen to call recordings to see if they were mentioned. Grab a few AEs and ask them directly. Reference first + last touch data captured by your marketing automation tool. Etc.

If the answer is “none” or “I don’t know” for all 10 deals re: if content was involved, your content is NOT working. It doesn’t matter how much you publish, volume isn’t the issue.

If the answer is “yes” for 3+ deals, find the pattern. What content showed up? Where? When in the journey? What was the topic? What medium(s) were they in? What channel(s) were they consumed on?

Real example from our audit:

I did this exercise this year. Grabbed 10 deals to review. 7 of them cited content.

But here’s what we learned:

• None of them cited the standard “fluffy SEO” posts (500+ word, keyword-stuffed garbage targeting a super high-volume keyword)

• All 7 cited either: 1) Podcast episodes we’d transcribed, 2) Comparison posts (”X vs Y”), or 3) Deep expertise content (our ABP playbook)

The fix we made:

We stopped using the “standard” SEO playbook + instead doubled down on:

• Transcribing every podcast episode (make it AI-readable) + also turning those into their own unique blog posts based on the topic

• Writing comparison content (what prospects actually search)

• Creating expertise content (what makes us different)

The results:

Published something like 25% fewer posts (that no one enjoyed writing anyway). Influenced 2x more deals.

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The tactical checklist

For every piece of content, we now ask:

Findability:

• Does this answer a question prospects actually ask?

• Can AI extract a clear answer from this?

• Does this show up when prospects compare solutions?

Citability:

• Is this quotable? (Or is it generic fluff?)

• Does this include specific frameworks/methodologies?

• Would a prospect remember this 2 weeks later?

If the answer to any of these is “no,” don’t publish it. It’s better to publish 5 pieces that influence deals than 20 pieces that don’t make meaningful impact except drive pageviews.

Why this works

Content that gets published ≠ content that gets remembered.

In the Dark SEO era, we’re not optimizing for clicks. We’re optimizing for mental real estate.

If our content isn’t showing up in sales conversations, it’s not working. It doesn’t matter how “optimized” it is.

The CEO questions (+ how to answer them)

You’ve survived the 3 death moments…
…but your CEO still has questions.

Here are the questions you should anticipate + how to respond:

Question #1: “If AI answers everything, why are we still doing SEO? Should we shift budget to paid?”

Bad answer
“SEO is a long-term play. We need to be patient.”

Good answer
“SEO is a down payment on making paid more efficient. Here’s the math:

When someone sees us in an AI Overview but doesn’t click, they file our name away. Then when they see our ad 2 days later, we’re not cold/unknown anymore. They’re familiar with our name and have at least an idea of what we do/the problem we solve.

For example, without organic visibility, our paid numbers look like:

• Paid ads = $487 CAC

• 3.2% conversion rate

But with high organic visibility, they look like this:

• Paid ads = $213 CAC

• 7.8% conversion rate

SEO isn’t competing with paid. It’s making paid more effective.”

Q2: “What’s the point of ranking if nobody clicks anymore?”

Bad answer
“People will eventually click.”

Good answer
“Ranking ≠ clicks. Ranking = mental real estate.

When someone searches ‘best ATS for agencies’ + sees us in the AI Overview, they’re not clicking. But they’re filing our name away.

Then when they’re ready to evaluate, they search for US directly.

We’re literally seeing this play out in real-time:

• Unbranded clicks: flat

• Brand searches: +23%

• Demos from branded searches: +42%

That’s not failure. This is exactly what we saw with dark social in 2020 + it’s the same exact pattern now with dark SEO.”

Q3: “How do I explain declining traffic to the board when competitors are growing?”

Bad answer
“Traffic doesn’t matter anymore.”

Good answer
“Traffic’s correlation to pipeline/revenue growth has gone from a strong, positive correlation to a correlation closer to 0. It’s not bad, but it’s not what it once was as an indicator of future growth.

If our traffic is down but our pipeline from organic is up 2x, that means we’re showing up in higher-intent searches.

Competitors might have more traffic because they’re ranking for fluff keywords that don’t drive pipeline (AKA, what we used to do and then wonder why all that traffic we had wasn’t turning into pipeline).

We’re ranking for comparison queries + AI citations that drive direct brand searches.

I’d rather have 1,000 visitors who convert at 8% than 10,000 visitors who convert at 0.3%.”

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What to do if you actually want this to work

Most people will read this + nod along…but change nothing.

If you want to survive these 3 death moments + conversations with your CEO/board, do this:

The first week back in January

1. Audit your last board deck

Did you show channel metrics or outcome metrics? Can you connect your organic work to pipeline + revenue? If not, rewrite it before the next meeting.

2. Have the metrics conversation with your team

Don’t just announce new metrics, explain how the new metrics make their work more valuable + tie it to their career advancement.

3. Run the 10-deal content audit

Pull your last 10 closed deals + look into them, asking yourself “Did our content come up?” Then find the pattern, kill what’s not working, + expand on what is.

By the end of January

Audit your top 10 “money keywords” - the searches that matter most to your business.

If you don’t know what they are, ask sales “What do prospects say they searched for before finding us?”, look at your CRM data for patterns in how people discovered you, and/or listen to call recordings.

Once you have your list, search for each one in:

• Google (SERP listings)

• Google (AI overviews)

• LLMs (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini, etc.)

As you go through each one, ask:

1. Does our brand show up? (yes/no)

2. If so, how is it positioned? (1st, 2nd, 3rd, not mentioned, etc.)

3. What’s the sentiment? (positive, neutral, negative)

4. Sources cited (our website, 3rd party review site, competitor’s comparison page, etc.)

Put it in a spreadsheet. This becomes your baseline. If you’re not showing up in at least 2 of those 4 places for your money keywords, this isn’t a traffic problem, it’s a findability problem. Fix that before you worry about anything else.

Wrapping up: the gap between knowing + doing

Most marketers are starting to understand Dark SEO. They’ve seen it before with Dark Social and are using that as their mental model.

So the challenge isn’t what to do, it’s how to do it when:

• Your board still wants click-based ROI

• Your team is still measured on the old metrics

• Your content isn’t built for AI citability

This is the gap between knowing what to do + actually doing the work for this to be successful.

The 3 death moments

1. The board meeting where you lose your budget

2. Your team quietly sabotages the strategy

3. You publish 47 posts that drive zero pipeline

Most teams will hit all three during 2026, + most won’t survive.

The gap isn’t understanding Dark SEO. It’s implementing it when your board wants clicks, your team wants traffic, and your content is built for Google circa 2019.

The teams that survive aren’t the ones who understand Dark SEO first. They’re the ones who operationalize it while everyone else is still explaining what it is.

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Book quote of the week

“Never take it for granted that your past successes will continue into the future. Actually, your past successes are your biggest obstacle: every battle, every war, is different, and you cannot assume that what worked before will work today.”
- The 33 Strategies of War, by Robert Greene

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See you next Saturday,
Sam

P.S This is part 7 of my SEO series as I share in real-time what I’m learning + what we’re seeing as we continue to push harder into the world of SEO here at Loxo. In case you missed the earlier editions:
Part 1: SEO isn’t dead
Part 2: They told me “no”
Part 3: “Is it working?”
Part 4: The “Alligator Effect”
Part 5: We cut our best keywords
Part 6: Dark SEO