For so long as I’ve been on this trade, there’s been debate about whether or not web optimization is strategic or tactical. Most SEOs want to imagine 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 “techniques” 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 assets, stalled initiatives, and misplaced expectations for what web optimization can and can’t ship.
Defining Technique Vs. Techniques
Picture credit score: Duane ForresterEnterprise 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 straight after we study web optimization’s function as we speak.
Michael Porter is well known as the daddy of recent aggressive technique. A professor at Harvard Enterprise Faculty, 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 guide “Aggressive Technique” stays one of many foundational texts in enterprise pondering (his guide on Amazon – not an affiliate hyperlink).
Henry Mintzberg is among the most cited teachers in administration and organizational principle. He’s well-known for noting, “Technique is just not 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 commonly known as the daddy of recent administration. His work formed how firms 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 guide “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, in contrast, are the sensible steps. They’re what frontline groups execute, often with short-term horizons. A method may be to compete on buyer belief as a substitute of low costs. The techniques are testimonial campaigns, return insurance policies, and coaching employees 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 trade chief. Techniques are pitching journalists and writing press releases. web optimization isn’t any completely different.
The confusion comes as a result of web optimization typically has to “do all of it.” Practitioners are anticipated to establish alternatives, set priorities, after which execute the work. That’s the place the labels blur.
Technique And Techniques In Conventional web optimization
Wanting again on the historical past of web optimization 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 web optimization purely tactically typically succeeded short-term however collapsed when penalties arrived. The technique was clear. Pursue visibility on Google, whereas the techniques 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 unhealthy hyperlinks, and investing in editorial groups. Content material farms like Demand Media scaled on techniques, however lacked sustainable technique, they usually had been decimated by Panda. Right here once more, management set the strategic shift towards high quality, and web optimization carried it out via content material pruning and hyperlink cleanup.
- 2015–2020, Cell and Core Net Vitals: Technique was “meet customers the place they’re.” They had been on cell and wished quick experiences. Techniques had been responsive design, structured knowledge, and website pace audits. Firms that made this strategic shift early (e.g., information retailers investing in AMP) gained benefit. The strategic aim was serving customers the place they had been, whereas web optimization carried out 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 which means and intent. Techniques had been writing for subjects, structuring content material for passage-level retrieval, and emphasizing context. Technique tilted towards which means; techniques adopted within the type of matter clusters and passage-level optimization.
At each stage, management set the technique (“we want development from search”), and web optimization executed the techniques. Superior SEOs typically 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 adjustments each the strategic questions and the tactical execution.
Strategic decisions now embrace:
- 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 funds: competing for evergreen visibility in broad subjects, 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 consists of:
- Structuring content material into retrievable chunks sized for vector search.
- Working retrieval checks throughout platforms to measure publicity.
- Optimizing semantic density so every chunk is information-rich and self-contained.
- Including schema and structured knowledge to make clear entities and details.
- 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 establish semantic overlap.
These techniques look new, however they construct straight on the muse of conventional web optimization. Schema is just structured markup, refined. Semantic density is the subsequent evolution of topical relevance. Retrieval checks are the trendy equal of checking indexation. GenAI optimization doesn’t change web optimization; it evolves from it.
GenAI Optimization: Is It A Technique Or Tactic?
The sudden surge of curiosity in “GenAI optimization” is an ideal case research 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 techniques. And treating techniques as technique is a traditional oversimplification, one thing the trade has been responsible of for many years.
- On the strategic degree: Companies resolve that GenAI visibility is important. They commit funds to changing 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 firms mistake tactical execution for technique.
The Value Of Misalignment
When technique and techniques are misaligned, companies lose, and the losses are measurable.
- Missed alternatives: If management hasn’t set a method for GenAI visibility, tactical work is scattershot. Groups optimize content material however don’t know which queries, subjects, or surfaces matter. Opponents with clearer methods win the bottom.
- Misplaced income: With out technique, firms 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 development with no clear North Star results in funding in instruments and audits that ship no significant ROI.
- Eroded belief: When executives imagine they’ve funded a method however solely see tactical outputs, confidence in web optimization groups drops. Management anticipated market impression and the workforce solely delivered structural updates.
The lesson is blunt: Companies don’t often fail as a result of techniques are poorly executed. They often fail as a result of techniques aren’t anchored in technique.
Why web optimization Has Been Seen As Tactical
For 20 years, web optimization has been outlined by tactical output. Executives set the technique (“We’d like natural development”), and web optimization was tasked with delivering via audits, fixes, optimizations, and publishing.
This framing wasn’t improper because it mirrored the organizational construction. Technique was set increased up; SEOs carried it out. That’s why web optimization typically struggled to win funds or a seat in strategic planning conferences. It was seen as execution.
The AI-Pushed Shift
Generative AI adjustments that equation. Machines are absorbing tactical web optimization duties. Right this moment, AI instruments can generate meta descriptions, recommend key phrases, construct inner linking suggestions, even create structured schema markup. Some platforms simulate retrieval patterns straight. What as soon as required specialised web optimization execution is more and more automated.
That doesn’t remove web optimization. It elevates it. If tactical execution is changing into commoditized, the worth shifts to technique.
This mirrors Microsoft’s analysis on AI’s occupational impacts, which distinguishes between person objectives (strategic intent) and AI actions (tactical execution). People set the “why.” AI delivers the “how.”
For web optimization, 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 web optimization in monetary companies: The technique is to dominate “retirement planning for millennials.” The techniques embrace 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 techniques embrace run retrieval checks in Perplexity, embed structured citations, optimize chunks for semantic readability, and measure quotation frequency in ChatGPT and Gemini.
One units the path. 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. Working an audit is just not technique. Updating a robots.txt file is just not technique. These are tactical actions. If we blur the road, we diminish our affect at exactly the second AI is eroding the worth of techniques.
The place The Stability Lies
So, is web optimization strategic or tactical? The trustworthy reply is each, however not equally.
- Traditionally, web optimization has been tactical.
- Right this moment, web optimization 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 stability is that this: Techniques nonetheless matter. You’ll be able to’t ignore schema, chunking, or retrieval testing. However the differentiator is technique: deciding which battles to combat, which surfaces to win, and tips on how to align web optimization 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 web optimization is seen as tactical, it’s underfunded, siloed, and introduced in too late.
- If web optimization is seen as strategic, it will get funds, assets, 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 increase their scope into visibility, belief, and authority. Those that acknowledge the distinction between technique and techniques will step into management. Those that keep targeted solely on tactical execution danger being automated out.
Closing Thought
For 20 years, web optimization 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 instantly 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 Sources:
This submit was initially revealed on Duane Forrester Decodes.
Featured Picture: Vitalii Vodolazskyi/Shutterstock
