The organic evolution: redefining digital marketing

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At this year’s #FriendsOfSearch2025 event, one message rang louder than ever: It’s about being everywhere your audience is and authentically engaging with them.

Whether you call it Search Everywhere Optimization, Cross-Channel Search, or Multi-Platform Optimization as we do, the playbook for success is clear - go wide, not just deep. As Wil Reynolds so aptly put it, brands now need to be everywhere their audience spends time while remaining authentically engaged, which many companies fail to do as Rand Fishkin showed.

Source: https://sparktoro.com/blog/if-your-audiences-sources-of-influence-and-your-marketing-budget-dont-align-youre-gonna-have-a-bad-time/

Redefining the search landscape

Rand fishkin Large — Speaker Rand Fishkin at #FriendsOfSearch2025

Organic traffic vs. revenue: While the volume of organic traffic might be declining, the quality of traffic—and ultimately organic revenue—is on the rise. This means it’s time for leadership teams to rethink their investments and success metrics. Today’s leadership teams need to shift from simply tallying clicks to measuring brand share, market penetration, and long-term customer value.

Evolving metrics: Tools that measure “traffic share” and “search share” are gaining traction as for many C-level executives, these indicators serve as a more intuitive way to understand performance, much like monitoring market share in the offline world.

The conversation at #FriendsOfSearch2025 underscored the importance of shifting your focus from vanity metrics to those that clearly tie back to business growth.

At VML, we’re all about that value-driven approach—always pushing for a solid ROI (we’re talking 300% or more).

Embracing cross-channel visibility

Jes Scholz Large — Speaker Jes Scholz at #FriendsOfSearch2025

One of the standout themes of the event was that SEO is no longer confined to one “home”—it’s a cross-channel sport, which means our conversation should now focus on organic marketing in all its forms. Today, your digital presence needs to be as diverse as your audience’s interests.

Multi-platform presence:  While Google continues to be a traffic giant, the digital playground is expanding. Platforms like LinkedIn, Reddit, Threads, Bluesky, and even Bing (with its Gemini and Copilot innovations) are reshaping how people discover content. As Jes Scholz pointed out, your brand should be as omnipresent as your audience, ensuring your content pops up wherever they hang out.

Repurposing content: A smart strategy is to repurpose high-quality content across channels. Whether it’s using data-driven insights for social posts or adapting a blog post into engaging videos or RSS feeds for platforms like Apple News and Discover, the goal is simple: meet your audience where they spend their time.

And as Lily Ray noted during her session, it’s not just about creating content—it’s about creating content that works seamlessly across all touchpoints.

The strategy shift: leave egos at the door

One of the standout lessons that we embrace from #FriendsOfSearch2025 was that successful digital marketing isn’t about individual glory—it’s about collective brilliance.

Building authenticity & engagement: Consumers are increasingly loyal to brands they trust. By focusing on authenticity and building exceptional user experiences, companies can transform their organic marketing approach from merely chasing rankings to cultivating a dedicated fan base. Whether it’s through targeted PR, story-driven marketing or engaging on “dark social” channels, the underlying strategy remains the same: build, test, and innovate.

Cross-department collaboration: One of the most important takeaways was the need to break down internal silos. Integrating SEO teams with broader marketing, Paid & Media, PR, and even product teams can help ensure that every piece of content and every campaign is measured not only by clicks, but by engagement, revenue impact, and brand sentiment. As Dinesh Sivapragsam from Binance suggested, leave Ego's at the door and let the end user be your guiding star.

Testing, iterating, and playing in growth labs

In our rapidly evolving digital landscape, resting on your laurels isn’t an option. Continuous testing is the secret sauce that keeps your strategy fresh and effective.

Growth labs & playbooks: Whether you’re evaluating the effectiveness of programmatic SEO (which, as noted, works brilliantly for a while until it suddenly doesn’t, so be careful) or testing new channels for content distribution, building structured growth labs is key. Develop clear playbooks and establish quality assurance mechanisms—such as periodic audits and real-time monitoring—to ensure that your strategy adapts to emerging trends.

Smart investment in expertise: Investing in individual expertise and encouraging an experimental- and growth mindset can result in actionable insights. In a world where some channels are experiencing content saturation while others are just beginning to burst onto the scene, agility is the name of the game. Testing, learning, and adjusting continuously is what keeps you in the competitive loop.

Looking ahead

Digital search is evolving faster than ever —with the emergence of LLMs, changing consumer behaviours, and a new wave of visual and interactive platforms—the underlying mandate remains consistent: follow your audience where they go. Adapt your content strategy, measure success in new ways, and don’t shy away from experimenting across channels.

At #FriendsOfSearch2025, it became clear that true success lies in a holistic approach. Brands need to blend search with social, integrate data from multiple sources, and build an omnichannel presence that supports both user engagement and business growth.

Act as an organic marketer to make impact.

Is your strategy keeping pace with these changes? At VML, we’re here to help you navigate this exciting, ever-changing landscape. If you’re ready to move from traditional SEO to a comprehensive organic marketing strategy, let’s chat.

Follow Jurjen van den Broek or Remon Beukers for more insights as we continue exploring how to turn digital challenges into growth opportunities.