I got an email this week from an SEO expert telling me that keywords don’t work anymore.
Apparently we’ve entered a brave new era called Entity SEO. Google understands concepts now, not words. Everything we knew is outdated. Better buy the course.
I swear this industry reinvents the same wheel more often than a flat tire convention.
Because the change he’s so breathlessly describing happened around 2013. Not recently. Not because of AI. Not because of ChatGPT. Back when people still had DVD collections and argued about whether Facebook was dying. Google stopped acting like a word counter and started interpreting meaning. Everyone who actually worked in search adjusted back then and kept going. Now it’s back, repackaged like breaking news.
What Actually Happened
Early search engines mostly matched exact text. If someone searched for wholesale coffee suppliers, the pages that repeated “wholesale coffee suppliers” fifty times tended to win. They read like a robot trying to pass a spelling test, but it worked because Google mostly counted matching words.
Then Google got smarter. Instead of asking “does this page say the exact phrase,” it started asking “does this page solve the same problem.” A page about finding wholesale suppliers could now rank for locating distributors or sourcing vendors even if the wording didn’t match. Same need, different phrasing. Google connected the dots.
That’s it. That’s the whole revolution people keep rediscovering. Keywords didn’t disappear. Google just stopped needing you to scream them repeatedly like you were trying to summon something.
What “Entity SEO” Actually Means
The email explains entity optimization as building topic clusters, answering related questions, linking pages together, and keeping your site consistent about what it covers.
Congratulations. You’ve just described normal SEO for the last decade.
We used to call it semantic relevance. Then topical authority. Now it’s Entity SEO because the name sounds technical enough to justify selling it again. They’re not teaching a new strategy. They’re describing how Google organizes information internally and calling it a writing technique. You don’t optimize for Google’s filing system. You write clearly so the filing system knows where to put you.
The Marketing Trick
Here’s how this scam works every single time.
They describe ancient keyword stuffing like everyone still does it. Then they introduce a “new” system that’s just modern best practice. Now it sounds like survival requires their framework. It works because most business owners don’t track algorithm history, so when someone says everything changed, it sounds urgent instead of recycled.
Nothing changed. Google still starts with words because humans still type words. It just understands that “how do I find a supplier” and “where do I buy wholesale products” are the same question. The engine evolved. The fundamentals didn’t.
What Actually Gets You Ranked
You pick a real problem people search for and explain it like a human being. You cover the parts they’re obviously going to ask next. You write supporting content that expands on the topic and link it together logically. Google connects you to related searches automatically because it understands meaning.
We’ve been doing that since the early 2010s. You don’t need a new philosophy every time a marketer learns a new technical term from a patent filing.
Five Things You Can Do Right Now
First, stop chasing SEO buzzwords. If someone claims everything you learned stopped working overnight, they’re selling something, not reporting a discovery.
Second, write to solve the full question, not just the phrase. When someone searches, they have a problem, not a vocabulary quiz. Answer the whole problem and Google handles the variations.
Third, build supporting content around your main topics. One good page explains. Several connected pages prove you actually know the subject.
Fourth, link your related content together logically. Not for tricks. For clarity. If humans can follow it, Google can understand it.
Fifth, ignore dramatic announcements about the “new era” of search. Google improves interpretation gradually. Marketing departments improve urgency immediately.
Same elephant.
Different hat.
And somehow there’s always a webinar about the hat.
FREE – get my 
