At Koozai we are always thinking about how digital marketing intersects with businesses and the affect it has on their results. Digital marketing evolves fast – much faster than most businesses can comfortably keep up with. Every day we see a tranche of different tools and shiny new tactics but in reality, many brands are still neglecting the simple fundamentals that actually drive sustainable results.
Often in digital it’s consistency that really pushes change and the Koozai team were keen to hear reliable opinions on what this looks like today. We asked a range of trusted leaders one key question:
“What part of digital marketing do you think businesses consistently undervalue?”
Their responses reveal a striking and recurring pattern – that brands are overlooking the essentials, the owned, and the long-term.
SEO – Still Critical, Still Overlooked
Kev Galway, Founder at Nova Scale AI, highlights a trend many marketers feel but struggle to articulate: that in essence SEO has become undervalued. He states:
“I’m inclined to say the undervalued aspect nowadays is likely SEO. I believe that’s because where Google has been dominant for so long and businesses have played the SEO game, with Google changing the page layout for AI overviews, tightening up on GBP’s etc, the results from page 1 results nowadays aren’t so lucrative as they once were. Everything has changed and shifted…”
Although SEO has existed for decades, it remains one of the most undervalued channels. Many businesses see it as a complex, slow-moving tactic, or even something that perhaps “used to work” but is no longer as powerful in an AI-driven world.
But the reality is quite different, and SEO has never been more important than now. With Google’s evolving AI overviews, shifting SERP layouts, and far tougher competition, brands need stronger technical foundations and higher quality content as a matter of urgency. It is clear that SEO has become more complex, but concerningly, instead of adapting, many businesses have quietly de-prioritised it.
Critically what businesses are missing is that SEO is no longer just about ranking. It is swiftly becoming the very source content that AI and search assistants pull from. Simply put, those businesses that truly understand this and continue to invest will be the ones AI quotes, references, and recommends.
Owned Assets & Retention: The Foundations That Outlast Algorithms
Nigel Miller, Co-Founder at Insure My Health, warns against the trap of building on “rented land”:
“Owned Assets & Retention… relying on social media alone is like building on rented land. When the algorithms shift, you can easily get cut off from your audience. Your email database, however, is an owned asset… Businesses often spend disproportionately on acquisition… But they underestimate the value of retention.”
His message is clear: Stop chasing the algorithm – build what you control.
Businesses that focus heavily on acquisition often end up spending more for less, while retention – the most profitable area – remains in many cases, underfunded. Repeat customers aren’t just cheaper to keep; they deliver stronger lifetime value and stronger brand advocacy.
But this isn’t always the case for some businesses who rely entirely on new acquisitions or who have buying cycles that stretch into multiple years, and the uphill battle to keep a constant new stream of business is an ever-present pressure.
High-Quality Content = Consistent, Authoritative, Everywhere
Susannah Hart, Marketing Manager at San Lorenzo Yachts UK, argues that many brands still underestimate just how important content consistency is:
“I think many people under value consistently good content on websites which is mirrored across all digital platforms… With the advent of AI and the new ways people search, this is imperative for visibility… By this I mean blog and authoritative articles – not just on-page product content.”
The rise of AI-driven discovery has dramatically reshaped what “good content” means. It must be authoritative, consistent across platforms, and high-quality enough to be surfaced or quoted by AI. This isn’t just surface-level social content, it’s deep, trustworthy expertise. Content therefore will still retain its crown but with the emphasis on it being of the highest quality.
Search Term Strategy – Especially Negative Keywords
A holistic view of all your digital marketing is key, producing a cohesive strategy with excellent performance oversight. This allows you keep hold of budgets and sensibly predict for the future.
Suzanna Harley, Digital & Data Marketing Manager at Stannah, brings attention to an area often forgotten until budgets start burning:
“Negative keywords are an essential part of campaign management… they reduce wasted clicks and spend, improve targeting, and raise the likelihood of conversion… they protect your brand by ensuring ads don’t appear for terms that could harm your reputation.”
In paid search, one neglected negative keyword can drain thousands in spend. Yet many teams skip this step because it’s “manpower heavy.” But as Suzanna highlights, effective negative keyword management saves money, improves campaign efficiency, safeguards brand perception making it a task with a huge payoff.
Futureproofing SEO for Zero-Click & AI-Led Search
Matthew Lawrence, Head of Marketing at 3 Sided Cube, looks ahead to the next tectonic shift:
“SEO is a big area of focus… With the emergence of LLMs and increasingly ‘zero-click’ searches, our challenge is how do we become the answer to questions our clients are asking, before they even reach our website.”
Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI tools are reducing clicks as they deliver answers straight to users changing the game entirely. The next frontier of SEO is shaping the information these systems display.
Brands must think differently – how do we structure our content for AI interpretation for example? How do we become the “source of truth”? How do we create content that solves a query before a user even lands on our website? This isn’t SEO as we knew it, it’s SEO for an AI-led world and it will force us to all think differently.
So, What’s Really Undervalued? A Pattern Emerges
Across every expert’s viewpoint, one theme is unmistakable: Businesses undervalue the long-term, compounding parts of digital marketing.
The areas that take consistency, strategy, and craftsmanship – SEO that adapts to AI disruption, owned assets like email lists, retention over acquisition, high-quality, authoritative content, search term intelligence and negative keywords and being the answer source for zero-click environments. These aren’t glamorous quick wins but they’re the backbone of sustainable digital success and are now more important than ever to ensure relevance and visibility.
Businesses often chase trends, tools, and tactics. But the real power lies in strengthening the fundamentals – the things you own, the value you build, and the content that earns trust both from humans and AI. If brands can refocus here, they won’t just keep up with digital change – they’ll lead it.
Leave a Reply