In this takeaways blog from Pubcon 2025, Hank explores how AI is reshaping SEO and what it means for email marketers. Learn how to adapt your email strategy, optimize for AI-driven search, and build stronger multichannel campaigns that capture and convert high-intent traffic.
Email Marketing and SEO have always had a special relationship. SEO drives traffic to websites where email addresses can be captured. It is a beautiful relationship that has lasted for decades. And in 2025, they’re both going through significant changes. SEO is currently being affected by the emerging presence of AI summaries and email is being subjected to new authentication requirements.
Since 2018, I've been attending the SEO conference Pubcon as a speaker, educator, and more than anything, a passionate advocate for email marketing and how it works well with SEO. While Pubcon is best known for its focus on SEO and search strategies, it continues to be one of the most well-rounded digital marketing conferences in the country. That's because the folks who attend, whether they're SEOs, content strategists, or agency leaders, understand that getting traffic is only half the battle. The other half? Capturing it.
This year Pubcon was in Austin, Texas. I had the pleasure of speaking again and sharing insights on multichannel marketing.
In my session, I invited attendees to step into a world where email marketing isn’t just a tactic, it’s your most loyal digital partner. Framed around the theme of dating and relationships, “The Email Dating Game” was all about how to stop running campaigns in silos and start building strong, multi-channel marketing relationships. I walked through how email pairs powerfully with channels like, SEO, SMS, social media, and paid ads, and shared real-world success stories that proved how effective these partnerships can be.
We looked at how Urban Bar used email, automation, and paid media to turn their first Black Friday campaign into a 70% revenue boost, and other amazing success stories.
I wanted the audience to walk away understanding that email is the hub, but it gets a lot stronger when it plays well with others. Whether you're nurturing leads or reigniting cold subscribers, a multi-channel approach gives you more tools to deepen engagement and drive real results.
I asked attendees to think about where their high-intent traffic is landing. If SEO brings someone in on a product-focused keyword, your form shouldn’t just say “Join our newsletter.” It should speak directly to what brought them there. “Get expert tips on [insert topic]” works better because it's tied to the content that drew the user in. Context is conversion gold.
Here are some highlights from some of the other sessions I sat in on.
One of the standout sessions I attended was by Jesse McDonald, who spoke about optimizing for AI chatbots. He compared traditional search to conversational search, reminding us that we’re now designing content for conversations, not just queries. He even shared a hilarious but telling example of how his wife uses ChatGPT for health questions, showing how AI now plays a role in everyday decisions.
Jesse broke down the timeline of generative AI and gave practical ways to track traffic from AI sources like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews using GA4. One of the takeaways I loved was how he emphasized the need to create content that answers questions quickly and clearly. This is something I often stress with email copy too, get to the point and deliver value fast.
He also made a compelling case for measuring success beyond rankings. Instead of obsessing over position one, we should look at visibility in AI-generated answers and how users engage with that content. Jesse even introduced a way to build custom channel groupings in GA4 to help isolate and analyze AI traffic.
Then there was Ryan Jones, Senior Vice President, SEO at Razorfish, and Founder, SERPrecon.com. Ryan kicked off his day two keynote with a bold (and funny) premise: “SEO is dead. Long live SEO.” It was both a satire and a serious wake-up call. Ryan emphasized that SEO isn’t going anywhere, it’s just evolving. He warned against relying on outdated checklists and instead challenged everyone to think like real marketers. Not just SEOs, but strategists who understand user intent, brand visibility, and conversion paths.
Ryan reminded us that while AI is changing how people find information, it hasn’t changed the fact that people still need information. In fact, most of the AI answers are pulled from high-quality content. So if you're creating helpful, structured, and semantically relevant content, you’re not just surviving the AI era, you’re thriving in it.
He also pushed for a shift in how we think about measurement. Pageviews are down across many sites, but conversions are up. That means the traffic we’re getting is higher quality. That also ties directly into email. I'd rather have 100 high-intent visitors who subscribe than 1,000 who bounce. Ryan said it best, “the problem isn’t the drop in clicks, it’s focusing on the wrong metrics”.
Another session that really brought the room to attention was led by Danny Goodwin, Managing Editor of Search Engine Land. Danny's talk, "The AI Search Revolution," took a data-rich dive into how search behavior is evolving, and how marketers are racing to keep up. He opened by referencing a now-infamous internal Google memo that described the shift toward AI-generated answers as inevitable. The message was clear: the days of traditional link-based search dominance are numbered.
Danny presented fresh data showing that while brand searches and zero-click behaviors are on the rise, organic click-throughs from search are declining. He walked us through survey results from marketers and consumers that revealed both optimism and anxiety about AI’s impact. Notably, 84% of marketers reported they’re already using AI for content creation, and a majority believe that failing to adapt could cost them visibility and relevance.
What stood out was his balanced perspective. While AI search is disrupting how content gets surfaced and consumed, it's not about abandoning SEO, it’s about rethinking it. Marketers need to focus less on ranking pages and more on influencing how information is retrieved and presented across platforms. As he put it, we're moving from search engine optimization to something more like “search experience optimization.”
This session helped ground the broader AI conversations happening throughout the event. It wasn't fearmongering. It was a challenge to evolve, backed by real insights and an honest assessment of where things are heading. If your strategy still revolves around "ranking number one," it might be time to update your playbook. Danny’s data made it clear. AI is already shaping the next era of search.
One of the most thought-provoking sessions I attended wasn’t about tools or tactics, it was about paradigm shifts. In a captivating presentation, Matt Brutsche from 500 Rockets, had a simple but bold thesis: AI is now a search engine. And that shift changes everything.
He laid out what he called the “AI development cycle,” explaining how large language models (LLMs) are moving us away from the Google-era focus on pages, and toward a future where words, and the intent behind them, carry the most weight. This move from page-based indexing to word-based inference has staggering implications. Brands that have relied on broad awareness and generic messaging will have to adapt quickly. The playing field is being redrawn around specificity, relevance, and micro-targeting.
One of his core arguments was that traditional brand building has been a low-resolution exercise. With AI, we’re suddenly operating in high-resolution, where the expectations for personalization and contextual accuracy are soaring. He warned that if your brand isn't delivering hyper-relevant experiences, it's at risk of being left out of AI-generated answers altogether. Think of this like trying to impress someone with a VHS tape in the age of 8K streaming.
He also introduced a new approach to content and product optimization, one that uses AI and LLMs not to replace human strategy, but to deepen it. He walked us through a proof-of-concept site where micro-targeted messaging could be dynamically matched to over 400 audience segments using vector databases and API integrations. The goal? Help businesses control how their brand is represented inside AI interfaces, rather than letting LLMs do it for them.
What I appreciated most was the call to action: organize your information. The best path forward, he argued, is to stop thinking like marketers and start thinking like librarians. That means creating high-quality, structured content that reflects the actual needs and language of your most important audiences. The takeaway? Specificity is the new persuasion, and AI is forcing us all to get sharper.
So, what does all this SEO talk mean for those of us in email? A lot, actually.
First, your content has to be visible to get the email in the first place. That means auditing your SEO efforts, understanding how people find you, and making sure your opt-ins are where they need to be. If you’re not thinking about how AI search changes the user journey, you’re missing opportunities to collect leads before they disappear into a chatbot’s summary.
Second, your emails need to mirror the clarity and usefulness that’s winning in AI search. No fluff, no filler. If your welcome email or newsletter doesn’t immediately give value, people will unsubscribe faster than they hit "Skip" on a YouTube ad.
Third, your email strategy should adapt to how people are consuming content now. Think audio versions of blogs, short explainer videos, or dynamic content blocks based on user behavior. AI is setting a new standard for what feels helpful and human. Our emails should do the same.
Every year I leave Pubcon feeling more energized, and this year in Austin was no different. Whether it was geeking out over structured data or brainstorming lead magnet ideas with fellow marketers, I was reminded that email marketing doesn’t live in a vacuum. It’s part of a larger ecosystem, one where visibility, engagement, and value all work together.
If you're in email marketing and haven't been to Pubcon, consider this your invitation. Come for the SEO insights, stay for the strategic networking, information on adjacent channels like email and PPC, and leave with ideas that make your email list your most valuable asset.
And if you were at my session, thank you for showing up, asking great questions, and reminding me why I love doing this.
Let's keep building smarter funnels, better content, and stronger relationships, one email at a time.
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