SEO in 2025: A Bootstrapped Founder’s Playbook

Google didn’t “kill SEO.” It did something more annoying: it changed the rules mid-game.

If you’re a bootstrapped founder in the US trying to grow without VC, SEO is still one of the few channels that can compound over time without turning into a cash bonfire. But the 2025 reality looks nothing like the old playbook of “publish a lot, build links, rank.” In a recent conversation on Startups For the Rest Of Us, SEO veteran Lars Lofgren described what he calls a true algorithm “phase shift”—the kind that forces you to throw out habits that used to work for a decade.

This post is part of our SMB Content Marketing United States series, and it’s written for teams that need practical, budget-aware content marketing: what to do, what to stop doing, and how to build organic growth that doesn’t vanish overnight.

The new SEO reality: Google trusts brands more than pages

Google is weighting “brand” signals more heavily than classic SEO signals. That’s the shift Lars keeps hammering: links still matter, but you can’t brute-force rankings with link building the way you could from ~2010 to ~2021.

Here’s the operational consequence for small businesses and bootstrapped SaaS:

• A strong domain (major media, top websites, household-name platforms) can publish average content and still rank.
• A small brand can publish excellent content and still struggle—unless Google believes the entity is legitimate.

Lars’ example is blunt: big platforms can post content that looks templated, thin, or even AI-ish, and still win huge visibility. Whether you agree with that direction or hate it, you still have to market in the world you’re actually in.

What “brand” means for a bootstrapped startup

Brand doesn’t mean “Super Bowl ads.” In 2025 SEO, “brand” looks more like:

• People searching your name (branded queries)
• Direct traffic and returning visitors
• Mentions across the web (podcasts, communities, newsletters)
• Social signals that show you exist outside Google

If your whole acquisition plan is “rank for keywords,” you’re fragile. If your acquisition plan is “be known for something,” SEO gets easier.

Snippet-worthy stance: In 2025, SEO rewards brands that already have demand—content is no longer enough by itself.

Why SEO volatility is now a normal operating condition

A 20–40% organic traffic swing used to be a crisis. Now it’s Tuesday. Lars’ point isn’t to scare you out of SEO—it’s to stop founders from building a company where one Google update can wipe out payroll.

For US SMBs and SaaS companies, the healthy mindset is:

• Expect volatility at the page and keyword level.
• Build resilience at the business level.
• Measure SEO by pipeline and revenue, not vanity traffic.

The “overweighted SEO” trap

A common bootstrapped failure mode looks like this:

1. A founder publishes content for 12–18 months.
2. A handful of posts start ranking.
3. SEO becomes 70–90% of new leads.
4. The company stops investing in email, partnerships, outbound, or community.
5. One algorithm shift cuts traffic and the funnel collapses.

Lars’ warning is especially relevant if your content strategy explodes into thousands of near-duplicate pages (location pages, template pages, “same keyword with different modifier” pages). That pattern has been hit repeatedly in recent years.

The 3-channel marketing baseline for startups without VC

If you’re marketing without VC, you don’t need more channels—you need the right mix. Lars recommends a simple minimum viable portfolio of channels that supports SEO instead of betting the company on it.

1) One top-of-funnel social channel

Pick one channel that matches your buyers and your team’s reality:

• LinkedIn for B2B SaaS, services, agencies
• YouTube for explainers, demos, “how it works” content
• TikTok/Instagram for consumer and prosumer products
• X for dev tools, indie builders, operators (still works if you’re consistent)

The goal isn’t to “go viral.” It’s to create proof-of-life: real humans engage with you, talk about you, and search for you.

2) SEO and content marketing (but do it like a product)

Treat content like product development:

• Ship fewer posts, make them sharper.
• Update and improve what’s already working.
• Focus on conversion paths (demo requests, trials, lead magnets), not pageviews.

3) Email from day one

Email is the bootstrapped founder’s insurance policy.

Why it matters in 2025:

• It’s a direct channel you own.
• It turns content into repeatable touchpoints.
• It builds branded demand, which helps SEO.

A simple cadence works: one useful email per week. No theatrics. Just consistent value.

AI content: the tempting shortcut that usually backfires

Publishing AI-written blog posts at scale is a risky bet in 2025. Lars is unusually firm here: use AI to brainstorm, outline, or unstick yourself—but don’t paste AI output into final drafts.

Even if AI content “ranks for now,” it’s strategically weak for a bootstrapped company.

The real problem: AI makes you average

AI tends to produce the middle of the bell curve answer. That’s fine for internal notes. It’s bad for marketing.

Marketing that drives leads does at least one of these:

• shares a specific opinion
• uses firsthand experience
• includes original examples, data, screenshots, or workflows
• says the quiet part out loud

AI can imitate tone, but it can’t replace earned insight.

Here’s what I’ve found works better (and costs less than people think):

• Have a human write from experience.
• Use AI for structure (outline options, alternate headlines).
• Require proof elements in every post (numbers, screenshots, templates, “we tried X and it failed”).

Snippet-worthy stance: If your content could be generated by a prompt, it’s also easy to replace in the rankings.

AI Overviews and “zero-click” search: how to keep SEO profitable

AI Overviews are reducing clicks for informational queries. Many searches now end without a visit to a website because Google answers directly.

That sounds like doom. It’s not automatically doom.

The smarter read is: SEO traffic may go down, but intent quality can go up.

What to publish when clicks are harder to earn

If you want organic growth that survives AI Overviews, prioritize content that AI can’t fully satisfy:

• Decision content: comparisons, “X vs Y,” tradeoffs
• Implementation content: step-by-step with screenshots
• Pricing and ROI content: calculators, templates, real numbers
• Experience content: what happened when you tried something

For SMB content marketing in the US, this is a gift: smaller teams can win by being specific, not by being big.

A practical content filter for 2026 planning

Before you publish a post, ask:

1. Can Google answer this in 6 sentences? If yes, rewrite it to include real-world constraints and examples.
2. Does this lead to a next step? If there’s no natural CTA, it’s probably a distraction.
3. Would a prospect trust this? Add proof: screenshots, numbers, named tools, and clear opinions.

Parasite SEO: what it is and why bootstrappers should care

Parasite SEO is when a third party “rents” a section of a powerful domain to rank content quickly. Think: a subfolder or sub-site on a major publisher where an outside operator publishes SEO-driven pages that benefit from the host site’s authority.

Lars’ point is simple: when Google rewards big brands, marketers will find ways to borrow big brands.

Should you do parasite SEO for lead gen?

For most bootstrapped SaaS and SMBs: no.

Reasons:

• It’s rarely aligned with long-term brand building.
• It can be expensive (revenue share, placement fees).
• It’s exposed to sudden manual actions and policy changes.
• It doesn’t build an owned audience.

If you’re tempted, ask: would the same effort invested into your own site + email list + partnerships produce assets you actually own? The answer is usually yes.

The bootstrapped SEO plan I’d bet on in 2026

SEO still works for startups without VC, but only when it’s paired with brand and owned distribution. The fastest way to lose money on content marketing is copying a 2019 SEO playbook and hoping Google hasn’t noticed.

A practical plan for Q1–Q2 2026:

1. Pick 10 money keywords (bottom or mid-funnel) tied to your offer.
2. Publish 10 exceptional pages (not 40 average ones). Add proof and opinions.
3. Add 1 lead magnet that fits the content (template, checklist, calculator).
4. Email weekly to build demand and repeat visits.
5. Post 3x/week on one social channel to create branded search and referrals.
6. Update winners monthly instead of chasing endless new posts.

That’s not glamorous. It’s also the kind of system that keeps producing leads even when Google decides to redecorate the SERP.

If you’re building your company through SMB content marketing in the United States, the opportunity is still real: large brands will keep soaking up generic queries, which leaves room for focused teams who publish specific, experience-driven content.

The forward-looking question worth sitting with: if Google sends you 30% less traffic next year, does your content still create leads you can count on?