Stage-Based Search Investment Ladder
Scale search investment as company authority and resources mature
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
This decision ladder ties search investment to company maturity rather than treating SEO as universally urgent or obsolete. Seed-stage companies put little or no significant effort into SEO because weak authority, limited resources, and slow feedback make it difficult to win. They prioritize paid acquisition, viral loops, communities, and similar channels that can produce faster evidence. Around Series A, the company begins building search capacity and publishing more deliberately. By Series B, stronger authority and resources make substantial SEO investment appropriate. AEO runs alongside this progression, but its off-site mechanism can create earlier wins because a young brand may be added to an already-cited third-party page without first building a powerful domain.
Origin
Extracted from Marketing Against The Grain
Core principles
- 01Search becomes easier as organizational and domain authority grow
- 02Early-stage companies need channels with faster feedback
- 03AEO can produce early results through off-site mentions
- 04SEO and AEO should share one coordinated strategy
How to run it
- 1
Classify the company stage
Determine whether the company is seed-stage, Series A, Series B, or comparably mature based on authority, resources, and distribution traction.
Pro tip Use actual domain authority and channel performance as additional maturity signals rather than relying only on funding labels.
Watch out Do not assume a large addressable search market means a new site can compete immediately.
- 2
Prioritize fast-feedback channels early
At seed stage, focus on channels such as paid acquisition, viral distribution, communities, and Reddit while keeping SEO investment small.
Pro tip Use these channels to learn the language, objections, and questions that can later inform search content.
Watch out Avoid building a large content operation before validating demand and positioning.
- 3
Begin measured search investment
At approximately Series A maturity, introduce a deliberate SEO program while retaining channels that already produce results.
Pro tip Start with commercially meaningful topics connected to validated customer demand.
Watch out Do not scale publishing merely to increase page count.
- 4
Scale search with authority
At Series B or equivalent maturity, make SEO a major investment because greater authority and resources improve the probability of ranking.
Pro tip Coordinate content, product, engineering, and help-center owners instead of isolating SEO.
Watch out More investment does not remove the uncertainty inherent in organic channels.
- 5
Run AEO alongside the ladder
Use one strategy for SEO and AEO, while pursuing early off-site AEO mentions that do not require the company’s own domain to rank.
Pro tip Target third-party pages already cited for commercially important questions.
Watch out Do not create disconnected SEO and AEO teams that duplicate work.
In the wild
A new website builder avoids hiring a large SEO content team. It uses paid search and community participation to validate its strongest use cases, while asking already-cited comparison sites to include the product in relevant lists. After gaining customers and authority, it begins a focused SEO program around validated commercial topics.
→ The company gets faster market feedback while building an evidence-based foundation for later search investment.
Common mistakes
Starting with a large SEO operation
A young company may spend heavily before it has enough authority, validated demand, or cross-functional capacity to rank.
Waiting to attempt any AEO
Off-site mentions can make a young company part of an answer before its own site has enough authority to rank.
Separating SEO and AEO completely
Most mechanisms overlap, so separate strategies create duplicated work and fragmented execution.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders and growth leaders deciding when to allocate meaningful resources to SEO and AEO.
Not ideal for
Established companies whose search channel already has clear historical performance and dedicated resources.
From the transcript
“So my suggestion is if you're a seed stage company, spend little to no time on search, spend time on other channels like paid, like…”
“And then as your series A, spend a little bit more on search engine optimization. And then as your series B, spend a lot of…”
“Also spend time on answer engine optimization. When you're doing that, have a single strategy for both. Don't do one or the other.”
From the episode
‘My Data Proves SEO is NOT Dead’ + How to Rank #1 on Google & AI