Reigniting Your SEO Passion: Finding Your Spark After Years in the Trenches
SEO burnout is real. I've been there multiple times. But there are ways to come back from the edge and be more invigorated than ever.
I recently encountered a person on Reddit burnt out on SEO after practicing it for 9 years, and they asked what others have done to reignite their spark.
I immediately felt a kinship with this person because, in the past 28+ years, I’ve run into this issue multiple times. It is easy to run out of steam and feel bone-tired from the drudgery of doing the same thing day in and day out.
In my case, I have been lucky enough to change aspects of my employment to keep things interesting because I’m the owner. I’m blessed to have excellent staff who can take on tasks that I have no interest in anymore. But even that doesn’t make up for the overall weariness of being in the same business for a long time.
Reconnect With Your “Why”
So, my answer has always been to reconnect with what drives my passion: the people and the technology. I thrive off the positive impact our clients receive from our services, and I sometimes get so disconnected doing the day-to-day work that I forget to reconnect with the results that I sometimes take for granted.
Here’s what I mean: when you’re buried in spreadsheets analyzing keyword rankings, optimizing meta descriptions (the title and description that appear in search results), or troubleshooting technical issues like crawl errors (when search engines can’t access your pages properly), it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture. You forget that the work you’re doing is directly impacting someone’s livelihood.
That restaurant owner who’s now fully booked on weekends? Your local SEO work made that happen.
The e-commerce site that’s finally competing with the big players? Your technical optimization and content strategy got them there.
The service business that had to hire three new employees to handle the influx of calls? That’s your doing.
I suggested to the Reddit poster that he reconnect with the impact his work is making on his clients, just in case those successes drive him as well. Sometimes we need to step back from the technical minutiae and remember that we’re not just moving numbers on a graph; we’re changing businesses and, by extension, people’s lives.
If you’re feeling burnt out, try this: schedule a call with your three most successful clients. Don’t make it about upselling or reporting. Just ask them how their business has changed since you started working together. Listen to their stories. Let them remind you why your work matters.
Embrace the Evolution (Even When It’s Exhausting)
The other part of my career that reignites my passion is the never-ending changes in tactics and technology. It is invigorating to stretch the mind continually and apply new marketing methods after learning them.
Think about how much has changed just in the past several years. The industry has largely moved from obsessing over exact-match keywords to understanding search intent (what the user is actually trying to accomplish). It has evolved from basic link building to sophisticated digital PR strategies. It has moved from desktop-first to mobile-first indexing (Google now primarily uses the mobile version of your site for ranking). And now we’re all navigating the seismic shift of AI integration into search results and SEO workflows.
Each of these changes represents an opportunity to learn something new, to experiment, and to gain a competitive advantage for your clients. When Core Web Vitals (Google’s metrics for page speed and user experience) became a ranking factor, those of us who dove in early and mastered the technical aspects had a genuine edge. When AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude AI emerged, early adopters found ways to streamline research, content outlining, and competitive analysis.
Don’t get me wrong, never-ending is definitely a form of wear in itself. I’ve thought more times than I can count that I wish I were at the stage of retirement before AI came into the SEO mix. After all, it is a BIG change, one that’s fundamentally altering how we approach content creation, keyword research, and even how search engines deliver results.
But here’s the thing: If you chose SEO as a career, you probably have a natural curiosity about how things work. You likely enjoy problem-solving and figuring out puzzles. Our industry’s constant evolution feeds that curiosity, even when it feels overwhelming.
Practical Steps to Reignite Your Passion
If you’re feeling the burnout creeping in, here are some concrete actions you can take:
Delegate or eliminate the soul-crushing tasks. If you’re spending hours on repetitive work that doesn’t challenge you, find ways to automate it or hand it off. There are countless tools now that can handle routine reporting, rank tracking, and basic audits. Free up your mental energy for the strategic work that actually engages your brain.
Learn something completely new within SEO. If you’ve been focused on content and on-page optimization (improving individual pages for search), dive into technical SEO. Learn about server response times (TTFB or Time To First Byte, which measures how quickly your server responds), schema markup (code that helps search engines understand your content), or JavaScript rendering. If you’re a technical SEO, explore the content and psychology side. The cross-pollination of skills can be remarkably refreshing.
Connect with other SEO professionals. The Reddit poster reached out to a community, which was a smart move. Whether it’s online forums, local meetups, or industry conferences, talking with peers who understand your challenges can be incredibly energizing. You’ll discover new approaches, commiserate over shared frustrations, and remember that you’re part of a larger community.
Take on a passion project. Build your own site in a niche you genuinely care about. Whether it’s a hobby, a cause you believe in, or just an experiment to test new tactics, having a project where you control all the variables and can see direct results from your efforts can reignite that spark. Plus, you’ll learn lessons you can apply to client work.
TIP: Remember to set boundaries to prevent burnout before it happens. I’ve had to learn this the hard way over and over again; I’m a bit thick that way. The SEO industry rewards those who stay on top of every algorithm update and emerging trend, but you can’t sustain that pace indefinitely. Give yourself permission to step away, not read every industry blog post, and take actual vacations where you don’t check rankings.
The Opportunity in Front of Us
So, I hope this person, along with anyone else feeling exhausted in the SEO industry, finds a way to reignite their passion. It is a phenomenal time to be in this business if you love to challenge yourself and make a real difference for businesses.
Yes, the landscape is more complex than ever. Yes, AI is disrupting our established workflows and forcing us to rethink our approaches. Yes, Google’s algorithm updates can sometimes feel like they’re specifically designed to give us gray hair.
But consider this: businesses need our expertise more than ever. The digital landscape is so complex now that the average business owner is completely overwhelmed. They don’t understand the difference between organic search and paid ads. They don’t know why their site isn’t ranking or how to fix technical issues that are holding them back. They’re terrified of AI replacing their visibility online.
We have the knowledge and experience to guide them through this complexity. We can be the steady hand that helps them navigate algorithm changes, adopt new technologies strategically, and build sustainable organic traffic that doesn’t disappear when their ad budget runs out.
That’s not just a job. That’s a valuable service that has real-world impact.
If you’re nine years in and feeling burnt out, you’re at a critical juncture. You have enough experience to be genuinely skilled, but you’re not so far in that change feels impossible. This is actually the perfect time to reassess what aspects of SEO light you up and which ones drain you, then make intentional choices about your career direction.
Maybe you transition from agency work to in-house, where you can go deep with one brand instead of juggling multiple clients. Maybe you specialize in a particular industry or type of SEO that fascinates you. Maybe you start teaching or consulting, sharing your knowledge in a different format. Maybe you double down on the technical challenges and become the go-to expert for complex migrations and audits.
The point is, you have options. SEO burnout doesn’t have to mean leaving the industry. It can mean reshaping your relationship with it.
After 28+ years, I can tell you that the passion ebbs and flows. There are seasons where I’m energized by every new challenge and seasons where I’m struggling to stay engaged. The key is recognizing which season you’re in and taking intentional steps to shift back toward engagement.
Reconnect with your impact. Embrace the learning opportunities, even when they’re exhausting. Find your community. And remember why you got into this field in the first place: because you’re good at solving puzzles, you enjoy the challenge, and somewhere along the way, you discovered you could make a real difference for businesses.
That’s worth holding onto.