Written by Laura Richardson, Partner – Paid Search, & Anna Darova, Partner - SEO
Did someone say AI?
AI Overviews, LLMs, chat bots, generative SEO, AI Max, Social Search, zero-click Search, agentic Search; just a few buzzwords knocking around in Search Marketing at the moment. The pace of AI has accelerated exponentially, as Search Marketers frantically try to keep pace on tech changes, product innovation, and changing consumer behaviours. 2026 will be a wild year.
So what about our roles as Search practitioners? Is the shape of Search teams still fit for purpose, or is it becoming outdated? We typically see in larger Search teams there is a separation of SEO and Paid Search specialisms, but is there now a need to introduce Search Generalists to operate in a hybrid role across the Search ecosystem?
Before we talk about the Generalist role, it’s crucial to recognise the undeniable need for specialist technical skills within each Search discipline, and respect the intricate knowledge and understanding that’s needed to master SEO and Paid Search successfully. What we are not suggesting is that all specialists should become generalists. You’d quite quickly end up with a jack-of-all-trades situation.
So what can a generalist add? The Search ecosystem is becoming strategically intertwined. Users are freely navigating between traditional SERP results, chatbots and LLMs, and Social Media platforms to discover brands, compare offerings, and purchase products and services. So Search strategies need to be guided in an integrated way, to ensure brands are represented consistently and are surfaced to consumers wherever they are in the Search ecosystem, at all stages of the discovery-to-purchase journey. This means Search practitioners must obtain broader knowledge and skills across Search, to provide:
- Insight generation: unpick data to understand how consumers are engaging with different Search touchpoints and the role that each part of the Search landscape is playing in product discovery through to purchase.
- Consultative guidance: offer a holistic viewpoint to help navigate traditional and agentic search environments.
- Optimisation strategy: develop tangible optimisation tactics for brands to appear in the right moment, for the right consumer, across any part of the Search ecosystem.
We feel an effective setup, particularly for larger teams, would see generalist and specialist skillsets working in tandem together;
| Generalist / Hybrid | Specialist | |
| Scope | Breadth-first: understanding core principles of all Search disciplines, and how they connect together | Depth-first: mastering technical skills such as on-page optimisation techniques for Organic Search, or bid strategies for Paid Search |
| Strategy Development | Strategic integrator, connecting Organic and Paid Search strategies into one roadmap to meet visibility and conversion goals | Focus on in-channel tactics to win in the AI space; maximising visibility in AI SERPS for Organic Search, and driving cost-effective traffic from AI SERPS for Paid Search |
| Measuring Success | A holistic, integrated view of performance, with success measured against Total Search KPIs | Primary focus on in-channel success metrics, such as rankings and traffic for SEO, and CPA / ROAS for Paid Search |
Regardless of team setup, baseline knowledge needs to evolve and expand to be a successful Search Practitioner in today’s world. Teams can achieve this in two ways;
- Develop knowledge and skillset of existing SEO and Paid Search practitioners, to broaden thinking and work together on key initiatives, roadmaps and reporting
- Introduce a dedicated generalist role to oversee both teams, provide a single POV, and identify synergies across each specialism to direct the overall Search strategy
So how might a generalist role work in practice?
- Integration of roadmaps: bringing Search roadmaps together to synergise and prioritise agenda’s
- Keyword intelligence: identify popular / rising search terms worth creating content for
- Opportunity scoping: identify SEO blind spots where Paid Search could be activated, or overlaps where Paid Search may not be driving incremental volume and could be deactivated to reduce cannibalisation and save budget.
- Alignment of forecasts: align or fully integrate forecasts that work towards common goals and KPIs
- Integration of reporting: reporting shared metrics and KPIs in a single dashboard to understand macro performance trends
- Alignment of Creative: optimise Meta titles / descriptions based on learnings for Paid creative, and ensure consistency in messaging for the user
To wrap things up, teams must adapt and evolve in knowledge and structure to meet the demands of the changing Search landscape. Technical skills like keyword research, bid management, and link-building knowledge are no longer sufficient on their own. Search results are increasingly mediated by AI-driven systems like Google’s AI Mode, Bing Copilot, or standalone answer-engines such as Perplexity and ChatGPT. Optimising for these environments requires expertise that spans data science, measurement, prompt engineering, and natural language understanding. To be successful in modern day Search, practitioners now need a more diverse knowledge wheelhouse that blends technical Search skills with AI fluency, to understand how different content types surface in generative results and be able to form strategies accordingly.
As Search teams evolve in capabilities, it’s important that all Search practitioners navigate this period of transformation with proactivity, curiosity, and open-mindedness. Join us for Part 2 to explore what this means in practice.
A final note. We can help kick-start your journey into the agentic world, with LLM audits and optimisation recommendations. Want to know more? Reach out to us at dentsu_digital_seo_slt@dentsu.com.
