What if everything you know about SEO is becoming obsolete? Dale Bertrand, founder of Fire and Spark, brings a refreshingly technical yet human-centered perspective to digital growth strategy—a perspective forged through his journey from building government supercomputers to revolutionizing how businesses approach organic traffic.

"Rankings and traffic that don't convert are worthless," Dale asserts, challenging the vanity metrics that have dominated digital marketing for years. His "SEO for Revenue" methodology cuts through the clutter, focusing on customer acquisition rather than keyword rankings. This approach has yielded remarkable results, including helping GrabCAD achieve 30x growth in organic traffic that ultimately led to a successful acquisition.

As artificial intelligence reshapes search, Dale identifies three critical shifts: the tools marketers use, the algorithms powering results, and how customers seek information. This trifecta demands new strategies where content must be "semantically dense" and "snackable" for AI training. The counterintuitive outcome? Less traffic but more revenue—a concept many marketers struggle to embrace.

Perhaps most surprising is Dale's deceptively simple advice for understanding customer behavior: just ask them. "We've gotten used to hiding behind analytics," he notes, advocating instead for direct conversations that yield insights no dashboard can provide. This human connection extends to his recommendations for product selection, where he encourages entrepreneurs to find the sweet spot between passion for a customer community, viable sales channels, and healthy unit economics.

For those building online businesses in 2023 and beyond, Dale offers a roadmap for navigating the transition from traditional SEO to what he calls "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO). Early adopters who master these dynamics stand to benefit significantly, just as early SEO practitioners did years ago.

Connect with Dale at fireandspark.com or reach him directly at dale@fireandspark.com to learn how your business can thrive in the age of AI-powered search.

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