I still remember the spreadsheet. Keyword, search volume, difficulty score. Pick the keyword, hit the target density, write the meta description, done. I built entire client strategies around that sheet for years, and it worked well enough that I never questioned it too hard.
I opened an old version of that spreadsheet last month while helping a client plan content for the fall. Half the columns didn't matter anymore. Not in a dramatic, the-sky-is-falling way. Just quietly, the way a tool stops getting used and you don't notice until you go looking for it.
The keyword still matters, the strategy around it doesn't
I'm not going to tell you keywords are dead. People still type words into search boxes, and Google still uses them to figure out what a page is about. That part hasn't changed.
What's changed is everything I used to do around the keyword. Density checks feel almost silly now. Nobody's counting how many times "best content management system for small business" appears on a page, least of all an AI model summarizing five sources into one paragraph. It's reading for meaning, not repetition. Stuff a keyword in five times and you're not helping your odds, you're just writing worse.
