Tom Vaughton at brightonSEO April 2025 with his talk, ‘The only 4 SEO strategies you’ll EVER need’

In other words, the foundation of every great SEO campaign starts not with keywords or tactics, but with better strategic thinking. Ask sharper, more insightful questions. What does this business actually want to achieve? Who are its competitors? Is the priority profit, growth, visibility, or something else entirely? Tom argued that SEO doesn’t exist in isolation. It only delivers real value when it connects to the wider commercial and marketing objectives of the business it supports.

Here’s a summary of the four strategies Tom shared, which all successful SEO campaigns fall into, and how to decide which one is right for your business or client.

This approach is ideal when budgets are tight but ambitions remain high. It’s about doing more with less and making every action count.

Often the default choice for smaller businesses or resource-constrained teams, cost-led SEO isn’t about cutting corners. It’s about focus. Tom shared that instead of rolling out generic tick-box activity, this strategy demands precision, long-term thinking and a plan for ongoing improvement.

Key elements that work well:

• Create a bespoke, prioritised matrix of recommendations to clearly define what matters most and who owns what.
• Focus on high-impact, low-cost activities, like targeted content optimisation and internal linking improvements.
• Secure long-term buy-in as consistent, steady progress often beats short bursts of activity.
• Use AI to automate repetitive tasks like metadata and keyword grouping, freeing up time for more strategic work.

For brands that want to stand out and build a recognisable voice, Tom argued that a differentiation strategy is all about creative thinking and unique value.

Differentiation doesn’t mean going viral for the sake of attention. Instead, it’s about finding underserved questions, gaps in your competitors’ content, or creative ways to offer something unexpected. And often, that starts with understanding your audience better than anyone else.

How to get it right:

• Invest time in audience research; what do they care about, and what haven’t they been served?
• Spot content gaps in your sector and create something that answers those needs uniquely.
• You can test ideas quickly using paid ads to measure engagement.
• Use AI as a brainstorming and analysis partner to explore new ideas, hooks or campaigns. One Varn client, for example, launched a “selfie bag” and broke Guinness World Records. These campaigns didn’t just win short-term attention; they helped grow online revenue by over 200%.

This strategy is for businesses operating in highly specific sectors. When your product or service is specialised, success often comes from depth rather than breadth.

Tom explained that niche SEO works by dominating a clearly defined space. It’s about building topical authority, trust and relevance over time, often by answering the very specific questions your target audience is already asking. Done right, this approach leads to higher conversion rates, greater authority, and long-term SEO wins that compound over time.

What this requires:

• A deep understanding of the niche; including competitors, terminology, and intent.
• Long-form, high-intent content clusters designed to serve users at every stage of their journey.
• A commitment to evergreen content and campaigns that build momentum over time.
• Using AI to spot long-tail opportunities and micro-niche areas where you can lead the conversation.

Tom shared that when a business has bold ambitions to scale fast, the SEO strategy has to operate at a senior strategic level, not just a tactical one.

This is where many SEO campaigns fall short. Even if rankings and traffic improve, if the SEO isn’t aligned with commercial objectives and board-level priorities, it risks being undervalued; or replaced.

To succeed, you need to:

• Engage senior stakeholders to understand the company’s true growth ambitions.
• Align SEO KPIs with business and commercial goals.
• Build scalable strategies across content, CRO and technical SEO.
• Use AI to forecast trends, speed up market analysis and optimise reporting at scale.

In Tom’s experience, the agencies that win here are the ones that can speak the language of growth, connect SEO to value creation, and bring insights to the boardroom; not just the marketing meeting.

Tom argued that far too often, SEO is reduced to checklists and activity logs. However, the future of search; and the most successful campaigns; require strategic thinking, commercial alignment and a deeper understanding of the businesses we serve.

In a world of AI, changing algorithms and evolving search behaviours, choosing the right strategy and asking better questions will always be the most powerful place to start.

At Varn, we help businesses identify their core search strategy and build long-term success. Get in touch for a strategic SEO consultation.