From BGE to “Launch to $10K”, Enfroy’s strategic shift signals the end of SEO-first blogging

Is link-building still an effective path to generate traffic?

Adam’s preferred route for faster results involved structured outreach, partnerships, and sometimes significant paid link investment. But link-building as an SEO lever is now weaker, riskier, and more expensive than it used to be:

• Google has explicitly de-emphasised links in documentation and guidance, and spam/paid patterns are more likely to be ignored or penalised.
• AI Overviews and rising zero-click behavior mean fewer users click through from informational queries, so the ROI of ranking-by-links alone is lower.
• Compliance risk is high if money, link swaps, or scaled schemes are involved. Google’s 2024–2025 spam updates target manipulative patterns more aggressively.

AI estimates: the probability of success for a new/low-authority blog in 12 months purely via link-driven SEO is ~10–20% if you have real PR stories and a proactive, strategic role. But only single digits if it’s mostly paid links or swaps. If executed as genuine PR that earns coverage and sends referrals, traffic success rises to ~25–40% because you’re not relying on Google alone.

And content-building?

Content-building alone is slower and, in a world of AI Overviews and zero-click search, delivers less Google traffic per ranking than before. As with link-building, it can still work but only when it creates real demand and referral traffic beyond Google.

Ranking power still matters, but each ranking is worth less traffic on many queries. Without distribution or an existing audience, it now takes even longer to get any traffic.

AI estimates: probability of success for a new blog via content alone aimed at Google in 12 months, is about ~5–15% to reach meaningful organic traffic. If you pair content with distribution (social, newsletters, communities) and treat Google as just one input, success odds can improve to ~25–40%.