The SEO industry, known for its data-rich and metric-rich nature, is facing a skills gap that is not being addressed by technical experts. The industry is losing focus on rankings, traffic, and sessions, with boards now demanding more data-led decision making. The C-suite is now asking: "So what?" This question is the same question that killed the "likes and followers" era of social media marketing. Too many SEOs lack business awareness and marketing aptitude to understand how their actions fit into the larger picture. A recent straw poll of my network found that respondents were confident in their SEO team's ability to explain SEO's contribution to business outcomes like customer acquisition cost (CAC), lifetime value (LTV), and pipeline. The overall average score of 1 to 10 was over 6.7. However, this score could be fatal in an environment where budgets are shrinking.