Is SEO Dead? The Guide to Thriving in the World of AI Search
- September 22, 2025
- Posted by: Josef Bresler
- Categories: Demand Generation and Growth, Results Optimization
As the world of search marketing continues to evolve rapidly with generative AI results being displayed on search engines like Google, and as fully new ways of searching gain momentum (e.g., asking questions via a chat interface, as in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and others), many people are wondering if traditional SEO is dead. This debate is relevant for companies of all sizes, because up to this point, organic search results have been a core pillar of every growth campaign. SEO has typically been where early-stage companies focus their efforts to build awareness and authority, and where established companies turn to in order to gain visibility for new products, surface their brand among competitors, and drive traffic.
Some might ask, “If traditional search were to go away, what would companies do instead?” The short answer is: don’t worry. Search volume continues to be high, with Google’s overall search volume in 2025 amounting to around 8.5 billion daily searches globally, and their market share holding steady at around 91.47% compared to other search engines like Bing and Yahoo. So, in short, Google search isn’t going away any time soon, and as a result, the principles of optimizing for search engines (or traditional SEO) still apply.
But, to compete in AI-enabled searches, whether those searches are performed via generative AI platforms like ChatGPT or simply performed directly within Google’s AI experience, companies need to pay close attention to the basic principles of on-page optimization, technical SEO, and link building. Here are a few quick wins that companies may have missed in each of these areas, and where to start to make quick fixes that will improve their results in both traditional search and in AI Search.
On-Page SEO: Quick Wins for AI & Traditional Search
AI-powered search engines, like their traditional counterparts, rely on crawlers to read and understand the content on your website. While these new crawlers may process information differently, they still favor well-structured, clear content. Complex designs and tangled code can confuse them, causing them to misread or misinterpret your content. Here’s what you need to do:
- Simplify your content so it is easier for both search engines and humans to read and interpret. Use short paragraphs, clear headings, and active language.
- Simplify your page layouts so that content is exposed and easy for both crawlers and humans to access, rather than using complex designs that might hide content or mix up the reading order.
- Structure content with proper tags. Crawlers want to see a natural structure to your pages, starting with your metadata and continuing on to your headlines, subheads, body copy, and so forth. Use simple tagging and be sure to tag all page elements (including images) with proper alt text and descriptions.
Technical SEO: Small Fixes, Big Impact
Companies often overlook technical aspects of SEO in favor of getting a site launched quickly or making it look “pretty.” But both traditional and AI search engines favor the same basic principles of technical SEO. If you’ve put off these tasks, it’s time to revisit the basics. Here are a few technical aspects to focus on:
- Boost site speed and improve your site’s mobile experience. If your site takes a long time to load, both traditional and AI search engines will not wait. It’s time to get rid of excess code, optimize images, or possibly even increase the speed and power of your servers. It is also essential to address your website’s mobile experience (including speed), so that both users and crawlers can quickly access and index your site.
- Provide a clear roadmap for crawlers. Both search engine crawlers and AI crawlers like to have a roadmap for your site. A properly structured XML sitemap will go a long way to instructing crawlers on what to crawl and what level of importance to give your content. Make sure your robots.txt file isn’t blocking important pages by mistake. Additionally, many sites are implementing an LLMS.txt file, which more explicitly instructs AI engines on what’s important on your site, and what to prioritize for crawling.
Link Building and Authority in the Age of AI
Building links and building your website’s authority have always been a priority in SEO, but now these tactics take on new significance.
- As for internal links, these links between related pages within your site continue to be important so that users will have a seamless and rich experience as they explore your site’s content. They also help crawlers navigate and discover your pages.
- Inbound links (those links that lead from other sites to your site) now take on a new significance because links from low-quality or spam sites may hurt your site’s authority and damage your rankings. Those who have pursued a strategy of using “link farms” to get inbound links and traffic should consider cleaning up those links and pursuing higher authority sites.
In addition, it may be time for you to pursue a fully-fledged and integrated social media program or digital PR program that helps you get high-quality links from high-authority sites, so that the links also pass authority to your site.
Conclusion
In conclusion, traditional SEO is not dead, and standard SEO optimization tactics are not going away in an AI Search world. But the optimization tactics are evolving rapidly, while new search optimization techniques are also coming into play. In a new world of AI discovery, it isn’t a question of whether to optimize for search engines or AI engines – you’ll need to optimize for both types of discovery, and taking even small steps to better optimize for traditional search will go a long way toward setting your content up for success in AI search.
If you’d like help with auditing your current SEO standing and with putting in place a strong optimization roadmap, contact us to get started.
