I have been working with SEO for the last 10 years, and this new era of AI search is evolving SEO as we know it. Strategies and processes are being disrupted, and the way SEO works has changed for the greater good.
Agencies, marketing teams, and SEO specialists are now facing new challenges that rival new technologies so they can retain organic traffic and actually convert it. It is a new challenge we are facing as a whole, and it is for the better.
We now have the new channel that comes from AI sources. This means that we now have ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic, and Perplexity are realing in sources of traffic that can benefit your website’s objectives. This is a great opportunity to be showcased, and it can work if you deliver the results of those AI chats.
My perspective on this is quite simple: organic searches are being diluted by AI in various outlets, as Google has stated, with the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) criteria.
I have seen various videos online about generative engine optimization, and it seems that there is a pattern. Users want to search for the best product/service out there, and AI tools are sharing comparison charts that will let them decide, based on their descriptions, to give them the best choice for that product/service.
This can include writing, plumbing, or cleaning services that appear as a result of an AI prompt. It is best to create a comparison page with your competitors so AI tools can cite that source for the answer for the prompt.
SEO is evolving and it is including AI search as another medium for generating traffic. And sites that are ready for this change will have a greater chance of appearing in AI search results for more visibility. It is not just Google anymore, it is Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other LLM’s that are being used for searching products and services for people.
My thoughts on this: This is a great opportunity to expand and learn from it. I think that users that come from an AI search are far more qualified than users searching on Google. Why you may ask? Because they are in research mode and they have the answer in their fingertips. They don’t need to research 10 times in Google. They can just get an overview of a product and/or service in an AI tool and decide on the spot. That is power of awareness because the AI tool already did the heavy lifting for you: the research part.
SEO is at a crossroads: its evolution is not just doing keyword research anymore, people are not asking for broad phrases in the Google bar, they are making really long tail and descriptive keywords that need more research, hence, the era of prompting and long tail keywords have begun.
I am intrigued by how LLMs work and how it is changing the SEO landscape for the better of humanity. This change is remarkably outstanding and it seems that it is a great way to advertise in a non-intrusive way. My view on this it’s that it seems that users are researching something in depth and they want to find a solution to their problems and using and LLM is a great method of receiving information that is useful and helpful.
My key takeaways of this new era of AI search are these:
- Users are researching and searching in an in-depth analysis
- Users want to compare products/services and LLMs are helping with this
- Users are searching on AI tools, diversifying the SEO landscape for marketers
- Generative engine optimization is a key factor for new digital media channels
- SEO isn’t dead… It is evolving into something far more greater
In conclusion, this great change in the world seems that it is a technological progress for humanity. Those marketers that evolve with technology will thrive for the next generation of digital marketing through online media.