For years, search engine optimisation (SEO) has been one of the foundations of digital marketing. Businesses have invested in keywords, backlinks, website structure, and content to help their pages appear in search results.
But the way people search for information is changing.
Alongside traditional search engines, people are increasingly using AI-powered tools to ask questions, explore topics, compare products, and discover potential solutions. Instead of always searching with a few keywords and browsing through a list of links, users can now ask detailed questions and receive conversational answers.
Naturally, this raises an important question for marketers: what does this mean for SEO?
My take? SEO isn’t dead. But relying on yesterday’s approach without adapting to how people discover information today isn’t a particularly strong strategy.
SEO and AI search: what’s the difference?
Traditional SEO focuses on improving a website’s visibility in search engine results. This includes creating relevant content, improving technical performance, understanding search intent, earning credible backlinks, and making pages accessible to search engines.
AI search introduces another layer of discovery. Depending on the platform, AI systems may interpret a question, retrieve information from different sources, and generate an answer that references or links to relevant websites.
For example, someone might search Google for “best ways to improve website accessibility.” Alternatively, they might ask an AI assistant to explain accessibility improvements for a small business website and recommend practical next steps.
The underlying need is similar: the person wants useful information. The way that information is presented and discovered can be different.
This is why marketers need to understand both traditional search visibility and the emerging ways AI-powered systems surface information.
Five things marketers should focus on
1. Create content that genuinely answers questions
Keyword research still matters, but a keyword shouldn’t be the entire content strategy.
Think about the questions your audience is asking, the problems they’re trying to solve, and the information they need before making a decision.
If you’re writing about website UX, for example, don’t simply repeat the phrase “website UX” throughout the article. Explain what it means, identify common usability problems, and provide practical solutions.
Useful content gives readers a reason to stay, learn, and return.
It also creates clearer, more meaningful information that search systems can interpret.
2. Prioritise clarity and structure
A well-written article should be easy for people to navigate and understand.
Use descriptive headings, concise explanations, relevant examples, and a logical flow. Define unfamiliar terms instead of assuming every reader already understands them.
Organised content can help search engines interpret a page and can make information easier for AI-powered systems to retrieve and represent. However, good structure alone doesn’t guarantee that a page will be cited in an AI-generated answer.
The goal is to make your content genuinely understandable, not to write for a machine at the expense of your readers.
3. Build credibility beyond individual keywords
Search visibility isn’t just about including the right phrases.
Your website should demonstrate a clear area of expertise, provide accurate information, and give visitors reasons to trust what they’re reading.
That might mean publishing original insights, explaining how you reached a conclusion, citing reliable sources, maintaining accurate author information, and updating outdated content.
Your wider digital presence matters, too. A consistent brand, credible references, useful resources, and authentic expertise can all contribute to how people perceive your business.
There is no single trick that guarantees AI visibility. Focus on building a trustworthy online presence instead.
4. Don’t neglect technical SEO
AI search doesn’t make the technical foundations of your website irrelevant.
Search engines and AI-powered search experiences still depend on various ways of discovering, accessing, and interpreting online information.
Make sure your important pages can be crawled and indexed where appropriate. Use sensible internal links, descriptive page titles, helpful metadata, mobile-friendly layouts, and accurate structured data when relevant.
Also, understand the technical requirements of the platforms you want to appear in. Access and citation practices vary, and not every AI system works in exactly the same way.
Before chasing the latest AI search tactic, make sure your website’s foundations are in good shape.
5. Measure more than rankings
Traditional SEO metrics such as organic clicks, impressions, rankings, and conversions remain useful.
However, as AI-powered discovery develops, marketers may also want to monitor referral traffic from AI platforms, relevant brand mentions, and whether their content appears as a cited source where reporting is available.
Be careful when interpreting these metrics. AI referrals can be difficult to track consistently, and visibility doesn’t always translate into a website visit.
The objective isn’t simply to appear everywhere. It’s to understand whether your content is reaching the right audience and contributing to meaningful business outcomes.
What about GEO and AEO?
You may have come across terms such as Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO).
These terms are used to describe approaches to improving how content is surfaced in AI-generated answers and answer-focused search experiences.
Although the terminology differs, much of the practical advice overlaps with good SEO: create helpful content, answer relevant questions, establish credibility, maintain accessible technical foundations, and communicate information clearly.
These approaches can be useful ways to think about emerging search behaviours. However, they shouldn’t be treated as magic formulas or guaranteed shortcuts to AI citations.
The technology is evolving, and marketers should be willing to test strategies rather than assume every new acronym represents an entirely new discipline.
So, should businesses change their SEO strategy?
Yes, but not by abandoning everything that already works.
Start with your audience. Understand how they search, what questions they ask, and where they look for recommendations.
Then review your existing content. Is it accurate? Does it offer something useful? Can people navigate it easily? Are your most important pages technically accessible? Does your website communicate what your business actually does?
From there, experiment with relevant content formats, strengthen your topical coverage, and measure what happens.
You don’t need to rewrite your entire website for AI overnight. You need a strategy that can adapt as search behaviours and technologies change.
The bigger picture: visibility is changing, but value still matters
Search has never been completely static. From keyword-focused strategies to mobile-first indexing and evolving search results, digital marketers have continually adapted to changes in how people discover information.
AI-powered search is another important development in that ongoing evolution.
The businesses best positioned to adapt are those that understand their audiences, invest in useful content, maintain strong technical foundations, and evaluate results with a critical eye.
At Signal & Strategies, we believe the goal isn’t to chase every new marketing trend. It’s to understand what is changing, identify what genuinely matters, and build strategies around that knowledge.
SEO isn’t dead. Search is evolving. Your strategy should be evolving with it.