Is Search Engine Optimisation dead?
Pretty much since the dawn of search engines, people have forecasted the end of SEO. And the latest “SEO killer”? That thing leaving its imprint all over the world: AI.
SEO survived every time people thought it would die. But…something feels different this time. Even Google is pivoting away from its business model of 25 years.
So, is AI the real death knell?
The short answer: No, AI will not kill SEO.
Here’s what we’re going into this time:
A brief history of times SEO was meant to die
I’ll describe the impact AI will have on the world of search
And we’ll unpack why AI is not going to kill off SEO.
Let’s go for it.
This isn’t the first death of SEO
The internet is full of obituaries for SEO.
Just try Googling “SEO is dead” to see.
It’s hard to keep up with all the changes to the internet. And at each major juncture, people have predicted the death of SEO.
The most interesting goes as far back as the late 90s by a marketer called Richard Hoy:
“I’m beginning to believe that search engines are a dead-end technology and fretting over where your site comes up is a big waste of time. I’m now advising clients that we create good META tags, submit the site and then forget it.”
-Richard Hoy, November 1997
Some other times SEO was meant to die:
2008-2010 — with the rise of social media, people declare SEO to not be important anymore.
2013 — Google releases their Hummingbird update, changing their focus to interpreting natural language. Many say it’s the end of keywords and the start of focusing on quality content.
2018-2019 — Virtual assistants like Alexa and Siri enter the fray. People predict voice search will, like Hummingbird, mean the end of keywords.
2020s and beyond — people declare that the advent of AI overviews and zero-click searches will spell the end of SEO.
The thing all these instances have in common? SEO survived each time, even if it needed to adapt to a new landscape.
There’s no reason to believe this time isn’t the same.
How will AI impact SEO?
Still, “SEO will survive” isn’t saying it will be unaffected.
What AI can replace
The biggest shift in this space has already happened.
In May 2024, Google released AI Overviews. Ever since, they’ve been wreaking havoc on top-level, shallow, informational content
It’s inaccurate to claim “SEO is dead”.
But there are some other statements which are true.
Content mills will die. I’m sure some people will try it anyway, but it’s the SEO equivalent of “spray and pray”. Whilst AI made content mills easier than ever to run, it’s also getting better at sniffing out its own nonsense and detecting quality over quantity.
Keyword stuffing and exact keyword matching will die. And I can confidently say they’ll actually die this time. LLMs are just much better at understanding context than anything that’s come before. More on this a bit later.
Top-of-funnel informational blog posting will lose much of its value. With AI overviews and synthesised answers, people aren’t clicking through to websites anymore.
That last one saddens me a bit. But the eagle-eyed will have noticed I didn’t say it’s going to be left on the scrapheap with content mills or keyword stuffing.
What AI can’t replace
AI still needs to get information from somewhere.
Each time something new comes around, someone has to write about it. This means, if you can create content that:
…is timely and quick,
…is accurate and complete,
…covers a new, deep/technical enough topic that AI needs to cite the user,
If nothing else, you’re establishing yourself as an authority on the topic. Queries which are related to your business’ offer will get recommended more.
Then, any clicks you get from that content are a bonus.
This feeds into the same point everyone is making about content strategies in a world of AI search: EEAT. I’ll write about these in detail at a later point, but the gist of it is this.
Expertise, experience, authoritativeness and trust are things AI can’t do by itself.
The more of it you have in your content, the more value it brings to users. In turn, AI search is more likely to recommend it.
The future of SEO in a world of AI search
The critical shift will be towards “satisfying intent”.
Imagine this. I’m running an eCommerce website which sells party supplies. Previously, I’d have targeted keywords like “party supplies”, “party bags and candles”, and similar.
Now, someone comes along and searches for “graduation celebration decorations”.
It’s rare that my site would show up in results unless I had content optimised for that exact term.
But, this won’t be true with AI search.
Someone searching for graduation celebration decorations would be much more likely to find me, depending on exactly how they’d asked. Here’s why:
AI search is much better at connecting terms like “graduation celebration” to adjacent terms like “party”.
Searches in AI will have much more context. People don’t go to ChatGPT and just type “graduation celebration decorations” and expect it to know what to do with that. They might instead ask, “I’m planning a graduation celebration and I need to buy decorations. Can you recommend a good source?”. This kind of context isn’t possible with traditional keywords.
But here’s where a lot of people will get caught out.
AI can connect “graduation celebration” to “party” for me. But if I’m only writing about party bags and candles, AI can’t know if I sell “decorations” unless I make that clear on my site.
AI search will make exact keyword matching obsolete.
In its place will be the need for a new clarity on exactly how your business can help customers.
How to prepare for AI search
And true to what I said earlier, SEO is changing.
But it’s still not completely going away.
Double down on technical SEO. More than ever, you need to make it as easy as possible for AI and search engines to find and understand your content.
Use structured data to help AI understand — and possibly interact — with your content. Especially in the wake of agentic AI becoming the norm, the easier you make it for said agents to work with you, the better you’ll do.
Build off-site authority. Get your brand mentioned in blogs and journals within your niche. Start conversations about what you can do on social media, so long as you’re doing so authentically and in places where you can genuinely add value.
Publish content that AI can’t replicate. There are those good old EEAT signals again.
Be the most trustworthy brand. Have clear fulfilment, returns and privacy policies. Earn strong, positive reviews. It’s been proven time and time again that customers trust brands recommended to them by AI. So if you can get AI to trust you, you’re in for a good time.
Will AI replace SEO?
Markets don’t stop moving just because the tech shifts around.
Customers will keep buying
Customers will still search for products
Businesses will need a way to be discovered.
The question remains, will the customers choose you or your competitors?
AI may be taking over search, but customers will keep buying at the same rate. They’re going to get their recommendations from somewhere. The difference will just be how businesses get themselves in front of the right people.
Brands still need to be discovered and trusted.
But as was true with every other big change in search, many of the “hacks” and “shortcuts” to success will stop working as these tools improve at finding content which provides value to searchers.
So, no. AI won’t kill SEO.
But it will kill poorly done SEO.
Written by Tommy McDevitt, a Senior Engineer with 10+ years experience. I’m now helping eCommerce businesses be discovered online through SEO in an age of AI search. Want to work with me on your visibility? Let’s see what we can achieve together!
Further resources…
Will AI make SEO obsolete?
No, AI won’t make SEO obsolete.
AI is changing how people search by focusing less on exact keywords, and focusing more on intent and trusted sources. Traditional tactics like keyword stuffing will stop working, but technical SEO, structured data and building an authoritative brand will be essential for visibility in a world of AI search.
How will AI affect SEO?
AI will transform SEO by shifting the focus from exact keyword matching to intent, context and authority. Search engines and AI assistants will rely more on structured data, brand signals and expertise to find the results which will be most helpful to users. Thin, generic content will lose visibility, whereas technically sound sites with clear, trustworthy information will become more visible.
Can AI replace search engines?
Yes, AI can replace some functions of search engines, but not all.
AI understands context and intent much better than traditional search engines. So, rather than presenting a list of links to the user and having them figure out which is best, AI can do the work for them and provide a highly relevant list of resources for exactly what the user needs. But they still depend on the indexing infrastructure used by traditional search engines to work.
Rather than replacing search engines outright, AI is changing how results are delivered.