{"id":112296,"date":"2024-01-26T14:46:05","date_gmt":"2024-01-26T14:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rockcontent.com\/?p=112296"},"modified":"2025-09-16T15:05:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T18:05:37","slug":"seo-in-the-age-of-ai-search","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pingback.com\/en\/resources\/seo-in-the-age-of-ai-search\/","title":{"rendered":"SEO in the Age of AI Search"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2025 has served as a powerful reminder that some things, especially in the dynamic world of tech, marketing, and content, simply don\u2019t follow a script.<\/p>\n

Last week I wrote a post about 2025 marketing \u201cnon-predictions\u201d<\/a>; in fact, I decided to turn my attention to possibilities and emerging trends already reshaping the marketing and content landscapes. SEO wasn\u2019t on my radar, but its importance demands dedicated attention. Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n

What to expect from SEO from now on<\/h2>\n

A recent Gartner report predicts a 50% drop in organic search traffic by 2028<\/a> due to AI search.<\/p>\n

This may appear concerning, but instead of jumping to conclusions, let\u2019s consider a more nuanced perspective. The new recent prediction from Gartner states, \u201cBy 2028, brands\u2019 organic search traffic will decrease by 50% or more as consumers embrace generative AI-powered search.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the same report:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe rapid adoption of GenAI in search engines will significantly disrupt CMOs\u2019 ability to harness organic search to drive sales. A Gartner survey of 299 consumers in August 2023 found consumers are ready for AI-enhanced search, with 79% of respondents expecting to use it within the next year. Furthermore, 70% of consumers expressed at least some trust in GenAI-backed search results.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Still, from Gartner:<\/p>\n

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\u201cCMOs must prepare for the disruption that GenAI-backed search will bring to their organic search strategies. Marketing leaders whose brands rely on SEO should consider allocating resources to testing other channels in order to diversify.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Undeniably, the landscape is shifting. AI is weaving its way into search<\/a>, promising personalized results and conversational interactions. Bing\u2019s Fabrice Canel envisions<\/a> \u201ca completely new way to interact with the web,\u201d blurring the lines between search and chat.<\/p>\n

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This is in a way exciting, but as Kieran Flanagan points out<\/a>, it\u2019s not quite time to toss our SEO textbooks out the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat should brands do? Test other channels? Let\u2019s be honest; no other channel is as predictable or scalable as search. The beauty of search is once you\u2019ve built an engine, it\u2019s easy to forecast and directly tie back to revenue, both organic and paid. Marketers won\u2019t need to \u2018test\u2019 new channels; they\u2019ll need to rethink how they approach marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

SEO offers predictability and scalability. It\u2019s one of the engines that drives organic traffic, fuels sales, and keeps our marketing budgets active. AI search, for all its futuristic appeal, lacks that same formula. It\u2019s the shiny new gadget we\u2019re eager to play with, not the trusty tool we rely on daily \u2013 not yet, at least.<\/p>\n

One thing that\u2019s become clear, especially if you\u2019re talking to folks working inside larger brands, is that panic isn\u2019t really the default mode. There\u2019s this quiet, collective recalibration happening\u2014most teams are keeping the classic SEO playbook running while watching AI search with a bit of side-eye, not full-blown paranoia. No one wants to gamble the established ROI on a channel that\u2019s still evolving, not until the numbers and patterns settle into something you can actually translate to boardroom PowerPoints without a dozen asterisks.<\/p>\n

But day-to-day, conversations have started to shift. Instead of obsessing over top-spot rankings on Google alone, teams are pulling in feedback from customer support, tracking what people actually ask for inside chatbots, and analyzing where AI-driven snippets are leading people after that first answer. Sometimes that data points to new opportunities (or, honestly, weird blindspots nobody prioritized before), opening doors for experiments that would\u2019ve seemed fringe back in, say, 2021. It\u2019s not revolution, but it feels a lot like the start of a long, sometimes awkward transition phase.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean we should ignore AI in Search. It\u2019s time to crack open our toolboxes and get curious. As expected, there is no literature on this specific subject, but I found Wil Reynolds\u2019 posts eye-opening.<\/p>\n

Questions that AI in Search has left <\/h2>\n

Now, here are some questions that should be keeping us up at night:<\/p>\n