The future of SEO in an AI world isn't what you think – it's smarter

What is AI SEO, really?

Andrew Yan, Co-founder and CEO AthenaHQ, captured this perfectly in a recent post: no one quite agrees on what to call it.

Andrew breaks down some of the most common terms currently floating around:

1. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
2. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)
3. LLM SEO (Large Language Model SEO)
4. GenAI Search Optimization
5. AI Search Optimization

And let's be honest, - it's likely that by the time this post is published there will be several others to add to the list.

Rather than viewing this shift as the end of SEO as we know it - we see it as an exciting evolution of SEO - a content renaissance, as my colleague Nazanin Ramezani calls it.

Modern SEO simply means a smarter, more modern approach that is essential to any effective digital strategy. In fact, we need to expand how we measure impact - this "AI exposure rate", not just sessions or CTR.

So, what should digital leaders do to stay ahead? Here's my take:

7 tips to ditch the chaos

1. Stop chasing traffic. Start optimizing for exposure.

Organic traffic used to be the north star. But in a world where AI models summarize, synthesize, and redirect user attention, we need to stop measuring success solely by visits.

Instead, ask: Is my brand showing up in the moments that matter—even if the click doesn’t come?

Tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) or ChatGPT’s browsing capability can surface your content without a click. That might feel like a loss… unless you shift your mindset.

We get it. Our CMS customers have experienced a 12% decline in page views on average (based on a YoY comparison of same cohort of Optimizely CMS customers from Q1'24 to Q1'25)

At Optimizely, we’ve observed declining organic traffic to some of our traditionally high-performing pages - even as our content appears more frequently in AI summaries and zero-click environments.

This doesn't mean our website is underperforming - it just means people are consuming our content in different ways. When AI Overviews appear in search, we may see fewer clicks, but that's not necessarily a loss. The content is still being seen - just in new / different platforms and channels.

Overall, performance remains steady. We've seen the sharpest traffic drops on some unbranded search terms, though the impact is smaller than expected - typically around 10-20%, with a few outliers. In may cases, rankings have held steady or even improved, suggesting the visibility is still there, even if fewer users are clicking through.

All in all, your job is still to create compelling, brand-aligned content—but now you must accept that AI might be the one delivering it, not your landing page.

2. Invest in the mid and bottom funnel experience

With AI's answering more questions inline, visitors are reading content off-site in more cases and not even getting to your website for informational queries.Top-of-funnel visibility is changing. But your control, and your competitive edge, lies in what happens after discovery.

We've noticed a growing pattern: users often engage off-site before even hitting a landing page. So, when users land on your site or engage with your brand, what experience are you offering? Are you creating frictionless, value-rich paths through your funnel? Are you connecting what they see in AI summaries to the experience they get on your site?

“Focus on the middle and bottom of the funnel. How do you give people the best experience possible when they get to you?”

The future belongs to brands that optimize not just for clicks, but for continuity - from AI-generated summary to on-site conversion.

3. Stay grounded in data - but don’t overreact

The AI hype cycle is real. Some voices are overpromising revolutions; others are declaring SEO dead. Neither is helpful.

“Most AI predictions are overblown in the short term and underappreciated in the long term. I think we'll look back on this moment as hype-fuelled but necessary"

Yes, your traffic numbers may fluctuate. No, the sky isn’t falling. Because even with the advent of AI, they're still advocating for the same thing, the user. The best possible user experience might look a bit different now, with more people consuming content off your website, but all that content has to come from somewhere, and authority, quality, and well sourced content is still king. Content quality still wins - it's now just delivered differently.

My advice? Stay grounded. Keep testing. Keep tracking. And continue investing in high-quality content and core platforms even as you experiment with emerging ones.

4. Use AI to strengthen SEO foundations

At Optimizely, we're not just thinking about how visitors are consuming your content differently, the way you produce that content is also changing!. AI doesn’t replace your strategy—it accelerates your execution. At Optimizely, we use AI to:

✅ Auto-generate metadata

✅ Add video captions

✅ Improve accessibility

✅ Bulk-edit page descriptions

✅ Explore content gaps and opportunities

“Those are hygiene tasks—but they stack up. If I can use AI to handle them, I free up time to improve the overall quality of our site. Using AI to optimize metadata and captions has saved our team 10+ hours a week - allowing us to reinvest that time into higher impact content and digital experiences"

Small efficiencies create space for strategic thinking. And that’s exactly where AI adds the most value.

5. Start with what you’re already doing

The worst mistake you can make? Buying AI tools without a plan.

“The wrong approach is to buy a piece of software and say, ‘How do I use all the features?’ Don’t do that. Look at what you’re already doing and how AI can help you do it better.”

Take a mindful approach. Step back. Ask what problems you’re trying to solve. Then evaluate whether AI—and which type of AI—is the right tool for the job. Make a list of all the things you do as a marketer on a regular day. Focus on the things that take you a lot of time, mental effort or are complex to solve and try to find AIs that can aid or completely replace those tasks for you.

If that's scary, it doesn't have to do them unassisted! In our experience, just having it stage the actions for you to review, is a great way to gain confidence in what it's outputting and tweak the prompts and go from there

Your existing tech stack likely has more potential than you realize. Start there.

6. Structure your content for AI and human readers

How you structure your content matters more than ever. Clear hierarchies, rich snippets, and well-organized headings help both search engines and large language models (LLMs) understand and surface your content accurately.

AI tools rely on structure to extract meaning. So even as clicks decline, well-structured content increases the odds your brand voice—and your facts—are represented accurately in AI answers and summaries.

✅ Use H1s and H2s with intent
✅ Include clear, concise summaries
✅ Format answers to common questions
✅ Embed schema markup where appropriate

Well-structured content isn’t just good SEO - it’s future-proof distribution.

7. Bring your leadership along

AI isn’t just a tool - it’s a transformation. And that requires communication.

“Spend time with your senior leadership. Show them how you're thinking about this, what you're changing, what your strategy is—just like you'd do during a traffic dip or major replatform.”

Being proactive builds confidence. And confidence unlocks support—for tools, teams, and experiments. AI is particularly good at assuming a role and stepping into someone's shoes. That includes your c-suite! Let it help summarize learnings, focussing on what they care about and outline your key learnings in a presentation doc.

We've also seen success creating those presentations and learnings ourselves, sending it to the AI as a powerpoint and just asking "What am I missing?" or "Does this have everything a CMO for Optimizely would care about?". Often times it would come back with a point or two we hadn't even considered to add!

The bottom line

The future of SEO isn’t about abandoning the fundamentals. It’s about evolving them with clarity, creativity, and calm.

Here's my top three takeaways:

✅ Don't obsess over traffic - optimize for presence.

✅ Don’t abandon your site - optimize the experience.

✅ Don’t fall for AI hype - use AI to reinforce your strengths.

And most importantly: While websites may change, your content matters more than ever. It's your brand's voice, value and perspective - distributed through search, AI, summaries and experiences. Whether or not it gets a click, great content is still the foundation of digital success.

At Optimizely, we call that being future-ready. The work doesn’t stop—it just gets smarter.

Want to see how Optimizely is integrating AI into digital experiences? Explore our latest AI-powered capabilities.