What SEO Looks Like in an AI-Powered World (And Why You Shouldn’t Panic)

in SEO  by Ann

There’s a refrain in the digital marketing world that seems to be played on repeat these past several months. Sometimes it sounds like, “SEO is dead” or “SEO is being replaced.” One thing we can say for certain: SEO is changing. Again.

And no, it’s not just a new algorithm update or a shuffle in rankings. It’s a much bigger shift, the scope of which we are just beginning to grasp. It’s a shift that involves large language models (LLMs), conversational search, and AI systems interpreting the internet in ways we’re still trying to wrap our heads around. 

That’s all to say that if you’re feeling like SEO in 2025 and beyond is one big question mark, you’re not alone. In my discussions with clients lately, I couch all my 90 day Roadmaps with a caveat that sounds like this: “And of course, who knows what the state of AI and the internet will look like in three months, so this is all subject to change.”

But don’t worry, this isn’t another post about how everything you know is wrong and you need to panic-rewrite every part of your site. No, I’m taking the less popular, proactive, positive approach. This post is about where to focus, what matters now, and how to adapt without burning it all down.

First Things First: Remember AI is a Classic Overachiever

If you’ve not considered this lens, let me be the first to introduce you to it; LLMs as the super book-smart, eager-to-please interns. They want to understand everything, and they want to help. But if your site doesn’t speak their language, aka if it’s full of blocked pages, confusing structure, or zero context, they’re going to make assumptions and try to fill in the blanks themselves. And these assumptions can be painfully detrimental. 

Which is where technical SEO comes in.

Technical SEO Tweaks Worth Mentioning

  • Double check your robots.txt. If you’ve been holding out, it’s time to let the chatbots in. Don’t just cater to Googlebot anymore, you’ve got to add the LLM-specific directives too. And while you’re at it, consider adding a LLMS.txt, which specifically tells AI tools where your content lives and what it’s allowed to crawl.
  • Clean up your sitemaps. If your site is regularly changing (and let’s be honest, it probably is), make sure your sitemap is accurate and updated. It matters. 
  • Get structured. Schema markup isn’t just for recipe bloggers anymore. It helps AI understand who you are, what your products do, and why your content matters. Add it for articles, FAQs, reviews, products—everything you want understood.

On-Page SEO Is Having a Main Character Moment

In this new and evolving AI era, “the medium is the message” is more relevant than ever; how you write matters just as much as what you write. What does that mean for your on-page SEO Strategy? 

  • Match real questions. If someone were to ask it out loud, write it that way. Bonus points if you actually answer it on the page, since that seems to be a tall order for so many sites these days.
  • Include secondary (and tertiary) keywords. And not just exact match or your main phrase either, but related terms that help AI models understand nuance. (You know, the ones that feel like overachieving background dancers in your keyword plan.)
  • Use a conversational tone. Don’t follow in Christopher Nolan’s steps and write in ways that no real person would talk. Talk like a human. LLMs are trained on natural language, not the script for Interstellar. Your content should sound like it came from a helpful person, not a robot trying to sell you a robot.

Off-Page SEO: Still Relevant, Just… Smarter Now

If your SEO strategy stops at your own website, it’s missing part of the story. LLMs gather authority signals from every corner of the web, so if you’ve been dragging your feet, it’s time to:

  • Update third-party profiles. That includes Wikipedia, partner sites, review platforms, and anywhere else your brand shows up.
  • Train your teams. Ensure that anyone writing content outside your site (PR, social, partnerships) knows the basics of writing for AI visibility (see above).
  • Review your backlinks. Now’s the time to reclaim any valuable backlinks that might be pointing to broken pages. 
  • Find your citations. Where are LLMs pulling info in your space? If they’re not direct competitors, can you improve, correct, or contribute to those sources? 

 

Ads Are Moving Up the Funnel

And with Google’s latest updates as of this week, Search and Shopping ads are now showing up inside AI Overviews, right next to the responses we see when we ask those open-ended questions AI is so fond of answering. And if our experience up to date with AI overviews is indicative of anything, it’s that these placements aren’t just about clicks; they’re about visibility during the earliest, most impressionable moments of the user journey (on the plus side, if you’re already running Performance Max or Search campaigns with broad match, you’re probably already eligible). 

Tips for PPC in the Dawn of the Sponsored AI Era

To best set yourself up for success as these roll out more broadly, consider the following:

  • Audit your creative and copy. These placements are designed to feel helpful, not pushy or overly sales-y. Make sure your ad messaging aligns with the intent, that of early-stage discovery, and actually answers a legitimate user need or question.
  • Use broad match wisely. While it expands reach, pairing it with smart audience signals and conversion data helps ensure relevance in AI-driven formats. Using it without these features risks you wasting visibility on users you’ve no hope of converting. 
  • Optimize for intent, not just keywords. And just in case you think you’ve heard the last from me about the importance of intent, think again. You’ll need to think about the user’s broader problem or question more than ever, and whether your ad actually helps move them forward.
  • Review your landing pages. If someone clicks from an AI Overview, will your page deliver value and context that matches their expectations based on their query, or will it cause bounce-worthy confusion?

 

So, Is SEO Dead? Or Replaced? Or… Growing Up?

No, it’s just evolving to accommodate new technologies, and it’s a mistake to think of AI as the next generation of SEO. SEO has and will continue to be about optimizing for search engines, but search engines are no longer the only way people find information on the internet. 

The fundamentals still matter; great content, strong structure, authoritative sources. The difference is, we’re no longer just optimizing for search engines. We’re optimizing for a (predicted) future of how information gets interpreted, summarized, and shared by both us mere mortals and the machines.

And if that sounds overwhelming, remember that you don’t have to overhaul everything overnight. Start with what’s most visible, improve what’s already working, and give your site a better shot at being understood by the algorithms of today and tomorrow.