SEO Isn’t Dead. But It’s Not What It Used to Be

I've been watching marketers panic about AI killing SEO for about two years now. The hot takes keep coming. "SEO is dead." "Google is finished." "Nobody will click links anymore."

Here's my actual take: SEO isn't dead. But the game has been rewritten, and most businesses are still playing by the old rules.

What's Actually Happening

Let me paint the picture. A B2B buyer needs software for their team. Five years ago, they'd Google it, click through ten results, read reviews, maybe download a comparison guide. Standard stuff.

Today? Many of them open ChatGPT first. They type something like "what's the best project management tool for a 50-person marketing team?" and get a direct answer with specific recommendations. No clicking. No browsing. Just an answer.

This isn't hypothetical. I've talked to dozens of companies tracking their pipeline sources, and AI referrals are showing up more frequently. Not as the majority yet, but growing fast enough that ignoring it feels risky.

The Problem With "SEO Is Dead" Takes

The people saying SEO is dead are mostly wrong, but they're wrong in an interesting way.

Traditional SEO still works. People still search Google. Organic traffic still drives revenue. If you abandon SEO entirely, you're making a mistake.

But - and this is the important part - optimizing only for Google search means you're optimizing for yesterday's buyer behavior. The buyers of tomorrow are increasingly starting their research with AI tools. And AI tools don't work like search engines.

Google ranks pages. AI recommends answers.

That's a fundamentally different game.

How AI Decides What to Recommend

I spent a lot of time last year trying to understand this. When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity for a recommendation, what determines whether your company shows up?

It's not keywords. It's not backlinks. It's not domain authority - at least not in the way SEO people think about it.

From what I can tell, AI systems evaluate companies based on a few key things:

First, can it figure out what you actually do? If your positioning is vague or your messaging is inconsistent across different sources, AI struggles to categorize you. It won't recommend something it can't confidently describe.

Second, do other sources validate what you claim? AI cross-references information. If your website says you're the leader in X but nobody else seems to agree, that's a credibility problem.

Third, are you showing up in places AI learns from? This goes beyond your website. Podcasts, industry forums, publications, databases - AI trains on diverse sources. If you only exist on your own domain, you're invisible to a lot of the learning process.

Fourth, can AI actually retrieve your information? This is technical, but it matters. Structured data, schema markup, Wikipedia entries - these make your facts machine-readable.

The Companies Getting This Right

I've noticed a pattern among companies that show up consistently in AI recommendations. They're not doing anything revolutionary. They're just disciplined about a few things.

They describe themselves the same way everywhere. Homepage, LinkedIn, press quotes, podcast appearances - the language is consistent. Not identical, but clearly aligned around the same core positioning.

They show up in authoritative places. Not just their own blog, but industry publications, analyst reports, technical communities where their buyers hang out. They prioritize quality of mentions over quantity.

They've invested in the boring technical stuff. Their websites have proper schema markup. They've claimed their Wikipedia page where possible. Their facts are structured in ways machines can parse.

None of this is sexy. There's no hack here. It's just systematic work that compounds over time.

What This Means for Your Strategy

I'm not saying abandon SEO. That would be dumb. Google still matters enormously.

But I am saying your visibility strategy needs to expand. You need to think about how AI systems perceive your brand, not just how Google ranks your pages.

Some practical starting points:

Audit your positioning consistency. Are you describing yourself the same way across all channels? If not, fix it.

Diversify your content distribution. Get on podcasts. Contribute to industry publications. Show up in the places AI learns from beyond your own website.

Implement structured data. This is table stakes for AI retrievability. If you don't have schema markup on your site, that's an easy win.

Monitor AI perception. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity about your company and your category. See what they say. Track it over time.

The Uncomfortable Truth

Here's what nobody wants to hear: the companies that started thinking about AI visibility two years ago have a real head start. AI perception compounds. Early movers built advantages that later movers will struggle to overcome.

That doesn't mean it's too late. It means the window is narrowing.

SEO took years to become a standard practice. AI visibility is following the same adoption curve, just faster. The businesses that treat it seriously now - while their competitors are still arguing about whether it matters - will be the ones that dominate the next era of discovery.

Bottom Line

SEO isn't dead. It's evolving. And the evolution favors companies that understand how AI systems actually work, not how we wish they worked.

The old playbook still has value. But it's no longer sufficient. The new game requires thinking about visibility across channels, consistency across sources, and discoverability across both human and machine readers.