Search May be Dying, but SEO isn’t Going Anywhere.
Search isn't dead, but recent data points to a growing churn problem. Need proof? Look no further than HubSpot, undisputed king of inbound traffic. The MarTech powerhouse saw its organic visits nearly cut in half within two months at the start of 2025. We're talking millions of visits. And how about Forbes? The venerable media giant experienced similar losses, with search visibility collapsing up to eighty percent. Then, there's the rest of us. Startups, scale ups, SMBs. Anxiously wondering where our traffic went. And if it'll ever come back.
What's behind the slide? Increasingly, it's AI. ChatGPT alone has reached 400 million weekly active users. And one in four Americans has experimented with AI to answer questions they previously typed into Google. Yet, it's not the platform shift that matters. Many of these folks are satisfied without clicking through to websites.
Brands and marketers are right to be concerned. Fewer clicks mean fewer visitors, fewer leads, and fewer customers.
Is SEO on Life Support?
This migration has sparked an identity crisis among marketers. Some believe the move from traditional search to AI warrants a rebranding of SEO. Terms like AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), and CEO (Chat Engine Optimization) now compete for attention.
Veteran SEO Roger Montti argues otherwise. Writing in Search Engine Journal, Montti points out that AI-driven search tools like Perplexity still rely on classic ranking signals like backlinks, content depth, and authority. Montti and others contend that SEO fundamentals remain not just relevant, but essential.
This debate isn't trivial. Renaming SEO risks distracting marketers from proven best practices that require time, patience, and commitment. As you'll see below, it's not about clinging to the past. It's about leaning into what's working now.
Fundamentals Still Win
SEO pioneer Todd Friesen nailed the entire debate in a widely-shared LinkedIn post last week. On the topic of trendy new acronyms, he offers: "It is basically fundamental SEO and fundamental brand building. Can we stop over complicating it?”
Friesen lists these 8 proven strategies to underscore his approach:
Proper code (html, schema and all that)
Fast and responsive site
Good content
Keyword research (yes, we still do this)
Coordination with brand marketing
Build some links
Analytics and reporting (focus on converting traffic)
Rinse and repeat
His point is clear. Rather than chasing the next new buzzword, marketers need to revisit these fundamentals and execute them better than their competitors. Period. That's keeping it simple.
Early Signals from AI Answers
In working closely with brands that follow Friesen's advice, I've seen compelling evidence that this approach works in an AI-driven search environment.
Content and sites already optimized for traditional search consistently appear in AI-generated responses from tools like ChatGPT and Claude. Highly-ranked blog posts and YouTube videos are frequently cited as authoritative sources within AI conversations. These early successes suggest that current AI models use Google's search rankings as a rough proxy for their own relevance criteria.
It's not definitive proof, but the correlation is too strong to ignore. Brands winning in traditional search also win in AI-generated results.
The New Metric: Share of LLM
While the fundamentals remain unchanged, marketers DO need new ways to track and measure visibility inside AI chat environments. One promising metric is "Share of LLM" – the frequency with which a brand appears in AI-generated answers compared to competitors.
Gumshoe, a Seattle-based startup recently featured in GeekWire, generates thousands of simulated AI conversations to show brands exactly how often and in what context their products appear. This insight helps marketers understand the competitive landscape within AI-driven discovery.
Similarly, Profound, a San Francisco analytics company backed by Khosla Ventures, offers detailed tracking of AI mentions and actionable recommendations to boost brand visibility. Early users, including fintech startup Ramp, reported significant visibility improvements in AI search environments after adopting Profound's recommendations.
Scrunch AI, another emerging company based in Berkeley, provides regular audits of how brands appear in AI answers. Its analytics help brands identify outdated or inaccurate information feeding AI conversations, empowering them to proactively manage their digital narrative.
These startups illustrate how blending traditional SEO with new visibility tools can help marketers stay ahead in the AI-driven search evolution.
The Way Forward
The playbook for SEO in an AI-driven world isn't about reinventing the wheel or chasing acronyms. It's about strengthening foundational best practices proven to enhance visibility. The new frontier is measuring and adapting to a world where fewer clicks occur, and visibility inside AI chats becomes critical.
Smart brands aren't panicking. They're optimizing their websites, improving content relevance, and actively measuring their "Share of LLM." The future winners in AI-driven search will be those brands that master these traditional fundamentals, paired with precise, actionable insights about their AI presence.
If your SEO basics aren't solid, chasing new acronyms won't save you. Strengthen those fundamentals first, then measure and adapt as search behaviors shift to AI. Another way to look at it: Just because some things are changing, doesn't mean everything is.