Every week, it feels like Artificial intelligence (AI) is picking a new tree in digital marketing to shake (or bark up, we’ll figure the analogies out along the way). AI, when used strategically and thoughtfully, can offer efficiency, sure, but it also drums up its share of unique headaches - data privacy concerns and "sea of sameness" content, to think of two off the top of my head. At the very same time, search engines, now reinforced with AI Overviews, AI Mode, and Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, are getting smarter, aiming to grasp your intent rather than just keywords.
Put another way - AI in search is meant to better understand what you want and not just “get” what you say/type.
Here’s the kicker: this AI “magic” doesn't have our ol’ pal Search Engine Optimization (SEO) going the way of the dinosaur. Nope, not even close. In fact, it makes SEO's core ideas more important than ever.
Crafting great content that genuinely helps folks, keeping your website running smoothly, sending out strong brand signals, and truly understanding user needs—these are all foundations for SEO best practices… and just so happen to align with getting noticed when AI steps in. To start winning, all you have to do is something you should have been doing all along: ensure you’re hitting all your SEO fundamentals.
One thing is very clear: AI isn't a small change, it’s not going anywhere, and we’re all figuring it out as it evolves (mutates? matures?). In the world of SEO, we know that things are constantly shifting online, and we’re already acclimated to the landscape we work in being that way. We’re freaking built for it - just look at our battle scars from the era of mobile optimization.
It can appear that AI speeds things up - especially with content production. Generative AI helps marketers draft “personalized” content fast. But fast does not equal good. Creating mountains of content with no strategy, keyword research, or understanding of how that content will factor into the vastness of the internet is not the move - this stuff takes experience and expertise. That’s one of the biggest lifts an agency like Be Found Online (BFO) brings to the table.
This content cloning approach of using AI to pump out massive amounts of generic, unvetted junk seeps into the internet and spoils it with unhelpful content like runoff from an unchecked pig farm, and search engines like Google do not like or place much value on content it deems unhelpful. This approach can actually work against you.
So, while AI offers the temptation of endless quantity, you still need a heavy dose of human touch, creativity, and strategy to ensure that the quality of your content is something your mom would be proud to hang on the fridge - something an agency is built to do.
AI adoption has its tricky bits. I mean, that’s part of why you’re reading this, right? Let’s sus a couple out here:
AI systems demand data, raising big privacy concerns for marketers. Now more than ever, brands should prioritize transparency regarding AI implementation, all while adhering to data protection regulations. The ethical and transparent use of AI, particularly when handling sensitive company data, should always be a top consideration. These ethical AI practices are essential for building and maintaining trust for your brand, as well as keeping you and your customers safe and secure as AI evolves.
In full transparency around AI use, I used Google Gemini for some research, to help with guiding an initial outline, and to optimize headlines for this piece. The reason is that, at BFO, we believe AI is an incredible tool to help get things done, but it’s not a full replacement for anything we do.
This is also the part where I mention that I am not a lawyer and it is paramount to work with your legal teams around compliancy, privacy, and AI.
AI algorithms can accidentally repeat biases from their training data, and over-reliance on AI can create bland, generic results (remember that “sea of sameness”?). This further galvanizes the need for human oversight, fresh insights, and diverse data sources to maintain quality. If your brand has a brand book (highlighting the look, tone, and feel that your brand embodies), you should understand how this generic, AI-mined content can be at massive odds with that vision.
Human creativity, data-driven strategy, and strong brand guidelines remain super important to distinguish your brand and hit your business goals, and you should be looking into an agency if your current team doesn’t have the bandwidth or expertise to ensure all these checks are met.
There’s no denying it - search is changing because of AI, seen in Google's AI Overviews and LLMs, altering how content gets seen. If this is the new playing field, how can we ensure we’re still getting the visibility needed? It shouldn’t surprise you, it’s a lot of stuff an SEO team has been considering for years:
AI Overviews are generative AI summaries that pop up right at the top of a search result, mashing info from multiple sources like an informational chutney. This means you must be a contributing authority across the entire web, not just on one top-ranking page. Getting cited elsewhere strengthens your brand’s authority, but SEO already knew that.
These overviews give quick, direct answers, potentially reducing clicks. This creates a "zero-click" search situation. According to a recent AI Overview study published by Semrush, “On average, keywords that trigger AI Overviews show higher zero-click behavior—likely due to their informational nature”.
Your strategy must adapt away from just getting clicks/traffic and more towards getting seen and recognized right in the overview, cultivating brand recognition and trust - even without a direct click. It may also require you to re-evaluate the metrics that matter most to your business. Don’t worry, we can help with that.
LLMs like ChatGPT learn from vast text data, but lack recent info beyond their cutoff, meaning you may not know what the LLM does not know. Their responses are pattern-based and non-deterministic (answers aren't always the same). This screams for human fact-checking and adding unique value to AI-generated content for both accuracy and differentiation (those brand guidelines again, of course!). For now, LLMs can struggle with current information and citations, stressing the lasting importance of human-curated, updated, and clearly sourced content for long-term SEO success and meaningful ranking.
Search engines are shifting from simple keyword matching to understanding meaning, context, and user intent - a deeper understanding of what the user wants from the search query. Without getting into the technical weeds, AI search uses smart tactics like vector search, entity recognition, and knowledge graphs to understand content. This means your SEO strategy needs to change from individual words to building comprehensive topical authority.
Content covering topics in-depth, showing relationships, and using structured data tells AI models you know your stuff. AI's focus on user intent demands a detailed content strategy, addressing specific user needs at different journey points.
If it wasn’t clear yet: In an AI-driven world, basic SEO rules are more vital than ever.
Content quality and the strategy that feeds it are some of the most important SEO factors, especially with AI systems favoring high-quality, informative content.
Google advocates for "Rewarding high-quality people-first content" – made for human readers, not just for pandering to the search engines. This genuinely helpful content naturally performs better than AI-made content aiming only for ranking. Google’s "helpful content update" defends against low-quality AI content, stressing genuine value. Plus, who doesn’t like being helpful (or demonstrating the best your brand has to offer)?
E-E-A-T (again, experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) is Google's crucial framework to judge content quality and credibility. In that, trust is paramount. "Experience" (first-hand involvement) acts as a critical filter against generic AI content, as AI alone struggles to create true "experience." Content showing real-world use, quotes, relevant images, and unique insights differentiates itself. AI capabilities in search demand stronger human E-E-A-T signals.
Technical SEO ensures a website is accessible and understandable.
Website Performance Optimization: Speed & Mobile-First Ranking
A well-organized, fast, and mobile-friendly site is crucial. These elements are vital for AI systems, ensuring crawlers efficiently process content. A slow site might mean AI models struggle to grasp its depth, hurting results and ranking.
Structured data (schema markup) provides explicit information about a page. It's now essential for AI search, acting as a "direct communication channel" to AI models. It helps AI understand, extract, and use content precisely in generative search results, strengthening your chances of being included.
The rise of voice is reshaping how AI “reads” and uses your content. With Google rolling out real-time voice search in AI Overviews, search is tilting hard toward fully conversational, agentic experiences. LLMs aren’t just spitting out answers; they’re maintaining back-and-forth context like a human. The behavior shift is already here: more than half of U.S. adults use voice search daily, anywhere from 25% to 33% of all searches are voice-based, and a strong majority prefer speaking to typing, especially on mobile and in-home. Because mobile voice queries are ~3x more likely to be local, they’re also more action-oriented and conversion-ready.
What to do about it? Right inside your schema plan: pair structured data with conversation-first content. Use Speakable to flag crisp, read-aloud statements; keep answers short, high-authority, and easy to lift into AI Overviews; and mark up the entities that guide agentic journeys (FAQ, HowTo, Product, LocalBusiness) so assistants can move users from the first question to the next step without losing context. In other words, treat voice as the interface and AI as the brain, then structure your data so both can understand, quote, and act on your content in real time.
External signals of authority and brand reputation are still pivotal.
Backlinks, or links from other websites, remain "votes of confidence" for search engines. High-quality backlinks from reputable sources generally mean better ranking. AI systems still factor these external validations of a site's authority into content evaluation.
As Google serves more answers directly in the SERP (zero-click results) and AI Overviews summarize sources on the fly, off-site signals, brand mentions, citations, and visibility on third-party platforms carry growing weight. Even when a user doesn’t click through, your brand needs to show up where decisions are made.
Reframe link building as authority building. Earn editorial links from respected industry sites, secure inclusion in trusted buying guides, cultivate credible mentions in communities (think Reddit threads and niche forums), and pursue consistent citations across directories and partner pages. Together, these signals shape how search engines (and real people) perceive your expertise. In other words, modern link strategy is as much about earning attention and trust in zero-click environments as it is about boosting rankings.
A clear, memorable brand signals quality. A strong, regularly referenced brand considerably increases the likelihood of being cited in AI overviews and chatbot responses. Meaningfully cultivating a robust, positive brand narrative across various platforms directly influences the data AI models use to generate answers. How does one do that? It all starts with strategy.
AI integration presents profound strategic implications for SEO professionals. We’re not scared, though, because we’ve been anticipating (and working on) some of this stuff for a while now!
The SEO expert's role is transforming. AI streamlines routine tasks, freeing individuals for higher-level strategy and creativity. This requires marketers to continuously learn, developing "AI literacy" to make informed decisions. The future demands a balanced approach: AI handles efficiency, and human expertise provides storytelling, strategic thinking, and ethical oversight. If it’s starting to sound a bit repetitive, it’s because this stuff works.
The non-deterministic (answers aren’t always the same) nature of AI search results challenges traditional rank tracking. Marketers must consider alternative metrics like brand mentions across platforms, sentiment analysis, and overall online presence across various result types. The focus shifts from a single rank to cultivating a consistent, authoritative, and positive brand narrative.
AI integration marks a pivotal moment and evolution, not an endpoint, for Search Engine Optimization. What we’re learning as the smoke clears and the AI buzzwords settle, is that SEO fundamentals are more important now than ever. AI's capabilities necessitate a heightened focus on content quality and authenticity to cut through the "sea of sameness." The evolution of search underscores a shift to semantic understanding, user intent, and brand citations.
To thrive, SEO experts must pivot from just keyword optimizers to strategic architects - something the team at BFO excels at. This means a continuous commitment to things like people-first content with demonstrable E-E-A-T, structured data for AI and search comprehension, and building a strong brand reputation that AI models can trust and are inclined to reference. This weird dance between human expertise and AI tools will define success as we move forward, I am confident. Ultimately, though, SEO fundamentals remain paramount for visibility and influence in the AI-driven digital world.