Explore the new rules of AI search and how marketers can stay visible in an evolving SERP landscape.
The Gist
- AI has changed the rules of SEO. Traditional keyword-based approaches must evolve to match AI’s prioritization of context, quality, and user intent.
- Enter AISO: AI Search Optimization. Marketers must optimize for how AI summarizes and ranks content across evolving SERPs and conversational experiences.
- New playbook required. From technical audits to customer feedback loops, marketers must rethink how content is created, structured, and discovered in search.
Good news…SEO is alive and well.
And the bad news?
Traditional SEO approaches are no longer sufficient in today's AI-driven search landscape.
Search strategy has been often approached in a singular fashion. Marketers apply keywords to webpage elements to draw people online to a website when querying those words so that conversions onsite –a registration, a software download, or an online purchase –occurs.
The tactic has morphed as businesses gained more options to optimize their content for search. What was once a relatively straightforward process of keyword placement now requires a more sophisticated understanding of how AI interprets and prioritizes content in search results.
To manage that sophistication marketers must consider preparing their solutions and workflow to accommodate AI. Let’s look at how marketing has arrived at this point and how marketers can best adjust their resources to the AI-based reality.
How DoesAI Impact SEO?
When search engines arrived on the internet, marketers had to learn how to value search activity relative to brand and purchase activity. People used keywords to search for the information they wanted. Marketers used online tools to discover the aggregate search patterns that indicated potential customer interest in their products or services. Discovering ways to connect to customers from search often seemed like a digital reincarnation of panning for gold in the California gold rush era.
Keywords that customers used frequently in online searches became the sought-after gold: Incorporating them into digital ads and content made brands discoverable online. The keyword inclusion connected customer interest in the subject to the brand content and consequently made the brand hosting the content a valuable go-to resource. The nature of that keyword-brand relationship remains so today.
Why Traditional SEO No Longer Works Alone
But that relationship has been treated strategically as a relatively linear one. The number of keyword placements within a site’s HTML elements correlated with the visibility a site receives in search results. Now, AI has fundamentally changed this equation by prioritizing context, user intent and content quality over simple keyword density.
Until recently there has been AI added to certain aspects of SERP features, such as Google’s AI Overview. AI Overview was designed to provide a summary of SERP results at the top. The preview does not replace the standard complement of highlights and links on the SERP.
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What IsAI Search Optimization (AISO)
Adding AI to search – which has been nicknamed AI Search Optimization or AISO – has been the expected next-level evolution of search and SEO. The iterations of AI search emerging this year reflect that promise.
AI solutions, such as Gemini and the latest version of Claude, added the capability to search online and incorporate search results into their answers. The online search capability means AI prompt responses will be even more relevant than answers constructed from the training data established for a given AI solution version.
A crucial benefit of AI is its capacity to summarize complex information quickly. The capacity is helpful with query results. Initial AI adoption has focused on an auxiliary role in supporting traditional SEO efforts, but this is rapidly evolving.
How AISO Is Reshaping Search Behavior
Because the marketplace has invested heavily in search, marketers should expect more evolutionary steps for search engines to blend with AI.
Google, for example, plans to expand the capacity of AI Overview. In March, it announced an experimental interactive AI Overview feature called AI Mode. AI Mode allows search users to engage with web search in a chat-like manner. The interactions expand search capability with multimodal media being interpreted and with back-and-forth exploration of long-tail queries. This increases the accuracy of the search results. Because Gemini relies on Google for its online queries, Gemini gains as well.
As the evolution continues, marketers will find how much AI has changed fundamental search strategies. Search engines like Google and Bing are increasingly using AI to understand search content more holistically, summarizing the additional factors to keywords such as relevance, authority, and user experience.
Yet it is AI’s ability to summarize link and page information within its natural language response that is considered super valuable. Moreover, its capacity for such summaries has improved rapidly. AI-powered search engines are now capable of analyzing backlinks more effectively, identifying high-quality opportunities, and streamlining the inspection of off-page SEO elements. Thus marketers can conduct faster technical website audits by eliminating any guesswork in link management.
Traditional SEO vs. AI Search Optimization (AISO)
Editor's note: This table summarizes the key differences between traditional search engine optimization and AI-powered search strategies (AISO), based how AI is reshaping search behavior, ranking factors and optimization best practices.
| Aspect | Traditional SEO | AI Search Optimization (AISO) |
|---|---|---|
| Core Focus | Keyword density, backlinks and metadata optimization. | Context, user intent, AI summaries and overall content quality. |
| Search Behavior | Relies on linear search queries and static SERP formats. | Interactive, multimodal, conversational queries (e.g., AI Mode). |
| Content Strategy | Optimized for targeted keywords and on-page HTML elements. | Optimized for summaries, featured snippets, voice search and user-centric answers. |
| Keyword Usage | Focused on high-volume keywords based on search trends. | Contextual terms aligned with real-time user intent and AI query matching. |
| Content Performance | Measured by traffic volume, clicks and backlinks. | Includes AI-driven summaries, time-to-answer and relevance in conversational flows. |
| Technical SEO | Manual audits for broken links, tags and site structure. | AI tools conduct continuous, automated audits and highlight optimization opportunities. |
| Content Volume vs. Quality | Often prioritizes publishing frequency and keyword presence. | Prioritizes depth, trustworthiness and alignment with AI-assessed relevance. |
| Customer Input | Rarely involves direct customer feedback loops on keyword/content strategy. | Customer feedback helps refine keyword choices and signal relevance to AI systems. |
| Optimization Tools | Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc. | AI-enhanced tools for content gap analysis, SERP simulation and prompt optimization. |
5 Steps to Get Your Search House in Order
So with all this AI-influenced change in the marketplace, what should marketing managers do? Here are a few ideas for planning trouble-free AI adoption into search strategies.
1. Assess Your Current Search Status as a Data Quality Check
One place marketers can start is by conducting a comprehensive audit of the existing content and SEO performance. AI tools can help identify technical issues, evaluate content quality and analyze backlink profiles more efficiently than traditional methods. This assessment provides a baseline for improvement and highlights areas that require immediate attention.
Marketers should use AI-powered SEO tools to evaluate how the content aligns with user intent rather than just keyword presence. They should look for topic gaps in the content strategy where AI-enhanced search may potentially ignore a brand’s content.
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2. Prioritize High-Quality, Relevant Content Over Volume
With AI prioritizing content quality and relevance, content planners should focus on creating comprehensive, authoritative topics that thoroughly address user queries rather than producing large volumes of thin content. AI search engines are increasingly capable of distinguishing between superficial keyword-stuffed content and genuinely valuable resources.
The content must demonstrate expertise, authority and trustworthiness to appeal to both human readers and AI algorithms. This means marketers are constantly investing in detailed research, incorporating original insights, and ensuring factual accuracy throughout the content.
3. Establish a Customer Feedback Loop on Keyword Choices
AI has transformed how keywords are understood and utilized in the search. Rather than selecting keywords based solely on search volume, marketers should use AI tools to identify terms that align with user intent and search context. Involve the customer audience and other stakeholders in this process to ensure that genuine needs and preferences are addressed.
Marketers should establish ways to collect and analyze user feedback on content and search performance. The information will help refine keyword and content strategies, allowing easier adaption to evolving search behaviors and AI algorithm updates.
4. Embrace AI-Powered Content Optimization and Technical SEO
Selected AI tools should enhance both content creation and technical SEO efforts. AI can help identify content opportunities, suggest improvements to existing content and automate routine optimization tasks, freeing up the marketing team to focus on strategy and creativity.
The choices marketers will often make also include implementing AI-driven tools for continuous monitoring of website performance. The tools should automatically highlight technical issues as well as optimization opportunities. This proactive approach ensures a brand’s site maintains optimal performance in search results even as AI algorithms evolve.
5. Develop a Comprehensive AI Search Optimization Strategy
Marketers should embrace AI Search Optimization (AISO) as an opportunity to apply holistic approaches to search behavior assessed within analytic tools. This means optimizing not just for keywords but for the entire search experience, including AI-generated summaries, featured snippets and voice search results.
Create content that is specifically designed to perform well in AI-enhanced search environments, focusing on providing clear, concise answers to common questions while still offering depth and value for users who want more comprehensive information.
The marketplace transition to AISO is not perfect. Many SEO experts caution that AI-crafted search summaries can potentially reduce the number of clicks to publisher sites and further promote an online zero-click ecosystem in which sites see fewer visitors from search queries. The introduction of AI Mode indicates how current search players like Google, which continues to hold the largest share of search activity, are seeking a middle ground that advances SEO while addressing concerns.
The Future of AI Search Is Now
The integration of AI into search has fundamentally changed how users find and interact with content online. Organizations that adapt quickly to this new reality will gain a significant competitive advantage, while those that cling to outdated SEO practices risk becoming increasingly invisible in search results.
By following these five steps, marketing managers will gain effective search strategies while navigating an AI-dominated landscape. The key is to view AI not as a threat to SEO but as an opportunity to create better, more relevant content that truly serves user needs – ultimately driving more valuable organic traffic and conversions.
The future of search belongs to organizations that embrace AI as a partner in their optimization efforts, using machine learning insights to inform human creativity and strategic thinking. Those who get their search house in order now will be well-positioned to thrive in the evolving digital ecosystem.
Core Questions that Marketers Should Ask About Search and AI
Editor's note: Here's a summary of two core questions about what marketers should know about search and AI.
How should I keep up with the AI relative to SEO?
The news regarding AI features has been arriving at a daily pace since the launch of ChatGPT. Given that the latest AI solutions can incorporate search results into prompt responses, marketers should take time to assess those features alongside search news to evaluate how search strategies for their brands should be altered.
How will my SEO strategy change?
Like all search optimization strategies, evolution is expected. The strategy will move beyond keyword phrases to incorporate imaginations of what texts and quotes will likely be picked up by AISO.
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