Search is changing. That’s not new. Search has always been changing. But this time it feels different – and I think it is.

AI is now part of how search works – not coming. Here. Google is using it. Perplexity is built on it. ChatGPT is answering questions that your website used to answer. So the question isn’t whether AI SEO matters. The question is: what do you do about it?

→ SEO & AI – A Practical Beginner’s Guide

Traditional search vs. AI search

In traditional search you are fighting for position – a ranked link that users choose to click.

In AI search you are fighting for inclusion – being cited, synthesised, or referenced in a generated answer that may never produce a click at all.

The goal shifts from ranking well to being citable, semantically clear, and contextually trusted. AI systems pull from multiple sources, extract relevant passages, and build their own answer. Your content either makes it into that answer or it doesn’t. That’s the new game.

So what is AI SEO, really?

It’s using AI tools to help your website get found, understood, and trusted – not just by Google, but by the AI systems people are turning to for answers. Things like Perplexity, Google’s AI Overviews, and yes, even Claude.

The old game was keywords. Stuff enough of the right words in, rank higher. That’s mostly done now. Today, it’s about whether a search engine – or an AI – actually understands what your page is saying and whether it trusts you enough to recommend you.

→ Will AI Replace Search Engines? The Future of Search

What changes with AI in the mix?

Quite a lot, actually. BUT, Bad SEO = invisible to AI. If Google can’t find you, AI won’t either.

AI reads context. It picks up on tone, intent, and meaning – not just matching words to words. So writing naturally, for real humans, with real answers to real questions? That matters more now, not less.

Some tools help you see trends before they peak, automate the boring stuff like audits, and figure out why your traffic dropped last Tuesday. You don’t have to do all of this manually anymore. That’s genuinely useful.

And if you want a chance at being cited in an AI summary – the kind that appears at the top of a search result before anyone clicks anything – structure helps. Schema markup, FAQ sections, clear headings. Give AI a clean path to your content, and it’s more likely to use it.

→ SEO is now Search Experience Optimization

What stays the same?

AI citations don’t need a GEO hack playbook. If you destroy your SEO, you destroy your AI visibility.

Focus on entities, structure, and genuinely helpful content. LLMs (just like people and traditional search machines) reward clarity, not spam.

Scaled GEO spam and “too much SEO” are risky, and this harms both organic traffic and the likelihood of being cited in AI answers. Read more: https://lilyraynyc.substack.com/p/your-geo-strategy-might-be-destroying

Rankings strongly influence which URLs enter the candidate set, but semantic relevance, extractability, and trust decide which of those get cited. Read more: https://x.com/i/status/2033361513583652961

→ SEO All You Need to Know: Get Yourself and Your Website Found

Three things worth doing right now

First, add schema markup to your important pages. The FAQ schema and the How-To schema are good starting points. They help AI systems pull your content into answers quickly.

Second, build out your topics properly. One blog post about a subject isn’t authoritative. A cluster of well-connected, useful content is. Think of it like a small library rather than a single pamphlet.

Third, keep an eye on your competitors. Real-time. Not once a quarter. Things move faster now.

→ SEO & AI – A Practical Beginner’s Guide

Here’s the bottom line

AI SEO isn’t a trend you can wait out. It’s just SEO now – updated for how search actually works. The good news is the fundamentals haven’t disappeared. Write well. Be genuinely useful. Structure your content clearly. Be consistent.

That’s still the job. The tools around it just got smarter.

Is AI really changing SEO, or just changing who gets it wrong faster? A practical reality check for small teams who want results, not noise.