Is AI Search Replacing SEO?
Despite what you might have read on LinkedIn, SEO isn’t dead, and it isn’t being replaced by AI.
Yes, people are starting to use ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and the AI answers on Google to find businesses. Yes, the way people search is changing. But no, that doesn’t mean SEO has suddenly stopped mattering. If anything, the groundwork it’s built on matters more than ever.
Let me explain what’s actually going on, and what it means for you.
Your customers are searching differently, not abandoning Google
Your customers are no longer relying on one place to make a decision. They’re gathering information from several different places before deciding who to trust.
Recent research by BrightLocal found that 75% of people used more than one channel the last time they looked for a local business, and just over half still start on Google. So someone might ask ChatGPT for a shortlist, have a look on Google Maps, read a few reviews, then go back to Google to check you’re real before they pick up the phone.
That’s the shift that matters. It isn’t one search anymore. It’s a little trail of them, across a few different places. Your job is to be clear and consistent all the way along that trail, so whichever door a customer comes through, they find the same trustworthy business waiting.
That doesn’t sound like the end of SEO to me. It sounds like SEO has become one part of a much bigger picture.
So what does this actually mean for your business?
Honestly? Probably less than you think.
You don’t need to learn a pile of new acronyms. You’ll see people online flogging AEO, GEO, LLMO, and whatever gets dreamt up next month. (They are simply different names people use when talking about helping businesses appear in AI-generated answers, by the way).
Ignore the acronyms. Underneath all of it sits the same question that has always mattered: is your business easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to trust?
There isn’t a magic trick
I’ll be straight with you, as I always am. Nobody can guarantee your business will pop up in ChatGPT. There’s no advert to buy, no secret setting, no person you can pay to jump the queue. Anyone promising that is having you on, so hold on to your hard-earned cash.
What actually works isn’t a trick at all. It’s making sure the information about your business is clear, accurate and in all the right places, so a person or an AI can find it, understand it and believe it.
Dull? A bit. Effective? Very.
It’s basically making sure that you have all the solid foundations of SEO right, including your Google Business Profile (yes – I know I keep banging on about it – but it’s so important!).
The businesses that will do well are the ones getting the basics right
Picture someone asking their phone, “Who’s a good plumber near me?” Whether that answer comes from Google or from an AI, it’s built from the same raw material: whatever can be found and understood about the plumbers nearby online.
The one who gets mentioned tends to be the one who’s made themselves easy to read. Their website says plainly what they do and which areas they cover. Their Google Business Profile is filled in properly, not half-done. They’ve a healthy trickle of recent reviews. Their name, address and phone number match everywhere they appear. None of it is clever. All of it adds up.
The business that misses out is usually the one with a vague website, a neglected profile and three reviews from 2021. Not because they’re worse at the job, but because they’re harder to find and harder to trust at a glance.
If your website clearly explains your services, your Google Business Profile is complete and up to date, if you’ve got genuine customer reviews, and if you’re publishing useful content that answers the questions people actually ask, you’re already doing many of the things that help your business become more visible online.
AI Search Optimisation is not a replacement for SEO. It is as the next step. It’s about building on the solid foundations you’ve already got, not throwing everything away and starting again.
So where should you start?
Start with the unglamorous stuff, because that’s where the wins are.
Make your website say, in plain words, what you do and where. Fill in your Google Business Profile completely and keep it current. Ask happy customers for reviews, gently and regularly. Answer the questions people actually ask you (prices, areas covered, how it works) in plain English on your site. And check your business details read the same everywhere they’re listed.
Do those, and you’re already ahead of most of your competition, and well set up for however people choose to search next.
Want to know how visible your business really is?
If you’d like to know where you stand, have a look at my AI Search Optimisation page. It explains exactly what I look for, what I recommend, and how I can help your business stay visible as search keeps changing.
No jargon, no scare tactics, no signing your life away. Just an honest look at what’s helping you get found and what’s quietly holding you back.
Because despite what you might have read online…
SEO isn’t dead. It’s just growing up.
