Organic search has changed drastically over the past couple of years with the addition of AI Overviews, an increase in search engine results page (SERP) features, and a rise in zero-click searches. It is getting harder to perform well in organic search, and real estate on the SERPs is more valuable than ever. Sometimes it can feel like there are diminishing returns, and the “SEO is Dead” claims can feel real. The fact is, search engine optimization (SEO) is not dead — it is still your most valuable marketing channel in 2025 and beyond.
The Benefits of SEO Haven’t Changed
Long Term Sustainable Traffic: While paid search and other paid digital channels provide quick and easily quantifiable return on investment, well optimized content can provide a long-term traffic benefit, driving valuable leads or revenue. It can help establish E-E-A-T in Google’s eyes, and in turn, rank well and continue to pay dividends over time. Not to mention, authoritatively optimized content will provide an SEO benefit to future content as well.
Precise Keyword Targeting: The simplest foundation of on-page optimization is still targeting relevant keywords. Keyword research has evolved over time to distinguish and target longer tail or intent-based keywords, but the basics of targeting keywords to match your customers’ search behavior remain the same. It’s true that the AI Overview and additional SERP features have created more competition and fewer clicks, but it is still the best digital channel to reach your target audience and new customers. Plus, an intent-based keyword strategy will naturally tailor content towards the SERP features for a given keyword.
Low Barrier to Entry: It used to be that all you needed was a website — and somebody to make updates to that website — to get started on what could be an effective SEO strategy. Adding content and some blog posts could lead to incremental traffic. Well, the concepts haven’t changed much here, either. The landscape is obviously a bit different, but it still can be your most cost-effective channel. Competition is certainly higher, and your SEO strategy needs to be more disciplined and nuanced, but SEO still doesn’t need to eat up all of your marketing budget to be extremely beneficial, and well performing content still doesn’t have compounding costs.
How SEO Must Adapt
Embrace AI Search Features (But not AI-Generated Content)
According to a study from this past December, 47% of Google search results return an AI Overview. Naturally, with a varied ability to track the true nature and prevalence of AI overviews, and the fact that most tools can only focus on a predefined set of larger head and specific tail keywords, this data will skew to show that AI Overviews are more prevalent. But no one argues that AI Overviews are a force to be reckoned with. Additionally, Google’s market share recently fell under 90% for the first time in 10 years. This doesn’t mean we should create a bunch of AI generated content for the AI search engines. Google is working on identifying what content is AI-written, so that it can give it a low quality rating, which will have the opposite effect that optimizing content is supposed to have.
It’s important to note, optimizing for AI powered search features and engines, or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), is all speculative with no evidence to suggest that new or specific strategies are effective. It does stand to reason that content that demonstrates E-E-A-T, and other forms of helpful content, will perform well in Google’s AI Overview, though.
High Value Content Is not Optional
Google’s Helpful Content updates go back to 2022 when they first introduced the concept to their ranking algorithm. Furthermore, the importance of helpful content is underscored every time Google makes a core algorithm update, since they rolled the HCU system into their core algorithm updates last March. Simply stated, content created by AI for search engine purposes will not perform well in the long run, and neither will unoriginal or thin content. The days of putting generic content on a page for quick SEO wins are over.
Technical SEO is More Important than Ever
Although we don’t have evidence on how to specifically optimize for AI Overviews, it’s a reasonable assumption that technical elements like structured data and site crawability are important aspects that go into it. Structured data is parsed by Google for rich snippets and more traditional featured snippets like the Answer Box, so they likely have at least some impact on AI Overviews and AI-generated snippets. Site speed and user experience — in the form of Core Web Vitals — are also specific metrics that Google uses algorithmically that shouldn’t be ignored.
SEO isn’t dead; it’s just more complex and complicated than it’s ever been. The landscape of the SERPs might be changing, but the core basics of SEO remain the same. A successful SEO strategy is required now more than ever to compete in the volatile world of organic search.
