The “SEO is dead” takes have been seen by you.
They’re not correct. The surface, not the fundamentals, has been altered by AI search.
You still need traditional SEO if you want to be seen in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews, along with more precise responses and a more structured format.
SEO first. GEO on top.
GEO cannot be completed without first completing SEO. It is included in technical audits, link acquisition, content strategy, and schema. To locate, index, rank, and cite information, AI systems depend on SEO. AI systems won’t use your website if it is unstructured, unreliable, or slow.
- Bing Search is used by ChatGPT.
- Google Search is used by Google’s AI Mode.
- Perplexity cites sources and does real-time web searches.
- If Claude has browsing enabled, he can search.
SEOs now manage two organic surfaces:
Traditional Search: Traditional result pages with links that are rated.
Organic AI-Driven Results: Responses from LLMs in search modules, chat, assistants, and browsers.
You need presence in both. The inputs overlap. The process should be one.
How AI search works
Most products follow the same steps.
- The user poses a query.
The question is rewritten into several sub-questions by the LLM. - This is known as the “fan-out.”
- A conventional search engine processes each sub-question. Bing is routed by ChatGPT. Google is accessed through Google AI Mode.
- Results from the engine are ranked.
- The same SEO signals are applicable.
- Facts, tables, and excerpts are extracted by the LLM.
- It includes citations and creates a summary.
This explains why eligibility is still set by SEO. Your material will not go to the extraction stage if it is not crawlable, indexable, or competitive. Your text will be skipped by the model if it is unclear. If your information is inconsistent online, people will stop trusting you.
Traditional rankings still matter
AI systems don’t begin with nothing. Initially, they minimize the issue by retrieving a limited number of plausible sources. The top results for the primary query and nearby variants resemble that pool quite a little. Your chances of being cited increase if you place in the top ten. Your chances increase once more if you are in first place. The precise figures differ depending on the platform and question. There is consistency in the direction.
This is not a novel idea. Position is enhanced by authority, links, and high-quality content. Impressions are increased by strong positions. These impressions now include chat responses and AI components. Power compounds are ranked across both. It’s a straightforward practical action. On the head term, defend the top ten. Get in the top 10 for the subtopics that support the response.
Why you still see sources outside the top ten
Pages that don’t rank for the head phrase will show up in AI responses. Typical causes:
- Personalisation and caching: Results vary depending on context and user. The set is altered by location, device, history, and temporary reordering. An outdated index may be reflected in cached snapshots.
- Query fan-out:A number of similar searches are performed by the system. For a sub-question, passage relevance may be more important than general relevance for the head term. Even if you don’t rank for “iPhone 15,” you can still show up in an answer to “iPhone 15 battery life compared to iPhone 14” if you place in the top ten for “battery life test iPhone 15.”
- Freshness windows: For time-sensitive queries, recent, well-organized updates can be added to the pool. An outdated authority page can be outperformed by a current table or changelog.
- Takeaway:Avoid focusing solely on the head phrase. With a clear structure and genuine depth, map and cover the sub-queries.
What Google and others say
According to Google, information that does well in conventional search is qualified for AI Overviews. No unique AI tags exist. Strong SEO is required. Refer to Google’s instructions:
https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
Bing is used by ChatGPT. Google and Bing share a lot of ranking principles. Market share varies. The same thing is implied. SEO is crucial. A GEO layer facilitates the extraction and citation of your content.
Conclusion:
- AI visibility is driven by SEO.
- Rank for the subject.
- Post responses that are straightforward to understand and extract.
- Make sure your sites load quickly, your information is up to date, and your facts are in line.
- One system. Don’t complicate things.