The Future of SEO in an AI-Dominated Marketing World

·May 28, 2025 05:35 PM·

Hi everyone! I had a question about the future of SEO and similar search-based marketing. With more AI chatbots and AI summary (e.g. chatgpt, googleAI) initiating the customer journey, less leads would open a website and rather just read the AI summary. Then what's left for SEO? Is it all wasted time trying to optimize a website or keyword campaigns? 🤔

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4 comments

· Sorted by Oldest

Joshua K.
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I still think it's a worthwhile effort especially for sites that have a product or service to offer. The key to think about here is intent - at least as it stands currently someone may ask a question to a AI chatbot or type it in Google and the answer to the question may satisfy what they are looking for - but people searching for a solution will likely need to dig more and visit the website to evaluate if that solution is worth exploring. AI overviews give a link to the site it came from - so users can still navigate from it to a website.
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John G.
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That's an interesting question. There are still people making money with newspaper and radio ads, for some reason. So I think there will be more ways to do the same thing, instead of one thing obliterating the other.
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Kai L.
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Imo, since AI bots are still using search engines behind the hood, Google, Bing, Exa, etc. It's just bots instead of humans reading the content. If you're depending on ads, revenue may be affected, but otherwise, humans are still the ones holding the credit card.
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Nicolo S.
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Amin R. Great question! It’s true that with AI like ChatGPT or Google SGE, some traffic no longer reaches websites — but that doesn’t mean SEO is dead. It’s just evolving. AI tools rely on structured, high-quality, and authoritative content, so being featured in their answers depends on how trustworthy your site is. Also, the visitors who do reach your site now tend to have much stronger intent. Maybe less traffic, but more qualified. SEO is no longer just about “ranking on Google,” but about creating content that both AI and users see as authoritative.
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Joshua K.
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I still think it's a worthwhile effort especially for sites that have a product or service to offer. The key to think about here is intent - at least as it stands currently someone may ask a question to a AI chatbot or type it in Google and the answer to the question may satisfy what they are looking for - but people searching for a solution will likely need to dig more and visit the website to evaluate if that solution is worth exploring. AI overviews give a link to the site it came from - so users can still navigate from it to a website.
🙌1
John G.
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That's an interesting question. There are still people making money with newspaper and radio ads, for some reason. So I think there will be more ways to do the same thing, instead of one thing obliterating the other.
🙌2
Kai L.
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Imo, since AI bots are still using search engines behind the hood, Google, Bing, Exa, etc. It's just bots instead of humans reading the content. If you're depending on ads, revenue may be affected, but otherwise, humans are still the ones holding the credit card.
🙌1
Nicolo S.
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Amin R. Great question! It’s true that with AI like ChatGPT or Google SGE, some traffic no longer reaches websites — but that doesn’t mean SEO is dead. It’s just evolving. AI tools rely on structured, high-quality, and authoritative content, so being featured in their answers depends on how trustworthy your site is. Also, the visitors who do reach your site now tend to have much stronger intent. Maybe less traffic, but more qualified. SEO is no longer just about “ranking on Google,” but about creating content that both AI and users see as authoritative.
🙌3