Every quarter someone swears SEO is dead.
And every quarter SEO crawls back like a man you should’ve blocked (been there.) Unfortunately for everyone involved, AI is now the friend group yelling at you to finally leave him. And as always, the friend group is right (been there, too.)
Because while marketers keep doubling down on SEO like it’s a situationship they can fix with one more plugin, search itself has quietly packed its bags, moved out, and started a new life.
The rise of AI answer engines means people aren’t just “searching” anymore. They’re asking. And instead of clicking through 14 blue links, they’re getting one definitive answer, neatly packaged, citation optional. Your website traffic is now at the mercy of a chatbot with a god complex.
Enter GEO, or generative engine optimisation.
If SEO was about flattering the Google gods, GEO is about convincing a fleet of AI robot gods not to forget you exist. And every industry from travel to fashion to hospitality is in a full-blown anxiety spiral trying to figure out how to show up inside these AI answer boxes before their competitors do. The GEO gold rush is here, everyone’s sprinting, and half the runners don’t even know the route.
But here’s the fun part. Unlike SEO, which has twenty-plus years of breadcrumbs, benchmarks, analytics, and painfully outdated HubSpot blog posts, GEO has none of that. Zero. Zip. Nada.
AI companies keep their data locked away like state secrets. You don’t know what people are asking. You don’t know which brands are being recommended. You don’t know why one answer is chosen over another. You barely know what sources the model trusts, beyond a vague whisper about “high authority domains.”
And that’s exactly where the snake-oil merchants thrive.
Suddenly every side hustler with a ChatGPT Plus subscription is selling “AI search optimisation services.” People are promising they can “train the algorithm” to love your business, “feed models the right signals,” or “influence answer engines with proprietary methods.”
They speak very confidently, which is always how you know they’re most likely full of sh*t. GEO is too new for anyone to be an expert. So let's assume the only people claiming to have all the answers are the ones who definitely don’t.
Meanwhile, the actual grown-ups in the room are quietly trying to evolve.
Adobe just announced a 1.9 billion dollar acquisition of Semrush, the longtime SEO giant now desperately rebranding itself as a GEO player. That should tell you everything. The incumbents aren’t 100% sure where this is going either. But they know one thing: evolving is safer than dying.
So where does this leave business owners? Because the worst thing you could do right now is panic spend on GEO magic tricks.
So here's what you do: Invest in authority, clarity, consistency, and credibility.
The boring stuff. The stuff that actually works. Because AI models generally don’t reward hacks; they reward trust. They want clear brand signals, machine-readable information, structured data, and reputation markers across the web.
They want a business that looks legitimate from every angle, not one with a “GEO-optimised” tagline cooked up by someone who learned prompt engineering on TikTok.
Traditional SEO still matters because AI models still consume the open web. But SEO is no longer the whole meal; it’s an ingredient.
GEO isn’t a replacement; it’s an evolution.
Search isn’t dying. It’s mutating.
And AI has officially stepped into the role of the fed-up bestie, shaking you by the shoulders, begging you to stop going back to the same tired tactics that keep wasting your time. SEO is still part of your life, sure. You don’t need to block him. You just need to stop pretending he’s the only one who can make you happy.
Because baby, and imma hold your hand when I say this, we don’t win by clinging on to our messy exes just because they’re familiar. We thrive when we listen to our friends, finally break the cycle, and build something healthier, clearer, and a lot more future-proof.
And if you keep treating SEO like the main character, don’t be surprised when search leaves you on read.
Take it from someone who knows x
-Sophie Randell, Writer
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