Will AI kill SEO? Is this the end of SEO? Will anyone search Google now that we have AI chatbots? Have you heard that AI will kill SEO or that SEO is dead or obsolete? Yeah, me too. Let's talk about what's really going on and whether or not we need to fear AI chatbots or if, just maybe, they represent an opportunity and the future of digital marketing. There are many channels you can use within the greater online marketing umbrella - should SEO still be one of them if you're focused on audience, business, or email list growth? Find out if AI optimization should be part of your online marketing plans now and into the future too.
Register now for the free live SEO class the week of April 28 - Learn what the 3 most common SEO mistakes are that keep you from getting traffic from Google so you can make sure you're not making them.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-live-seo-class
Register now for the free live SEO class the week of April 28 - Learn what the 3 most common SEO mistakes are that keep you from getting traffic from Google so you can make sure you're not making them.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/registration-live-seo-class
My free resources, including the Beginner's step-by-step SEO Guide and my free class, are available here.
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/freebies
Join me in Simple SEO Content, my complete SEO and Content Marketing course that teaches you what to do step-by-step. It walks you through the entire process. (complete course)
https://www.etchedmarketing.com/yes
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Shure MV7 (00:00):
And welcome back to the Simple SEO Podcast.
I'm your host, RachelLindteigen, and I'm so glad
you're here with me today.
Now, I told you last week, Iwanted to address some really
common questions and someconcerns that I'm hearing about
SEO.
And so this is a big one, andthat is will AI.
So I've had a lot of questionscome around this really people
(00:24):
are concerned because people arestarting to use chat GPT more
and they're searching forinformation there and they're
using perplexity.
ai and the Google AI overviewswith information right there at
the top of the Google searchresults.
There's a lot going on.
definitely understand where theconcern is, especially if you
(00:46):
don't yet understand where theAI search engines are getting
their information from.
I wasn't a hundred percent surewhat was going to happen.
Just true story between you andI.
I kind of wondered the samething.
I wondered if AI was truly goingto be the death of SEO.
Now, You know, and I've sharedbefore, SEO has supposedly been
(01:09):
dying the entire time I've beenin the industry.
So for like 15 years now, everytime a change happens, people
say, Oh, that's it, SEO is dead.
And we just kind of like a catwith nine lives.
We just keep going.
It just keeps working.
We keep doing our thing.
What it amounts to is we change.
We evolve.
The algorithm changes.
The rules change.
(01:30):
We adapt.
That's really what it amountsto.
So, what I want you tounderstand is that yes, There is
concern.
Will I kill SEO?
People are concerned that it is,but what I want you to
understand is that AI is stillvery Dependent upon SEO.
(01:53):
So this is where I think Thoseof us who have been optimizing
our websites for years who aredoing it now and working on it
are going to find that AI willnot kill our websites because
the AI search engines andchatbots seem to use SEO
(02:17):
practices to help themunderstand the information and
to find the websites that theyare referencing.
So what we're seeing in theresearch studies and what we're
seeing.
The problem with being in real,real world application is that
sites that rank high on Googlein general are also the ones
that rank in perplexity and chatGPT search and chat GPT itself.
(02:41):
They have to pull theinformation from somewhere.
So in order for them to find theinformation that they're looking
for, they're going to go throughIt's similar to Google.
They're going to go through andthey're going to look to see
what the pages are about.
Now, the way that people search,especially in ChatGPT or in our
chat based searches, isdifferent than how we are used
(03:04):
to traditionally searching inGoogle.
In Google, we start withkeywords.
We put in one keyword or twowords or maybe a string or a
phrase.
And so, That's what we've alwaysoptimized for from an SEO
standpoint, we've optimized forthat keyword or that keyword
phrase, whereas if somebody issearching in ChatGPT, they may
(03:26):
be having a much moreconversational tone to their
search, so rather than like,Things to do in Nashville, they
might be searching or asking forChatGPT to help them plan a trip
to Nashville with a 10 year old.
What are things that I could do?
(03:47):
True story, real life example,we just got back from Nashville.
Um, on Sunday I had theopportunity to go in for an
invitation only event with mymen.
Or and it was an amazing weekendwas such a great experience was
also really fun because I usedto live there when I was little
so I got to drive.
(04:07):
We took the family and I got todrag my husband and my son past
like my childhood home and myelementary school and all the
things that they absolutely didnot care about, but it was it's
a beautiful area.
I lived in Franklin when I waslittle before we moved to Iowa.
And it was just really fun to beable to be back in the area.
So, I did use ChatGPT to help meplan that trip and to give me
(04:31):
ideas of things that I could do.
And you know what?
It pulled websites.
It gave me information and thenI said, Oh cool, where are you
finding this from?
And it gave me all the websites.
And then I clicked through and Iwent over and I checked some of
them.
And that's what's going tocontinue to happen as people
start using these AI searchengines more.
They are still getting theirinformation from Google.
(04:52):
They're still getting theirinformation from Bing, so chat
GPT search is powered by Bing.
Bing.
There's really truly nothingdifferent that you need to do
from an SEO standpoint for BingSEO versus Google SEO Bing has a
very small market share.
So Bing gets right now as of thelatest that I've seen in 2025
(05:14):
Bing's market share isincreasing.
They moved up from 2 percentmarket share in 2023 to 4
percent market share this year,so they do have a bigger market
share.
However Google's market share isstill like 88 percent of all
search.
So What we do for Googlegenerally works for Bing.
They follow very closely.
(05:34):
We're also seeing more increasein AI search.
However, it's still tiny incomparison.
So chat GPT search is expectedto hit 1 percent in 2025, 1
percent market share.
Putting that in perspective inthe last research study, I saw a
chat GPT search was 373 timessmaller than Google search.
(06:00):
So for every search on chat GPT,there were 373 searches on
Google.
So we definitely still want tobe on Google.
We still want to rank high.
We still want to create greatcontent.
Follow the Google rules.
AI is not killing SEO at thispoint in time.
AI is dependent upon SEO.
AI is using the information thatwe are optimizing to understand
(06:24):
and to put together theseanswers that they're looking
for.
So if you don't know the waythat the AI chatbots work, it's
a little different from Google.
And I'm going to get kind oftechie here, but also not super
techie because you guys know.
I'm not super techie.
They're what's called a largelanguage, like a large language
model.
So they're looking for kind ofpredictive text.
(06:46):
If somebody has searchedsomething or written something,
they're looking for the nextinformation that's gonna match
what they expect someone to besaying.
So they're reading your content,they're reading your
information, they're looking forbasically confirmation bias.
They want something thatconfirms what they think is
gonna be the right answer.
Whereas Google, Is based on thekeywords that someone's
(07:07):
searching for and the matches ofthe keywords.
So we do optimize.
Slightly different.
That's wrong.
We actually optimize pretty muchthe same.
There are some things we do froma formatting standpoint.
And I do teach that in SimpleSEO content.
I added a new bonus lesson justrecently on how to show up in
(07:27):
chat GPT and the AI overviewsand perplexity and all of that.
Like how to really work withyour SEO so that you're part of
this new, this new searchopportunity.
Really, AI represents a newopportunity for additional
visibility for your content inyour business.
That's really what it is.
(07:48):
So if you understand that andyou realize that they're still
pulling the information fromGoogle, they're still getting
the information from Bing, whichis going to work the same as
Google, they still need you.
They still need your website.
They still need your content.
The other thing you want tounderstand is like AI, they give
(08:10):
you some information, especiallyif we think about the AI
overviews in Google.
And Google did announce they aretesting the new AI tab where the
entire search tab will be AIgenerated.
I don't have access to it yet.
I am on the list to be a betatester as soon as I get access
and can start playing aroundwith it.
I will do it.
A podcast episode and kind ofexplained to you what it is and
(08:33):
what it looks like.
Um, but what I want you tounderstand is the AI generated
overviews, they're limited.
They give you a little bit ofinformation that they're pulling
from a couple different sites.
They do link to those sites andwhat we're seeing is there's
actually on.
And then a correspondingincrease in clicks, clicks to
the websites that haveinformation in those AI
(08:55):
overviews.
Because people come, they see alittle bit of information, they
want more, they click and theygo to read it.
Now if it's something moresimilar to direct answers and
I've talked about direct, Ifit's something more similar to
that where it's like how manyteaspoons in a tablespoon?
Well, there's three teaspoons ina tablespoon.
I don't need to go read a blogpost on that.
So if it's at that level, theymay not click through, but also
(09:17):
they don't need to read a blogpost to find out there's three
teaspoons in a tablespoon.
Continuing to create greatcontent.
Focusing on E E A T, which isyour experience, your expertise,
your authority, and your trust.
That's going to help you to setyourself apart, to have that
trust that you build withGoogle.
(09:39):
And when you are that way, Youare more likely when you're
creating that content, you aremore likely to be the one that
they choose and that they useand they rank or they reference.
And so rather than worrying,will AI kill SEO?
I want you to start thinkingabout how do I optimize for AI?
I want to be the answer in chatGPT.
(09:59):
I want to be the one gettingtraffic from perplexity.
I want to be the one that islinked when somebody asks for
sources for something in chatGPT, because my friend that is.
an opportunity for you.
And I want you to understandthis is not about just being on
Google anymore.
AI search or AI optimization ishappening and it is a way that
(10:25):
you can set yourself apart.
If you want to be the one thatshows up in these places rather
than your competitor, then youneed to start doing a, doing
SEO, which will also includeAIO, AI optimization, so many
acronyms.
You need to start working on itnow and you need to learn what
to do.
So join me in simple SEOcontent.
(10:45):
Let me explain all of this foryou, walk you through it step by
step, teach you how to do it.
And really let's set you apartfrom the competition and get
your website showing up therefirst.
Let's start getting more trafficto your website and more
visibility for your brand andyour content.
Because if we can start showingup in chat GPT the AI overviews
(11:06):
and all these other places.
Your brand starts to grow,people start to know who your
brand is and they're more likelyto search you out and to visit
your website if they're seeingyou in those results because
they feel like this must be areally good website because
ChatGPT is telling me to go tothis one or somebody's telling
me to do that and I know peopleare getting Hmm.
(11:28):
People are getting leads becauseChatGPT is referring people to
them.
Hey, can I find, you know, howwould I find X?
Oh, this is a really good one.
Like, I've heard this is a goodone.
And you can have this work foryour business too.
So I want you to remember, SEOis evolving right now.
(11:49):
AI.
It is a huge opportunity for usas business owners and SEOs and
digital marketers.
There's a lot that we can dowith AI optimization to get you
to show up more often.
Don't worry about it.
It is not killing SEO.
It's one more place that you canrank my friend.
If you want to learn how to doall of this, like I said, SEO
(12:10):
content.
I have the entire module, theentire bonus lesson on How to do
exactly this.
I have blog posts that areshowing up in all the places
we've talked about today as domy students and I would love to
help you be the third part ofthat sentence and have you
showing up in those places aswell.
If you're doing SEO and you'venot had a lot of success,
(12:32):
something's not worked right,you're not sure, Be sure to join
me, or if you're just, you wantto learn more, you enjoy the
free classes and all that, besure to join me next week.
Yes, next week to learn thethree most common SEO mistakes
that people make.
And how to fix them so that youcan start ranking higher on
(12:54):
Google, getting more traffic,generating more leads, building
your email list, all of that.
I will be teaching live onMonday and Tuesday and would
love to have you join me.
So that we can talk about all ofthis and you can learn what to
do.
That registration link will beon the freebies tab on the
(13:14):
website, etchedmarketing.
com forward slash freebies.
It's also in the description andthe notes for you today.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I will see you back here nextweek.
We're going to have one more ofthese like.
Hot topics, what's going on withSEO, is this even worth doing
anymore?
I hope you're realizing by now,yes it's worth doing, no it's
(13:35):
not dead, and oh my goodness,there are more places that I can
show up than just Google.
And I need to do a little bit ofwork to show up in all those
places.
And I hope the next thing you'rethinking is, I'm going to join
Rachel in class because I reallyneed to have her walk me through
this and make it easy for me.
Alright, thank you for beinghere, I'll see you next week.
Bye for now.
And welcome back to the Simple SEO Podcast.
I'm your host, RachelLindteigen, and I'm so glad
you're here with me today.
Now, I told you last week, Iwanted to address some really
common questions and someconcerns that I'm hearing about
SEO.
And so this is a big one, andthat is will AI.
So I've had a lot of questionscome around this really people
(00:24):
are concerned because people arestarting to use chat GPT more
and they're searching forinformation there and they're
using perplexity.
ai and the Google AI overviewswith information right there at
the top of the Google searchresults.
There's a lot going on.
definitely understand where theconcern is, especially if you
(00:46):
don't yet understand where theAI search engines are getting
their information from.
I wasn't a hundred percent surewhat was going to happen.
Just true story between you andI.
I kind of wondered the samething.
I wondered if AI was truly goingto be the death of SEO.
Now, You know, and I've sharedbefore, SEO has supposedly been
(01:09):
dying the entire time I've beenin the industry.
So for like 15 years now, everytime a change happens, people
say, Oh, that's it, SEO is dead.
And we just kind of like a catwith nine lives.
We just keep going.
It just keeps working.
We keep doing our thing.
What it amounts to is we change.
We evolve.
The algorithm changes.
The rules change.
(01:30):
We adapt.
That's really what it amountsto.
So, what I want you tounderstand is that yes, There is
concern.
Will I kill SEO?
People are concerned that it is,but what I want you to
understand is that AI is stillvery Dependent upon SEO.
(01:53):
So this is where I think Thoseof us who have been optimizing
our websites for years who aredoing it now and working on it
are going to find that AI willnot kill our websites because
the AI search engines andchatbots seem to use SEO
(02:17):
practices to help themunderstand the information and
to find the websites that theyare referencing.
So what we're seeing in theresearch studies and what we're
seeing.
The problem with being in real,real world application is that
sites that rank high on Googlein general are also the ones
that rank in perplexity and chatGPT search and chat GPT itself.
(02:41):
They have to pull theinformation from somewhere.
So in order for them to find theinformation that they're looking
for, they're going to go throughIt's similar to Google.
They're going to go through andthey're going to look to see
what the pages are about.
Now, the way that people search,especially in ChatGPT or in our
chat based searches, isdifferent than how we are used
(03:04):
to traditionally searching inGoogle.
In Google, we start withkeywords.
We put in one keyword or twowords or maybe a string or a
phrase.
And so, That's what we've alwaysoptimized for from an SEO
standpoint, we've optimized forthat keyword or that keyword
phrase, whereas if somebody issearching in ChatGPT, they may
(03:26):
be having a much moreconversational tone to their
search, so rather than like,Things to do in Nashville, they
might be searching or asking forChatGPT to help them plan a trip
to Nashville with a 10 year old.
What are things that I could do?
(03:47):
True story, real life example,we just got back from Nashville.
Um, on Sunday I had theopportunity to go in for an
invitation only event with mymen.
Or and it was an amazing weekendwas such a great experience was
also really fun because I usedto live there when I was little
so I got to drive.
(04:07):
We took the family and I got todrag my husband and my son past
like my childhood home and myelementary school and all the
things that they absolutely didnot care about, but it was it's
a beautiful area.
I lived in Franklin when I waslittle before we moved to Iowa.
And it was just really fun to beable to be back in the area.
So, I did use ChatGPT to help meplan that trip and to give me
(04:31):
ideas of things that I could do.
And you know what?
It pulled websites.
It gave me information and thenI said, Oh cool, where are you
finding this from?
And it gave me all the websites.
And then I clicked through and Iwent over and I checked some of
them.
And that's what's going tocontinue to happen as people
start using these AI searchengines more.
They are still getting theirinformation from Google.
(04:52):
They're still getting theirinformation from Bing, so chat
GPT search is powered by Bing.
Bing.
There's really truly nothingdifferent that you need to do
from an SEO standpoint for BingSEO versus Google SEO Bing has a
very small market share.
So Bing gets right now as of thelatest that I've seen in 2025
(05:14):
Bing's market share isincreasing.
They moved up from 2 percentmarket share in 2023 to 4
percent market share this year,so they do have a bigger market
share.
However Google's market share isstill like 88 percent of all
search.
So What we do for Googlegenerally works for Bing.
They follow very closely.
(05:34):
We're also seeing more increasein AI search.
However, it's still tiny incomparison.
So chat GPT search is expectedto hit 1 percent in 2025, 1
percent market share.
Putting that in perspective inthe last research study, I saw a
chat GPT search was 373 timessmaller than Google search.
(06:00):
So for every search on chat GPT,there were 373 searches on
Google.
So we definitely still want tobe on Google.
We still want to rank high.
We still want to create greatcontent.
Follow the Google rules.
AI is not killing SEO at thispoint in time.
AI is dependent upon SEO.
AI is using the information thatwe are optimizing to understand
(06:24):
and to put together theseanswers that they're looking
for.
So if you don't know the waythat the AI chatbots work, it's
a little different from Google.
And I'm going to get kind oftechie here, but also not super
techie because you guys know.
I'm not super techie.
They're what's called a largelanguage, like a large language
model.
So they're looking for kind ofpredictive text.
(06:46):
If somebody has searchedsomething or written something,
they're looking for the nextinformation that's gonna match
what they expect someone to besaying.
So they're reading your content,they're reading your
information, they're looking forbasically confirmation bias.
They want something thatconfirms what they think is
gonna be the right answer.
Whereas Google, Is based on thekeywords that someone's
(07:07):
searching for and the matches ofthe keywords.
So we do optimize.
Slightly different.
That's wrong.
We actually optimize pretty muchthe same.
There are some things we do froma formatting standpoint.
And I do teach that in SimpleSEO content.
I added a new bonus lesson justrecently on how to show up in
(07:27):
chat GPT and the AI overviewsand perplexity and all of that.
Like how to really work withyour SEO so that you're part of
this new, this new searchopportunity.
Really, AI represents a newopportunity for additional
visibility for your content inyour business.
That's really what it is.
(07:48):
So if you understand that andyou realize that they're still
pulling the information fromGoogle, they're still getting
the information from Bing, whichis going to work the same as
Google, they still need you.
They still need your website.
They still need your content.
The other thing you want tounderstand is like AI, they give
(08:10):
you some information, especiallyif we think about the AI
overviews in Google.
And Google did announce they aretesting the new AI tab where the
entire search tab will be AIgenerated.
I don't have access to it yet.
I am on the list to be a betatester as soon as I get access
and can start playing aroundwith it.
I will do it.
A podcast episode and kind ofexplained to you what it is and
(08:33):
what it looks like.
Um, but what I want you tounderstand is the AI generated
overviews, they're limited.
They give you a little bit ofinformation that they're pulling
from a couple different sites.
They do link to those sites andwhat we're seeing is there's
actually on.
And then a correspondingincrease in clicks, clicks to
the websites that haveinformation in those AI
(08:55):
overviews.
Because people come, they see alittle bit of information, they
want more, they click and theygo to read it.
Now if it's something moresimilar to direct answers and
I've talked about direct, Ifit's something more similar to
that where it's like how manyteaspoons in a tablespoon?
Well, there's three teaspoons ina tablespoon.
I don't need to go read a blogpost on that.
So if it's at that level, theymay not click through, but also
(09:17):
they don't need to read a blogpost to find out there's three
teaspoons in a tablespoon.
Continuing to create greatcontent.
Focusing on E E A T, which isyour experience, your expertise,
your authority, and your trust.
That's going to help you to setyourself apart, to have that
trust that you build withGoogle.
(09:39):
And when you are that way, Youare more likely when you're
creating that content, you aremore likely to be the one that
they choose and that they useand they rank or they reference.
And so rather than worrying,will AI kill SEO?
I want you to start thinkingabout how do I optimize for AI?
I want to be the answer in chatGPT.
(09:59):
I want to be the one gettingtraffic from perplexity.
I want to be the one that islinked when somebody asks for
sources for something in chatGPT, because my friend that is.
an opportunity for you.
And I want you to understandthis is not about just being on
Google anymore.
AI search or AI optimization ishappening and it is a way that
(10:25):
you can set yourself apart.
If you want to be the one thatshows up in these places rather
than your competitor, then youneed to start doing a, doing
SEO, which will also includeAIO, AI optimization, so many
acronyms.
You need to start working on itnow and you need to learn what
to do.
So join me in simple SEOcontent.
(10:45):
Let me explain all of this foryou, walk you through it step by
step, teach you how to do it.
And really let's set you apartfrom the competition and get
your website showing up therefirst.
Let's start getting more trafficto your website and more
visibility for your brand andyour content.
Because if we can start showingup in chat GPT the AI overviews
(11:06):
and all these other places.
Your brand starts to grow,people start to know who your
brand is and they're more likelyto search you out and to visit
your website if they're seeingyou in those results because
they feel like this must be areally good website because
ChatGPT is telling me to go tothis one or somebody's telling
me to do that and I know peopleare getting Hmm.
(11:28):
People are getting leads becauseChatGPT is referring people to
them.
Hey, can I find, you know, howwould I find X?
Oh, this is a really good one.
Like, I've heard this is a goodone.
And you can have this work foryour business too.
So I want you to remember, SEOis evolving right now.
(11:49):
AI.
It is a huge opportunity for usas business owners and SEOs and
digital marketers.
There's a lot that we can dowith AI optimization to get you
to show up more often.
Don't worry about it.
It is not killing SEO.
It's one more place that you canrank my friend.
If you want to learn how to doall of this, like I said, SEO
(12:10):
content.
I have the entire module, theentire bonus lesson on How to do
exactly this.
I have blog posts that areshowing up in all the places
we've talked about today as domy students and I would love to
help you be the third part ofthat sentence and have you
showing up in those places aswell.
If you're doing SEO and you'venot had a lot of success,
(12:32):
something's not worked right,you're not sure, Be sure to join
me, or if you're just, you wantto learn more, you enjoy the
free classes and all that, besure to join me next week.
Yes, next week to learn thethree most common SEO mistakes
that people make.
And how to fix them so that youcan start ranking higher on
(12:54):
Google, getting more traffic,generating more leads, building
your email list, all of that.
I will be teaching live onMonday and Tuesday and would
love to have you join me.
So that we can talk about all ofthis and you can learn what to
do.
That registration link will beon the freebies tab on the
(13:14):
website, etchedmarketing.
com forward slash freebies.
It's also in the description andthe notes for you today.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I will see you back here nextweek.
We're going to have one more ofthese like.
Hot topics, what's going on withSEO, is this even worth doing
anymore?
I hope you're realizing by now,yes it's worth doing, no it's
(13:35):
not dead, and oh my goodness,there are more places that I can
show up than just Google.
And I need to do a little bit ofwork to show up in all those
places.
And I hope the next thing you'rethinking is, I'm going to join
Rachel in class because I reallyneed to have her walk me through
this and make it easy for me.
Alright, thank you for beinghere, I'll see you next week.
Bye for now.
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Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com