Organic traffic is down, AI Overviews are stealing your clicks, and your boss is questioning every dollar spent on SEO.
The temptation to slash that budget is real, especially when you’re watching competitors get featured in AI-generated summaries while your optimized pages sit invisible below the fold.
Cutting SEO now would be shortsighted. The smart move isn’t retreat – it’s evolve.
People haven’t stopped searching. They’re searching more, just differently.
The companies thriving in 2025 aren’t spending less on SEO. They’re spending differently.
While your competitors panic and pull back, you have a golden opportunity to dominate the AI-driven search landscape.
The question isn’t whether to invest in SEO, it’s how to invest smarter.
AI isn’t killing SEO
Let’s address the elephant in the room with some hard numbers:
- AI Overviews appear in roughly 47% of search results now, up from 25% in mid-2024.
- 60% of Google searches never leave the results page.
- When AI Overviews appear, click-through rates drop 34.5%.
These numbers feel scary if you’re still thinking about SEO the old way.
But here’s what the doom-and-gloom crowd is missing: 82.5% of marketers increased their SEO budgets in 2024.
That’s not the behavior of a dying industry, but adaptation in action.
These marketers understand something crucial: the game has changed, but it hasn’t ended.
The traffic isn’t disappearing, it’s changing form.
When your content gets cited in AI Overviews, you’re building authority that extends far beyond traditional rankings.
You’re becoming the trusted source that AI systems reference, which builds brand credibility in ways old-school SEO never could.
When someone sees your brand mentioned as the authoritative source in an AI-generated answer, that carries more weight than simply appearing as link number three in organic results.
This shift represents the biggest opportunity in search since Google’s early days.
While most companies are paralyzed by uncertainty, forward-thinking marketers are capturing market share by understanding how AI systems evaluate and cite content.
The brands that master this transition will not only survive but also dominate their industries.
Misconceptions driving budget cuts
Despite the clear evidence that AI-optimized SEO strategies work, many marketing teams are still making budget decisions based on outdated assumptions.
These misconceptions aren’t just wrong, they’re actively harmful to your competitive position.
‘AI Overviews replace organic results’
This is the most dangerous myth circulating in marketing circles right now.
AI Overviews don’t replace organic results, they cite sources.
Being referenced in these summaries often brings more credibility than ranking in Position 1 organically ever could.
Someone seeing your brand mentioned in an AI answer three times in one week is not lost traffic; that’s brand recognition at scale.
Consider what happens when a potential customer asks ChatGPT about the best CRM software for small businesses.
If your product gets mentioned as the recommended solution, with specific reasons why it’s ideal for that use case, you’ve just bypassed the entire “search, evaluate, and compare” process.
That prospect is arriving at your website already pre-qualified and ready to engage.
The key insight here is that AI systems need authoritative sources to build their responses.
- They don’t pull information from thin air.
- They cite the most credible, comprehensive content available.
By optimizing for AI citations, you’re essentially competing to become the trusted advisor in your industry, which is far more valuable than any single ranking position.
Dig deeper: AI search is booming, but SEO is still not dead
‘SEO is only about rankings’
This outdated thinking is costing companies millions in missed opportunities.
The modern search experience now includes multiple visibility opportunities:
- Featured snippets that appear above organic results.
- Knowledge panels that dominate the right side of SERPs.
- Image carousels that capture visual searches.
- Local packs for location-based queries.
- AI-generated summaries that synthesize multiple sources.
You might rank in Position 3 for “marketing automation software,” but if an AI Overview appears above your listing and mentions your competitor while ignoring you, your actual visibility plummets to near zero.
Smart marketers are now tracking “share of voice” across all SERP features, not just blue link rankings.
Instead of celebrating a move from Position 8 to Position 5, focus on increasing your overall visibility footprint across these diverse search features.
‘AI content will replace human expertise’
This fear is driving some companies to abandon content creation altogether, which is exactly the wrong response.
AI-generated content at scale creates massive duplication problems and introduces hallucination risks that can damage your brand reputation.
When every company in your industry uses similar AI prompts, you end up with eerily similar content that provides no competitive differentiation.
More importantly, AI systems are specifically designed to identify and prioritize content that demonstrates genuine expertise, authority, and trustworthiness.
Your unique perspective, customer insights, and brand voice can’t be replicated by AI tools.
The companies winning in this environment are those using AI to enhance their content creation process while maintaining human oversight and expertise at every level.
Consider the difference between an AI-generated article about “email marketing best practices” and a piece titled “How we increased our email open rates by 47%: Data from 10,000 campaigns.”
The second one demonstrates real expertise backed by proprietary data that only your company can provide.
This is the type of content that AI systems love to cite because it represents genuine authority rather than regurgitated information.
Where smart marketers are shifting their budgets
The most successful companies aren’t cutting their SEO investments.
They’re strategically reallocating resources to areas that deliver results in our new AI search landscape.
This isn’t about spending more money; it’s about spending the same budget more intelligently.
Build authority through first-person content
Your content budget needs a complete transformation.
Instead of generic blog posts, invest in content that demonstrates genuine expertise:
Three content types that AI systems love to cite:
- SME interviews: Interview your CTO about specific technical challenges they solved.
- Proprietary research: Share real data from your customer base with unique insights.
- Founder perspectives: Publish industry trend analysis based on years of experience.
When you publish findings like “How we increased email open rates by 47%: Data from 10,000 campaigns,” you’re providing information that no competitor can replicate.
AI systems gravitate toward this type of unique, data-backed content because it represents genuine value rather than rehashed information.
The key is moving beyond content creation to content amplification. Build relationships with:
- Industry publications.
- Podcasts.
- Journalists who cover your space.
The goal isn’t direct traffic anymore; it’s earning mentions and becoming the source that others reference when they write about your industry.
Dig deeper: Want to beat AI Overviews? Produce unmistakably human content
Strengthen technical foundations for AI consumption
While everyone obsesses over AI content strategies, the smartest marketers are doubling down on technical SEO.
If AI systems can’t easily understand and parse your content, it doesn’t matter how great your content is.
But modern AI optimization goes deeper than traditional technical SEO.
AI systems don’t just evaluate entire pages; they break your content into digestible chunks that can be retrieved and cited independently.
Your content architecture should support this by organizing information into logical, self-contained sections that can stand alone when referenced.
The technical priorities for AI optimization include:
- Schema markup: Implement comprehensive structured data on all important pages.
- Site speed: Optimize loading times for better AI crawl efficiency.
- Credibility signals: Display prominent author bios, credentials, and trust indicators.
- Content structure: Use clear headings and logical internal linking patterns.
- Chunk-friendly design: Create sections that naturally answer specific questions independently.
- Retrieval testing: Verify that your content actually surfaces in AI-powered query responses.
Focus on brand queries and citation-worthy content
Brand searches represent the new gold standard for SEO success, and for good reason.
When someone searches “your company name + demo,” they’re already 80% of the way to becoming a customer.
These high-intent queries convert at rates that make traditional keyword targeting look inefficient by comparison.
The strategy here involves creating content specifically designed to capture brand-related searches.
- Develop comprehensive comparison pages that position your solution against competitors.
- Create detailed pricing guides that answer every possible question about your costs.
- Publish customer success stories that showcase real results.
This content serves multiple purposes:
- Capturing high-intent traffic.
- Providing material for AI systems to cite.
- Building the authority signals that improve your overall search visibility.
AI doesn’t cite by accident. You need a strategy.
Create content in formats that AI systems prefer:
- Well-structured paragraphs with clear topic sentences.
- Numbered lists that break down complex processes.
- Bullet points that highlight key takeaways.
Answer questions directly and provide data that AI can easily extract and reference in their responses.
Building relationships with high-authority sites in your industry remains crucial, but the goal has evolved.
When respected publications cite your research or quote your executives, those mentions become part of AI’s “trusted dataset” for your industry.
It’s like getting a letter of recommendation from the most respected voices in your field, which carries enormous weight when AI systems evaluate source credibility.
Dig deeper: How to get cited by AI: SEO insights from 8,000 AI citations
What to measure now: Beyond rankings
Traditional ranking reports won’t cut it in budget meetings anymore.
Your executives want to see real business impact. The metrics that matter now are those that:
- Directly connect to revenue.
- Demonstrate your SEO strategy’s contribution to business growth.
Branded search growth
Branded search volume tells you everything about your brand’s health in the market.
When people start searching for your company name, product names, or even your CEO’s name, you’re witnessing the direct result of successful authority building.
These searches typically convert higher than generic keyword searches because they represent qualified prospects who already know and trust your brand.
Track both the volume and variety of branded queries. Look for increases in searches like:
- “YourCompany vs competitor.”
- “YourCompany pricing.”
- “YourCompany demo.”
These queries indicate that your brand awareness campaigns are working and that people are actively considering your solution.
The beauty of branded search growth is that it represents organic demand generation.
People don’t search your brand just because of ads.
They search because they’ve seen it show up in:
- Content.
- Conversations.
- Trusted sources.
This type of demand is both more valuable and more sustainable than traffic generated through paid advertising.
Dig deeper: How to track visibility across AI platforms
Share of voice in generative results
Here’s where measurement gets interesting.
AI-generated summaries now appear in 47.5% of search results, and your brand’s presence in those overviews often matters more than where you rank.
This metric tracks how often you’re cited as an authoritative source compared to competitors across AI-powered search.
While measurement tools are still catching up to this reality, you can manually track your presence in AI Overviews for your most important keywords.
Look for patterns in how AI systems describe your company, which features they highlight, and how you’re positioned relative to competitors.
This qualitative analysis reveals opportunities to optimize your content for better AI citations.
The goal isn’t just to be mentioned, it’s to be positioned as the authoritative source that AI systems trust and cite most frequently.
Companies that achieve this level of recognition often see improved performance across all their digital marketing channels, as AI citations build credibility that extends far beyond search results.
Connecting SEO to pipeline and revenue
Most SEO teams struggle with this, but it’s absolutely critical for budget justification and securing leadership buy-in.
Unfortunately, tracking every touchpoint in today’s customer journey is getting harder, as people:
- Discover you through organic search.
- Get distracted by social media.
- Ask colleagues for opinions.
- Read reviews.
- Eventually convert through completely different channels weeks later.
The old-school approach of assigning credit to every interaction has become nearly impossible.
Privacy changes, ad blockers, and the reality that people use multiple devices have broken traditional attribution models.
You need to get smarter about SEO measurement.
The most effective approach combines detailed tracking with broader impact measurement.
Yes, you should still track assisted conversions when you can capture them.
Someone might discover your brand through organic search, return later via direct traffic, and convert through email marketing.
Use Google Analytics 4’s multi-touch attribution to capture these journeys when the data is available.
But equally important is measuring the overall business impact during periods of SEO investment.
Instead of trying to attribute every sale to specific touchpoints, examine whether your key business metrics improve when you actively invest in content and optimization.
- Are branded searches increasing?
- Is direct traffic growing?
- Are sales trending upward during months when you’re publishing expert content consistently?
Essential metrics for proving SEO impact:
- Direct attribution: Track conversion paths where data is available.
- Business trend analysis: Monitor growth during periods of SEO investment.
- Brand momentum: Measure increases in branded search and direct traffic.
- Content performance: Connect specific content to lead generation and pipeline.
Create reports that show both the trackable connections and the bigger picture trends.
That industry research report might generate 200 qualified leads that you can directly track.
Meanwhile, your consistent expert content publishing over six months correlates with a 30% increase in branded searches and a 25% boost in sales-qualified leads.
The key is acknowledging measurement limitations while still building a compelling business case.
Modern customer journeys are messy, but the companies investing in authority-building content and technical optimization are seeing real business growth.
Your job is to capture enough of that story to keep the budget flowing.
Dig deeper: SEO KPIs to track and measure success in the age of AI
The opportunity hidden in plain sight
Your competitors are panicking over declining click-through rates. That’s your opening.
The brands that adapt their SEO strategies now, while others retreat, are the ones positioned to lead for the long haul.
As others slash their SEO budgets, you’ll be investing in content and technical upgrades that deliver compound returns.
While they fixate on whether AI will replace search, you’ll be building the authority those systems rely on.
Start with a content audit.
- Look for opportunities to inject first-person expertise and proprietary insights.
- Identify your customers’ most common questions, and answer them so clearly that no AI can ignore you.
- Then invest in the technical foundation that makes your content not just findable, but also citeable.
The AI revolution isn’t coming – it’s already here.
The question isn’t whether search will change. It’s whether you’ll move fast enough to own the shift.
Your competitors are choosing hesitation. What will you choose?