AI hasn’t broken SEO. It has exposed it.
The shortcuts, the content mills, the over-optimized FAQs – all fragile tactics built to game a system instead of serve an audience.
While many have decried a loss of search visibility and blamed AI, the fact is that AI didn’t invent new rules. It’s just finally enforcing the ones that always mattered. So while those who took the easy way out complain about AI, brands that prioritized intent, quality, and long-term value are holding steady or even gaining. One study showed drops of 64% and gains of 219%, depending on the approach.
If AI tanked your traffic overnight, you aren’t alone, and it doesn’t mean you failed.
To be clear, the problem wasn’t AI. The problem was the strategy holding it all together. And not because you didn’t know better, but because the system rewarded fragility. Thin content and scaled sameness did well. Until they didn’t.
At Victorious, we guide customers through this shift every day, running retrieval simulations, identifying why good content gets skipped, and restructuring pages to align with human intent and AI logic. The strategies built on substance are holding up. The ones built for short-term wins are showing their limits.
SEO shortcuts are failing, again
This isn’t the first time SEO tactics have hit a wall.
For years, some SEO teams got by on mechanics: near-duplicate blog posts chasing long-tail variations, ultra-basic FAQ pages aimed at featured snippets, bloated templates stuffed with exact-match keywords.
But that wasn’t strategy. It was structural support built for a different time.
Now, AI is answering questions directly, and Google is no longer rewarding content that just checks the boxes. If it doesn’t offer something original or isn’t clearly aligned with intent, it’s not penalized; it’s ignored.
This is the new filter: If your content wouldn’t help someone make a decision or deepen their understanding, it probably won’t show up. That’s AI raising the bar.
Search behavior is changing, and AI is leading the shift
Search isn’t just 10 blue links and a featured snippet anymore. AI Overviews, Bing summaries, and tools like ChatGPT are reshaping how results are delivered and how people search.
With more choices, user behavior is evolving. In late 2024, more than 25 percent of U.S. consumers said they were using tools like ChatGPT instead of Google for certain queries. AI is pulling search into new environments and cutting into the clicks that traditional SEO relied on.
A user looking for “how to negotiate startup equity” might have a conversation with ChatGPT instead of running a search. It’s faster, it’s more personal, and it feels more trustworthy.
That’s why Google is doubling down on AI, accelerating investment to stay ahead as search behavior evolves.
But this isn’t just a Google problem. SEOs and marketers need to expand their definition of SEO. It’s not just about ranking: It’s about showing up wherever your audience is learning and making decisions.
Unfortunately, the path isn’t always clear. We’ve seen well-structured, helpful content still get skipped by AI Overviews and poor content get featured. And of course, there’s volatility. But over time, the pattern is clear: Content that anticipates intent, adds original value, and earns trust tends to hold up.
The fundamentals haven’t changed. Serve your audience better than anyone else, and you’re still in the game.
A framework for building SEO that survives AI
The shortcuts are gone. So what actually works?
At Victorious, we’ve stress-tested these principles across hundreds of SEO programs, seeing firsthand what holds up in AI-driven search and what collapses. This isn’t about chasing perfection. It’s about building visibility that lasts, even as search evolves.
This framework assumes you’ve already handled the technical foundation, or that you’re working with a partner who has. Without enhanced crawlability and a clean structure, even the best content can disappear.
The following principles are simple, but the execution takes discipline, experience, and the right support.
1. Align SEO with user intent and the customer journey
Start with searcher intent. Every query is a question or a goal. Your job is to answer it or help the user achieve it.
Group queries by type:
- Informational (learning)
- Commercial (comparing)
- Transactional (acting)
- Navigational (finding)
Then map your content to match:
- Top of funnel: guides, how-tos, research
- Mid-funnel: comparisons, case studies, testimonials
- Bottom of funnel: product and service pages with strong CTAs
Use Google Search Console or your analytics platform to segment keywords by intent, then fill the gaps. If a high-intent query isn’t addressed on your site, build something better than what’s out there.
Zoom out and layer in the journey stage. Content should walk people from awareness to action. If AI takes the top-funnel summary, your job is to own the deeper click. Intent mapping isn’t just for visibility. It’s how you guide real people from interest to action and earn their trust along the way.
And here’s what often gets missed: SEO done right doesn’t just drive traffic, it drives the performance of everything else. It:
- Makes paid campaigns more efficient.
- Fills the gap between email sends.
- Answers questions that sales teams keep getting.
At Victorious, we design SEO strategies to amplify the rest of your marketing mix, not compete with it.
2. Double down on quality, expertise, and trust
Google’s AI Overviews favor content that’s clear, credible, and comprehensive. That means:
- Expert voices: Feature real people with real experience. Add bios to your site and quote SMEs in your content so your content speaks with authority.
- Original insights: Use internal data, unique case studies, or real customer stories to showcase your work. Generic content won’t make the cut. Google’s AI is designed to skip it.
- Comprehensiveness: Don’t make pieces long for the sake of it, but be sure they fully answer the search intent. Anticipate follow-up questions and link to next steps.
- Trust signals: Make it clear you’re legit with a secure site, clean design, clear authorship, up-to-date content, and testimonials.
Most importantly: Don’t chase scale by churning out low-quality AI content. It will hurt more than help.
Authority isn’t something you claim, it’s something you prove. Now more than ever, that proof must appear in your content.
3. Focus on conversions and value, not just traffic volume
AI might reduce traffic volume, but it can raise traffic quality. One high-intent click that converts is worth more than a hundred that bounce. That’s a trade worth taking.
Traffic is a vanity metric without conversions. If your SEO program still reports wins in terms of sessions or rankings alone, it’s time to update the dashboard.
Stakeholders want numbers that translate into pipeline and proof of return. Your SEO strategy has to speak in terms of leads, conversions, and revenue, not just sessions and CTR.
Measure:
- Leads and revenue attributable to organic search.
- Conversion rates on key organic landing pages.
- Share of total conversions from organic.
At the same time, expect analytics to get messier. Some AI-driven visits show up as direct or referral traffic, so use blended attribution models and focus on the bigger picture. If your SEO is driving growth, that’s what matters.
4. Embrace change and integrate AI (don’t fight it)
AI isn’t a passing phase. Google, Bing, OpenAI, and everyone else are betting big on it. So should you. Here are three ways you can do this:
1. Use AI tools to scale responsibly:
- Analyze large keyword or data sets.
- Cluster queries by intent.
- Draft content outlines (but keep a human in the loop).
2. Adapt how you publish:
- Structure content clearly for readers and AI.
- Use paragraph-level answers for key questions.
- Add schema markup and structured data when appropriate.
3. Think beyond the Google SERP:
- Explore ChatGPT plugins or custom bots trained on your site content.
- Create content for YouTube, Reddit, TikTok, and other discovery platforms.
Most of all, stay agile. Set aside time and budget for SEO R&D. Pilot ideas. Measure outcomes. Evolve.
AI didn’t kill SEO, it’s forcing us to do it right
This isn’t the end of SEO. It’s the beginning of what’s next.
AI is pushing the industry to mature away from shortcuts and toward what actually drives results.
If you’re a marketer, this is your moment. Toss the checklist playbooks and build something aligned to your specific audience. Because the companies that will come out ahead aren’t clinging to the past. They’ll use AI to see what really matters and double down on it.
SEO has evolved before. Each time, the fundamentals held. AI is forcing another evolution; it’s just happening faster. Your job isn’t to outsmart the algorithm. It’s to be so useful, so clear, and so credible that AI has no choice but to include you.
That’s the kind of visibility we earn for our customers at Victorious, not just through SEO, but through disciplined AEO strategy, continuous testing, and hands-on support. It’s the kind that compounds in an AI-enabled world.
This article was written by Houston Barnett-Gearhart, Director of SEO at Victorious.