Now What? How AI is Upending SEO—and What You Can Do to Save Your Site

If you’ve been watching your website traffic dip lately, you’re not alone. Across industries, marketers and orgs are seeing once-reliable SEO strategies start to falter. The reason? Artificial intelligence is changing how search engines work—and what they prioritize.

What’s Happening?

Search engines like Google are moving from simple keyword matchers into AI-driven answer engines. With the rise of AI-powered results (think Google's SGE ), search engines are now delivering direct answers, summaries, and content previews—without ever requiring the user to click through to your website.

That means your beautifully optimized blog post might be helping Google’s AI answer a question… while your clickthroughs plummet becuase you get no credit. Harsh...

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What This Means for You

Traditional SEO tactics—curating keywords, writing 1,300-word blogs, building backlinks—aren’t enough anymore. Search is now about intent, authority, and experience. If your content doesn’t offer real, human-centered value, it won’t rank—or get clicks.

What You Can Do? Well...

Write for people first. Always a good idea! Content that’s clear, helpful, and authentic still wins—especially if it speaks to real problems and provides actionable insights. SEO gobbly crap is not helpful, never was.

Double down on E-E-A-T. That’s Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust—Google’s north star for ranking. Highlight real authors, showcase credentials, and back claims with evidence.

Elevate your brand. Branded search is the safest bet. Make sure your organization is visible, active, and consistent across all digital channels so users look for you by name. Be the authority!

Use AI tools wisely. AI can help generate ideas, test headlines, or draft outlines—but avoid generic AI-written content. It won’t stand out, and Google can tell. So can most readers!

Diversify your traffic sources. SEO alone can’t carry your site. Invest in email newsletters, social media, partnerships, and even paid campaigns to drive traffic and build your audience.

Friends, search is chnaging fast—and AI is accelerating the shift. To stay visible and competitive, marketers must adapt by focusing on authenticity, value, and a real audience connection. Don’t chase the algorithm. Lead with content that deserves to be seen—and shared.