As companies that have historically received a consistent flow of website visitors from Google Search face declining traffic, many feel pressure to close the gap by establishing visibility in AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini.
This predicament leads to a fair question: Should we abandon traditional SEO in favor of AI visibility?
Search Engines vs LLMs: How They Work
To answer this question, we first need to understand how Google Search and LLM algorithms work.
When someone performs a search, Google’s job has traditionally been to return relevant web pages people could visit to find the information they need. Writing helpful content, optimizing your website to be crawled, and building backlinks from other sites to yours help it appear in search results.
LLMs work differently. At their core, LLMs such as ChatGPT or Gemini are text generators trained on a massive swath of the internet. Similar to Google, they crawl websites to gather data for training their models. However, their job is to deliver answers to the user’s prompt, not necessarily to return websites that people can click on and visit.
What does an LLM do if it doesn’t know the answer?
When an LLM is uncertain about an answer or needs real-time information that’s not included in its training data, it retrieves information from external sources via search engines like Google or Bing. This process is known as Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) because the AI model augments its internal knowledge with fresh, real-time search and content.
So what sources will the AI find? In most cases, it’s the same websites that rank well in search results. SEO is effectively the API for the web, so if you’re not continuing to perform in traditional search, you’re likely invisible to the AI’s retrieval process.
In addition to crawling company sites across the web, these models also prioritize high-authority hubs like YouTube, Wikipedia, Reddit, Quora, Facebook, and directory profiles such as G2, Yelp, and Google Business Profile (GBP).
This means that both on-site and off-site SEO are not only still relevant, but even more critical for digital visibility today—whether in traditional search results or LLM answers.
5 Practical Steps You Can Take for Better AI Visibility
Betting on SEO for site visitors may feel like a difficult decision right now, especially with so many searches ending with Google’s AI Overviews. Despite this, Google’s ranking signals remain a major—if not the primary—source of trust for LLMs. When models need to discover relevant content, they start by looking at what Google already trusts.
Here are five ways you can evolve your strategy for the broader world of AI-integrated search:
1. Update Your Citations
Ensure your company’s information is accurate and consistent between directories like G2, Yelp, vendor listings, and industry-specific sites so algorithms “see” you everywhere and can correctly map your entity. Name, address, phone number, and detailed company description are critical components that need to be consistent across the web.
2. Integrate Structured Data
Your on-page work should focus on “content discoverability.” Schema markup and structured data function like “CliffsNotes” for your site, making your content crawlable and digestible for an AI tool.
3. Utilize a “Snackable” Framework
Write for retrieval. FAQs on landing pages, key takeaways at the top of articles, and keyword-rich subheadings make it easier for LLMs to extract content and credit you as the expert source.
4. Find Your Audience Across the Web
Think about the topics you want associated with your brand. Where are people already talking about them? Whether it’s Reddit, industry forums, YouTube, or review platforms, your goal is to build presence wherever your audience is. Your website alone isn’t enough to drive the visibility AI systems rely on.
5. Track Prompts
Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and even Google Search Console can help you understand your AI visibility. Identify the topics you want to appear for, then test prompts and analyze where LLMs are sourcing their information so you can optimize accordingly. Tracking your AI visibility also provides insight into how well your entity is understood and trusted across the internet as a whole.
Abandoning SEO is Risky
The reality is that search hasn’t shrunk—it’s expanded. While usage patterns shift across platforms, people are still turning to the internet to research, compare, and make decisions. And at the center of it all is the same foundation: the web, indexed by Google. Abandon SEO, and you risk disappearing from both search and AI.
