SEO Friendly, SEO Obsolete?

SEO was always about getting a website to the top of search results. It used to mean a web designer had to work tirelessly — researching keywords, building backlinks, tweaking meta tags, even choosing just the right colors to engage users.

But just when you thought you had mastered SEO, it changed again with AI. The most popular search engines are no longer relying solely on keyword relevance — they’re integrating AI to generate and prioritize search results in entirely new ways. For example, when you search in Google, there is a search option called “Al Overviews” This AI search pulls information from different sources and presents your search as one large answer.

Google has stated that more people are using AI Overviews, finding it more useful, leading them to do more searches than they normally would do.

Added to this the change to SEO includes the introduction of AI Mode from Google Labs. “AI Mode, a Gemini-powered AI search experience that now asks SEOs to move faster and adapt to the new search landscape.”

To rank well in AI-powered search (like Google’s Search Generative Experience) versus traditional search, Web designers and SEO strategists need to move beyond just focusing on keywords and backlinks. Instead, they should focus on creating content that is authoritative, well-structured, and genuinely helpful — the kind of content AI systems can easily understand and summarize.

As a web developer what do you need to change to make the AI search work properly. When you use to focus on:

1. Keywords, matching in titles, H1 and body test. A1 driven searches focus on intent-based phrasing and natural language. It looks for content that clearly answers real questions

2. The content, and the format was SEO focused on keyword density. AI searches for clear, well-structured content with direct answers, bullet points and FAQs.

3. Metadata and schema  were important. Meta titles with proper length and keywords with the right descriptions were essential to rankings. Now AI looks for rich schema markup, like How-To, FAQs, Products, and so forth. Items that it can easily extract structured data.

4. The E-A-T principle, Expertise, Authority and Trust ranking was based on backlinks and page indicators. An AI search will rank with real-author attribution transparency, author bios, reviews, and trusted citations.

5. Website speed is still critical for both traditional and AI ranking. However, AI promotes websites that offer fast, smooth UX.

6. Initially, designers used images that enhanced the website, which were important but didn’t really help with ranking. AI ranks websites well with image, diagrams and tables that are well-labeled (alt text captions) that help understand context.

7. Ranking well on google did not consider conversational flow. Google AI wants contact that associates with natural questions and follow-up with stimulation conversations.

8. Website designers didn’t highlight answers, they were often buried in long form content. AI ranks pages that clearly and succinctly answer questions at the top of content

SEO isn’t dead, it’s evolving. With AI-driven search like Google’s AI Overviews and Gemini-powered Search Generative Experience, ranking well, now means shifting from keyword tricks to creating content. This content needs to be helpful, clear, and structured. Web designers must adapt by focusing on user intent, natural language, strong schema markup, real-author transparency, and fast, accessible content. Success today means building websites that answer real questions in a format AI can easily understand and use.