The future of SEO: AI, GEO and what actually works

What fewer Google clicks mean for the future of SEO

Your business is probably doing better than your organic traffic report suggests. Fewer people click through from Google now, because more questions get answered on the results page, or inside ChatGPT, before anyone visits a site. Judge search on what it brings in, and you keep the channel that still sends your best leads while spending on the tactics the new results pages reward.

Below: what earns visibility now, which measures have taken over from the old ones, and where to put next quarter's effort, trend by trend, with a priority table at the end.

AI raises the bar for SEO

If a competitor publishes ten thin AI-written pages for every useful one of yours, volume alone gives them no advantage. AI tools can produce content at scale, but Google's guidance focuses on accuracy, quality and relevance rather than the production method. Its spam policies define scaled content abuse as creating many unoriginal pages primarily to manipulate rankings.

According to BrightEdge, AI Overviews appeared on about 48% of tracked queries in February 2026, up from roughly 30% a year earlier. Semrush's study of more than 10 million keywords measured 15.69% of queries in November 2025, so the share depends on which queries a tracker samples. Source: BrightEdge, Semrush, Search Engine Land, Semrush

AI Overviews (the successor to Search Generative Experience) write the answer in the results page, so the content that gets seen is the content with real depth. Winning AI-driven SEO strategies use machine learning for research, pattern spotting and faster workflows, with people deciding what gets published. Use AI for ideas and analysis, attach real authors and case studies to what you publish, and measure engagement quality. Where you need a plan for doing that across a team, our AI consulting work starts there.

Generative engine optimization runs alongside SEO

When a buyer asks an AI assistant which supplier to shortlist, the answer names two or three businesses, and the goal is for yours to be one of them. ChatGPT Search, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot all draw on web content to write those answers. Brands cited in those answers gain visibility straight from the answer, which is what generative engine optimization (GEO) is for.

According to Ahrefs, AI search made up 0.43% of tracked website traffic in September 2026 across 115,254 sites, while traditional search held 26.82%. In June 2025 Ahrefs measured AI traffic at 0.25% of a site's total traffic, about 9.7 times higher than a year earlier. Source: Ahrefs, AI vs Search Traffic Analysis, Ahrefs, AI traffic has increased 9.7x

AI answers are also carrying more links. Google's AI Mode and AI Overviews now show inline links more often and higher in the response, which gives a page that answers the question clearly more chances to be cited and clicked.

Google reported "continued and substantial increases to the presence of inline links" in AI Mode and AI Overviews on 15 October 2026. Source: Google, AI Mode and AI Overviews updates

GEO works alongside SEO. The same page can serve both channels when it answers a defined question, makes clear claims and names its sources. Use valid Schema.org markup where it accurately describes the page, and monitor how your brand appears in AI answers with tools such as the Semrush AI Toolkit or Ahrefs Brand Radar.

Use E-E-A-T as a quality review framework

Google's E-E-A-T framework covers experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. Google says E-E-A-T is not a specific ranking factor, and quality-rater scores do not directly set rankings. The framework is still useful for reviewing whether a page gives readers enough reason to trust it, especially on health, financial, safety and other YMYL topics.

Google’s September 2025 Search Quality Rater Guidelines update broadened the YMYL definition to include Government, Civics and Society, now covering election information and content impacting trust in public institutions. Google’s systems give even more weight to content aligned with strong E-E-A-T for topics that could significantly impact health, financial stability, or safety. Source: Search Engine Land

Review the page for clear authorship, first-hand evidence, source quality and a transparent publishing context. Detailed author bios, relevant case studies and recent sources help readers judge who produced the work and why they should trust it. Structured data should match what visitors can see on the page.

Report on zero-click visibility alongside clicks

Reporting that counts features, impressions and branded searches alongside clicks shows the full value of search. Most Google searches now end on Google's own results page.

According to SparkToro and Datos Group, approximately 60 to 65% of all Google queries in the US result in zero clicks. A July 2025 Similarweb report found zero-click searches surged from 56% to 69%. Searches triggering AI Overviews show an average zero-click rate of 83%. Source: SparkToro

Appearing in AI Overviews, featured snippets, knowledge panels and People Also Ask boxes builds brand recall straight from the results page. Branded search volume, people searching for you by name, becomes a key measure. Search intent mapping shows which queries deserve click-focused content and which serve awareness.

Answer the main question early and track SERP feature visibility alongside clicks. FAQ rich results stopped appearing in Google Search on 7 May 2026, so FAQ markup no longer earns a special listing; keep the questions and answers visible on the page, where readers and AI answers can use them.

Core Web Vitals are table stakes

A fast page wins over a comparable slow one, and mobile is where it wins first. Performance is the baseline every page needs. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) replaced First Input Delay (FID) as the responsiveness metric in March 2024. FID only timed the first interaction; INP looks at responsiveness across the whole visit.

The three metrics to pass: LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under 0.1. Source: Google Search Central

According to the 2025 Web Almanac, 77% of mobile pages achieve a good INP score but only 62% pass LCP, making Largest Contentful Paint the hardest of the three to meet. Source: HTTP Archive, Web Almanac 2025, Performance

Keep all three metrics passing. Check them in Search Console and PageSpeed Insights, cut unnecessary JavaScript and render-blocking resources, use caching and set width and height on images. A technical SEO audit checklist catches these issues early.

Local SEO rewards specificity

Somebody searching nearby is close to buying, so a specific area page reaches the customers most ready to act. Google keeps refining hyper-local results, especially on mobile.

84% of local searches are conducted on mobile, with local mobile searches growing 50% faster than overall searches. 80% of US consumers search for local businesses weekly, and 88% who perform a local search on a smartphone visit a related store within a week. Nearly 46% of all Google search queries have local intent. Source: BrightLocal

Pages built around specific districts or service areas outperform generic "near us" pages. Local SEO favours businesses that show a real presence: an up-to-date Google Business Profile, reviews answered consistently, local backlinks, LocalBusiness schema and the same name, address and phone number across every citation.

Grow through multilingual SEO

If your English pages sell and you want your other languages to do the same, the answer usually lies in how those versions are built, and the market is there for them. International markets are open ground for the businesses that work them, and native writing still reads better than even much-improved machine translation.

According to CSA Research (formerly Common Sense Advisory), 76% of consumers prefer to buy products with information in their own language, and 40% will never buy from websites in other languages. 70% of global search queries are non-English. A 2025 Weglot study found that translated websites achieved up to 327% more visibility in Google’s AI Overviews. Source: CSA Research

Ranking in Spanish, German, French or Dutch markets takes multilingual SEO that goes beyond word-for-word conversion: keyword research done natively in each language, cultural and regulatory adaptation, and awareness of region-specific search behaviour. Correct hreflang tells search engines which version to serve to whom, and country-specific backlinks and local SERP tracking complete the picture.

Content and SEO are one discipline

Content earns its budget when it has a job to do. Every piece of content should serve a search intent, build topical authority or support a conversion. A focused content strategy built on topic clusters, a pillar page supported by linked cluster pages, compounds over time as each page strengthens the others. Measure content by qualified leads, and prune or merge the weakest pages each quarter.

Spam policies make shortcuts expensive

Google's spam policies cover link schemes, site reputation abuse and scaled content abuse. Violations can lead to lower rankings, exclusion from results or a manual action.

Scaled content abuse is the production of many pages primarily to manipulate rankings rather than help users, regardless of whether people or automation created them. Source: Google Search Central spam policies

Google enforces those policies through regular updates. The latest core update, in May 2026, ran from 21 May to 2 June 2026, and the September 2026 spam update ran from 24 September to 8 October 2026, after spam updates in March, June and August. No core update has been announced since May, so sites that publish useful pages and earn honest links keep their footing between updates.

Google's Search Status Dashboard lists the May 2026 core update from 21 May to 2 June 2026 and the September 2026 spam update from 24 September to 8 October 2026, as of 24 October 2026. Source: Google Search Status Dashboard

Link building still matters, and it now means earning editorial links through original research, digital PR and useful content. Audit your backlink profile, clear out bought links, PBNs and guest post schemes, and be open about how your content is made.

Measure what the new results pages reward

SEO is growing broader and more demanding. Visibility now needs technical precision, real authority and content that works whether or not anyone clicks. The businesses pulling ahead are the ones measuring what the new results pages reward.

Where to put the effort first:

Set up conversion tracking so the new measures are visible, build content worth citing, and focus on the numbers that move the business.

Frequently asked questions about SEO in 2026