2024 was the year of SEO for me. It was the year when the majority of my work was search engine optimization for clients. And then it tapered off. Part of that decline came from changes in client relationships, but the larger factor was the rise of AI and its impact on search.
As evidence of this shift, in January 2025 we learned that Google had lost market share in search for the first time in ten years. Suddenly, Google’s share of global search traffic fell below 90%. Clearly, the marketing world was changing.
Now AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot are siphoning searchers away from Google by offering answers instead of lists of links. To keep up, Google has embedded AI directly into its search engine, giving people what they increasingly want- answers, not links.
So what does this mean for search engine optimization? Do links matter anymore when “answers” are the new currency?
Enter AEO, or “answer engine optimization.” This is the practice of optimizing website content to appear in AI-driven answers. Marketing thought leaders are buzzing about it- explaining why it’s the future and how to make it work. At a recent Webflow conference, several sessions were dedicated to AEO, and they offered a roadmap for implementation that’s as good a plan as I’ve seen. Here's a summary.
But I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to AEO, because I still have some big questions about how search marketing will evolve. The two main ones are:
1. Will AI answers ever completely replace the need to visit websites? Or will search engines be like radio and AI be like TV- a flashy new medium that takes huge market share but never fully replaces what came before?
2. Will there be a large enough return on investment to justify devoting resources to appearing in AI answers?
I don’t know the answers yet, but I’m hedging my bets.
I’m betting that the tactics that made SEO successful, such as creating rich, authoritative content, will continue to provide value for websites in the near future, even if only because they improve the user experience and position brands as leaders.
And I’m also betting that AEO tactics, like directly answering customer questions and earning citations from authoritative sites, will pay dividends even if they don’t guarantee visibility in AI answers.
While I used to market myself as an SEO expert, I guess I’ll admit that I’m more of a student of what search marketing is turning into. I need to keep learning.
