SEO Is Not Dead It Just Moved. Here’s How To Prove It Still Works in 2025

Look, I know what you might be thinking is SEO still a thing? With all this AI stuff flooding search, people using ChatGPT to ask questions instead of Googling, and Google itself tossing AI Overviews into everything… it feels like everything we used to know about SEO is either broken or slowly dying.

But here is the thing SEO is not dead. It is just different now. And if you are trying to convince your boss, a client, or even just yourself that SEO is still worth it, you cannot rely on old metrics like “we rank #3 for this keyword.” Nobody cares about that anymore. You have to prove value in a way that actually fits how people (and machines) are consuming content now.

So yeah, this is just what I have seen actually work lately when you are trying to show that SEO still matters in this whole AI-dominated search world. Some of this might feel weird or new, but stick with me.

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## SEO Is Not About Rankings Anymore. It Is About Visibility (In Places You Are Not Used To Looking)

First thing: AI Overviews are everywhere. Google rolled them out to like 200 countries and in 40+ languages. It is not just a test feature anymore it is part of search now.

The thing is, you do not really “rank” in an AI Overview. Either you are in it, or you are not. It pulls a bunch of sources and generates a summary. So the question becomes: is your site even showing up in that generated content?

You can check this using tools like Semrush or ZipTie.dev (that one is newer but helpful). Start by looking at your top queries and seeing which ones are triggering AI Overviews. Then this part matters see if your site is actually in those answers. If it is not, you are invisible in the part of search where a lot of users are stopping their journey.

And yeah, if traffic dipped recently for some of your info-heavy blog posts… this is probably why. People are getting their answers directly from AI. They never even click anymore.

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## Are AI Tools Talking About You? You Should Probably Check.

This one is kinda underrated are tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity mentioning your brand at all? Because AI engines do not crawl the web like a regular search bot. They mix training data, live scraping, and all kinds of stuff to answer people’s questions. So if your brand gets mentioned in blogs, news, Reddit threads, or whatever… there is a higher chance AI will spit out your name when someone asks something related.

I tried this once with a client. We had decent rankings but barely any brand mentions in ChatGPT. Turned out, we were not being talked about anywhere else no interviews, no Reddit chatter, not even basic PR. We fixed that, and within a couple months, they started showing up in AI-generated answers. No ranking required.

There are tools like Brand24 and Mention that can help monitor this stuff. Also, Ahrefs has this newer thing called Brand Radar, which shows where and how your brand gets mentioned. Use that to track progress, especially if you are pitching this to clients. "Hey look, we are in 14 new discussions this month that is more AI visibility right there.”

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## Citations Are the New Backlinks (Sort Of)

This might sound confusing, but AI engines sometimes cite where they got stuff from. Like, if ChatGPT or Perplexity says “According to \[site], blah blah blah,” that is a big deal.

Ahrefs now tracks these AI citations. It shows how many times your domain gets linked inside answers. This is awesome because even if you are not getting tons of traditional backlinks anymore, being referenced by an AI bot is kind of like the new credibility signal.

So now I check this for every brand I work on. If we are getting cited, we know our content is hitting the right mark helpful, trustworthy, and easy to understand. That is what AI looks for when it pulls stuff in.

I am hoping Ahrefs adds some sort of timeline view here so we can actually track growth over time. That would make life easier for reporting.

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## Branded Search Still Matters Maybe More Than Ever

Okay, so in this new AI-first world, Google and other AI tools care way more about context and entities than they used to. If someone searches for your brand name (or even a product you offer), and you do not show up in the AI-generated answer… you have a problem.

Branded search tracking is underrated. If you are not monitoring how your brand is being shown or ignored by AI results, you might miss opportunities to control your own narrative.

Want to show up more? Start with content. Write like you are talking to a real person keep it clear and honest, not keyword-stuffed. Use simple headers, add schema so AI can read it, and hang out where AI pulls info from, like Reddit or Quora.
Reddit and Quora might look messy, but they feed LLMs more than you think.

Also, get those third-party mentions. Reviews, product comparisons, guest posts, whatever. AI loves seeing your name show up in more than just your own website.

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## Google Search Console Now Has AI Mode Metrics (Use Them)

GSC recently added data about AI Mode basically, when someone uses AI features in search and clicks through to your site, it shows up now.

The data is still kind of limited, but you can see impressions, clicks, and average position, just like normal search. You can also dig into what types of questions triggered your links in AI results. That helps a ton when optimizing content. Like, if you see one blog post is getting AI Mode clicks for very specific subtopics, double down on those.

In GA4, you can set up a custom report to keep an eye on traffic coming from AI tools. Just use regex filters like “chatgpt” or “perplexity” to catch those visits, and if there are specific pages you hope AI will link to, throw in some UTM tags so you can actually track it.
That way, you can at least get a hint when someone comes through one of those channels.

And here is something wild Ahrefs found that even though AI-generated traffic was less than 1% of their total site visits, those visitors converted 23 times higher than organic search users. That is huge. If you can show that to a decision-maker, they will probably throw more budget your way.

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## So, Is SEO Still Worth It?

Yes. Just… not in the way we used to measure it.

It is not about “we rank #1” anymore. It is “do we show up in AI summaries?” “Are we being cited in answers people actually read?” “Is our content the kind that machines trust enough to include?”

If you can prove that, then yeah SEO still has massive value. You just have to speak the new language. Not keyword density. Not backlinks alone. But relevance. Brand authority. AI visibility.