SEO Isn’t Dead – It’s Everywhere: Part 3

Now, let’s talk tactics. A common misconception in the “SEO is dead” narrative is that everything we’ve learned about SEO is suddenly obsolete. Nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, many traditional SEO best practices are not only still relevant, they are foundational for success in the new AI-driven landscape.

Here are some “old-school” SEO elements that continue to make or break your visibility: 

• Crawlability & Indexing:  If search engines can’t crawl and index your site, your content won’t exist in their universe, which means AI won’t see it either. This is basic, but I can’t emphasize it enough. Ensure your site isn’t accidentally blocking bots (in robots.txt or via noindex tags), and that your important pages are reachable via internal links. Even the most advanced AI search assistant ultimately relies on an index of content. For instance, Bing’s AI-powered ChatGPT integration pulls information from Bing’s index . if your page isn’t indexed in Bing, you literally cannot be cited by ChatGPT’s live search mode. I’ve seen retailers with fancy SPA websites or databases accidentally hide content from crawlers; when they fixed those issues, their presence in both classic search and AI answers jumped. Technical SEO is your ticket to play in the new arena. 

• Structured Data & Metadata:  Remember when adding Schema.org structured data felt cutting-edge? Now it’s a must. Structured data helps search engines understand the content context. This feeds not just rich snippets but potentially AI summary accuracy. Google’s own documentation encourages using structured data to enable enhanced search features, and there’s evidence that structured data can improve how content is featured in SGE (Search Generative Experience). At Altezza, we ensure our e-commerce clients have complete schema markup (products, ratings, availability, etc.) This not only yields rich results in Google today, but I suspect it lays the groundwork for AI systems to reliably pull up a product recommendation from a client’s site tomorrow. Metadata, like descriptive titles and meta descriptions, also remains important. While an AI answer might not display a meta description, the underlying algorithms still use these signals to gauge relevance. 

• Internal Linking & Site Structure: Good old internal linking is like the road map for search bots (and users). A clear site architecture and strategic internal links help distribute authority and signal what pages are most important. This hasn’t changed. What has changed is that now those topically well-linked pages might get used as an authority source in an AI answer. Imagine you run a travel blog with strong internal linking around “sustainable tourism” topics. That clustering can help you rank on Google and help an AI identify you as an authority on a query about eco-friendly travel. In short, keep building a logical content structure; it helps algorithms (AI or not) understand your expertise domains. 

• Quality Content & Clarity: “Create quality content” might sound like a platitude, but it’s never been more true. The better your content satisfies user intent, the more likely it will be surfaced by any search system. Clarity is key: AI models like GPT-4 are astonishingly good at parsing natural language, but they can still get confused by unclear or convoluted writing. Content that is well-structured (using headings, lists, concise paragraphs) and to-the-point in answering questions tends to perform well in snippets and AI summaries. In fact, an analysis of thousands of AI-generated citations found that high-quality content with strong E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals is more likely to be cited by AI. The same things that made you rank well in traditional SEO – depth of knowledge, trustworthy writing, useful answers – now increase your chances of being picked up in an AI-driven answer box. In my experience, you can’t fudge real quality. We’ve tried all the shortcuts as an industry (spun content, keyword stuffing, you name it) and every Google update, every algorithmic change, reinforced one truth: useful, user-centric content wins in the end. AI is only raising the bar here, because it synthesizes content. If yours isn’t among the best, it won’t make the cut of being summarized or cited. 

• Earned Backlinks & Authority:  Backlinks still count. They may not carry the same overt ranking weight they did a decade ago, but being referenced by other reputable sites remains a signal of credibility. Plus, in the AI context, I suspect engines like Bing and Google use authority signals (which include backlinks, brand recognition, etc.) to decide which sources to trust for an AI answer. For example, ChatGPT’s Bing integration “heavily favors authoritative sources like Wikipedia and major news outlets” when choosing what to cite. While you may not turn your blog into Wikipedia overnight, cultivating genuine authority in your niche (through mentions, links, and reputation) will boost your likelihood of being the chosen source an AI pulls in. One concrete instance: vendor blogs that successfully build authority often get cited for “best X” queries by AI, but if those blogs read too promotional (lacking objectivity), the AI might skip them. So, focus on real authority and objectivity – it pays dividends in both human and AI-driven contexts. 

The takeaway here is simple: the fundamentals of SEO are the foundation for the new world of AI search. In fact, early experiments indicate that to rank in AI-driven results, it helps tremendously to already rank in regular organic results. Google’s SGE, for instance, appears to draw from many of the same ranking signals as normal search. Recent tests by SEO experts found that pages which performed well in classic search (thanks to strong backlinks, fast loading speed, high-quality content, and good UX) were far more likely to be featured in the AI overview box. In other words, nailing the basics of SEO gives you a springboard into the AI answers. If your site is mediocre in traditional search, why would an AI, which is designed to provide the best answer, choose you? It likely won’t. The sites that have built up credibility and visibility via traditional SEO are the ones being amplified by these new AI features.

During my time leading Altezza’s strategy for enterprise clients, I’ve consistently seen that those who invest in technical robustness and content quality weather every algorithm storm. When mobile-first indexing rolled out, or when Core Web Vitals became a ranking factor, our clients who had solid fundamentals barely broke a sweat – they were ready. The same applies now: if you’ve been practicing sound SEO, you’re not starting from scratch for AI. You’re ahead of the game.