SEO Isn’t Dead – It’s Everywhere: Part 4

While the core principles remain, there are indeed new tactics and focus areas emerging. Adapting to an AI-driven search landscape means expanding our toolkit. Here are some of the newer SEO (or dare I say AEO/GEO) tactics that savvy marketers are beginning to deploy: 

• Optimizing for Zero-Click & Featured Answers: We’ve touched on zero-click searches – queries where the user gets what they need without clicking through. Rather than lament lost traffic, smart content creators are embracing zero-click visibility. This means structuring your content to be the answer. Use clear heading definitions, Q&A formats, and concise summaries at the top of your articles. If someone asks “How do I fix a leaky faucet?” having a step-by-step answer in the content (with proper formatting) might land you that coveted featured snippet. That way, even if the user doesn’t click, your brand has provided the answer. In some cases, users will still click for more details, and even if not, you’ve earned a touchpoint (they saw your name or site). In an AI context, being the zero-click answer might mean your text is the one the AI recites. For example, Google’s SGE sometimes directly quotes sentences from websites in its AI snapshot. If it’s quoting you, that’s a win (just be sure your content is accurate and you’re comfortable with it being used that way). 

• Conversational Query Targeting: AI chatbots have made conversing with search a mainstream activity. People are phrasing queries in more natural, dialogue-like ways: “Hey Bing, what’s the best budget DSLR for a beginner and why?” This is longer and more nuanced than a typical typed query. To capture these, we should create content that mimics a conversational style. An effective approach is developing FAQ pages or blog posts that literally pose the question and give a well-thought-out answer. I often advise clients to mine their customer service logs or community forums. What questions are people asking in full sentences? Those are gold for content ideas. Also, consider the context behind questions. In the example query about a budget DSLR camera, the user also asked “and why?” implying they want reasoning, not just a list. Content that doesn’t just list “Top 5 DSLRs” but also explains the reasoning (“Camera X is great for beginners because…”) will align better with conversational queries. In essence, we need to optimize for intent and natural language more than just exact-match keywords. 

• AI Retrievability & Indexation for LLMs: Here’s a new concept: ensuring your content is “findable” not just by search engine crawlers, but by AI models. Some large language models (like OpenAI’s GPT) undergo training on vast swaths of web content. If your site blocked GPT’s crawler or wasn’t part of common web datasets, it might literally be invisible to certain AI at training time. Going forward, I foresee companies submitting content to AI portals for indexing (similar to submitting sitemaps to Google). There’s already discussion around an opt-in versus opt-out for AI training. My stance is, if your business benefits from being referenced, you’d likely opt in so that AI, like ChatGPT, “knows” about your content. We’re not fully there yet, but one practical step now is to allow reputable AI crawlers (like OpenAI’s GPTBot) in your robots.txt if you want to be included in future AI models’ knowledge bases. It’s a bit forward-looking, but this is analogous to SEO – you can’t get traffic from Google if Google doesn’t index you.Likewise, you won’t get citations from a future AI if that AI never “saw” your content during training. 

• Optimizing for AI Citations: We’ve talked about being the source that AI chats cite. Let’s dive deeper. Different AI platforms have different tendencies for citing sources. For example, ChatGPT (with browsing) tends to favor highly authoritative sites (think Wikipedia, big news sites) for its answers, whereas Google’s AI Overview will pull from a wider range of sources including niche blogs and forums. Perplexity.ai leans towards expert sites and detailed reviews. Knowing this, you can tailor your content promotion. If you’re in B2B, getting featured on respected industry publications might be your ticket into AI answers for industry questions (since AI will see that publication as authoritative). If you’re in consumer tech, engaging in forums or community Q&A (where Perplexity might find an expert answer) could put you on the AI radar. Additionally, monitor where your site is already being cited in AI outputs – there are tools emerging that track this. If you find, for instance, that Bing’s AI often cites one of your blog posts for a certain question, you’d want to keep that content updated and even expand on it, since it’s clearly deemed valuable. One study of 8,000 AI citations concluded that brands should actively secure placements on authoritative sites, engage in relevant forums, and create in-depth content to increase their AI visibility. In short: be wherever the AI is looking for answers. By broadening your content distribution (guest posts, Q&As, wiki contributions), you raise the chances that some path leads an AI to cite you. 

• Bing & Secondary Search Engines Optimization: Google has long been the primary focus of SEO, but AI is changing the game here as well. Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI means that Bing’s search index now powers ChatGPT’s browsing and many of its answers. Bing is also behind the scenes of other tools and has its own Chat mode with increasing usage. So if you’ve ignored Bing SEO, now’s the time to give it love. The encouraging thing is Bing SEO isn’t drastically different . but there are nuances (Bing tends to reward more multimedia content and has its own algorithmic quirks). By improving your Bing rankings, you’re not just gaining Bing traffic, you’re potentially getting recommended by ChatGPT and other AI apps that lean on Bing’s data. I’ve personally seen a client’s how-to article (which wasn’t #1 on Google, but was #1 on Bing) get pulled verbatim as a step-by-step answer by Bing Chat. That’s a whole new kind of “rank zero”! With Google’s SGE, we of course continue to optimize for Google, but diversifying your search optimization to include Bing, DuckDuckGo (which uses Bing results too), and emerging AI-centric search engines (like Neeva, Perplexity, etc.) can pay off. 

• User Engagement & Experience Signals: AI search might shortcut the click, but if there is a click (to view more or because the AI provided a citation link), user engagement matters as much as ever. If a user clicks through to your site from an AI result and has a poor experience (slow site, intrusive pop-ups, irrelevant info), they bounce, and in the long run, that could indirectly hurt your reputation with the AI. We already know Google’s algorithms look at metrics like dwell time or at least try to measure content usefulness. I suspect AI systems will evolve to notice if certain sources consistently satisfy or dissatisfy users. So focus on your on-page experience: mobile-friendly design, fast load times, easy-to-read layout. It’s the “last mile” of SEO. In an AI-driven scenario, you might only get one shot to impress a user who normally doesn’t click anything, so turn that visibility into a positive brand interaction. If the moment the user actually visits your site (perhaps out of curiosity from an AI summary) is a letdown, you risk losing trust and future visibility. 

Each of these tactics could be a blog post on its own (and we’re actively experimenting with all of them). The overarching theme is adaptability. SEO isn’t a static practice; it’s an ever-learning, ever-tinkering discipline. The best SEO professionals today are effectively becoming “search experience optimizers,” ensuring their content is packaged, distributed, and presented in ways that align with how modern consumers seek information. From snippet optimization to feeding AI knowledge bases, it’s an exciting expansion of the field.