IS AI Killing SEO?

If you’ve spent any time on Reddit or SEO forums, you’ve seen the posts…

“AI is killing SEO.”

“AI is stealing my traffic.”

“Search is dead.”

“Why even bother optimizing anymore?”

So let’s talk about it.

We’ve been here before. Social media was going to kill SEO. So was voice search. So were those content mills churning out 500-word articles about “How to Tie a Tie” in 2011. Every time the internet hiccups, someone declares SEO dead. And every time, they’re wrong.

So let’s cut through the AI-induced hand-wringing and talk about what’s actually happening — and what isn’t.

The Truth About AI “Replacing” SEO

Spoiler: it’s not. It’s just forcing marketers to grow up a little.

AI and search engines aren’t the same thing. People use them for different reasons. I use ChatGPT when I want a fresh take, not when I’m ready to buy. If I want to compare products, read reviews, or figure out why my cat is staring at a wall for 20 minutes, I go to Google.

AI is where ideas start. Search is where decisions happen. Let’s stop pretending they’re interchangeable.

Is AI Stealing Your Traffic?

I keep hearing this, and if you actually have the data to prove that, I’d love to see it. Please connect with me and educate me. Not a chart showing your traffic is down. I mean, actual attribution that shows generative AI answers directly cannibalizing your visibility. Because so far, I’ve seen a whole lot of finger-pointing and not a lot of rank tracking.

You do that, right? You use Serpfox or something similar to track keyword ranking, right?

In most cases, the problem isn’t AI. It’s that your content slipped from spot #3 to spot #14 — and your site was never that helpful to begin with.

Also: traffic is not a ranking factor. Rankings are. You also know that, right?

If your traffic dropped but your rankings didn’t, it sounds like a drop in search demand… not an algorithm apocalypse.

Don’t Fall for the “Get Listed in AI” Gimmick

There are people out there selling “AI optimization services” the same way people once sold “We’ll get you listed in Google!”

Remember those guys? I promise you the schemes SEO agencies are running about AI will sound just as laughable as “get listed in Google” sounds today.

Newsflash: being listed doesn’t mean being recommended. And nobody, I repeat nobody, has cracked the code on how to rank in AI-generated answers. Most of these services are betting on your anxiety, not your outcomes.

Take llms.txt, for example — the AI cousin to robots.txt. Sounds fancy. But right now, no major AI tools are even checking for it.
Great idea. Useless implementation. Keep an eye on it, sure. But don’t act like it’s the secret key to visibility. It’s not.

What About AI-Generated Content?

It’s fast. It’s convenient. It’s… often garbage.

Yes, you can publish AI-written content. But if you’re churning out generic slop that smells like it was born in a blender, don’t expect to rank — or even get indexed. Google may not explicitly penalize AI content, but it’s smart enough to know when a page was slapped together in 43 seconds with zero effort.

If it’s easy to fake, it’s easy to ignore. That’s been true of link spam, content farms, and yes — AI articles.

Use AI to brainstorm. Use it to break writer’s block. But don’t build your whole brand on it unless you don’t care about your brand (or your client’s brand).

So What Should You Actually Do?

• Keep writing content that helps people — not just crawlers.

• Focus on clarity, usefulness, and yes, effort.

• Get mentioned on sites that matter.

• Stop chasing “AI hacks” and start acting like the internet still works (because it does).

The Internet Is Getting Smarter — So Should You

This isn’t the first time SEO has had to evolve, and it won’t be the last. AI isn’t the villain; laziness is. The sites losing traffic right now are usually the ones that were barely hanging on to relevance in the first place.

Keep your content sharp. Keep your strategy human. And remember: if someone’s trying to sell you fear, it’s probably because they’re not very good at selling results.

Curious whether your content still holds up in an AI-driven world?
Let’s find out. Book a consultation and I’ll tell you (nicely) if your site is built to last — or just built for 2018.