SEO isn’t dead. It just got weirder.
AI is changing the way people find businesses online. Before you panic, buy another subscription, or hire someone to optimize your website for robots, let’s talk about what actually matters.
Remember when getting found online meant having a website, putting some keywords on it, and hoping Google liked you?
Okay, it was never quite that simple. But it was simpler than whatever the hell is happening now.
Search engines are increasingly becoming answer engines. Google has AI Overviews and AI Mode. ChatGPT and other AI tools can help people research businesses, compare services, and make recommendations. Instead of scrolling through a page of links, someone can ask a very specific question and get something resembling an answer.
For the small business owner or nonprofit director who’s only just gotten comfortable with SEO, this might feel like the internet has changed the rules in the middle of the game.
It has.
But here’s the interesting part: most of the things that make a business worth finding haven’t changed at all.
The robots still need something to read.
Let’s clear up one misconception: traditional search engine optimization is not suddenly useless.
Google’s own guidance for its AI search features says that the fundamentals of good SEO still apply. Websites need to be accessible, understandable, and useful. Original information matters. So does clear organization, current information, and content that actually helps the person looking for it.
In other words, the machines may be getting smarter, but they still need good material to work with.
And that material needs to come from somewhere.
Your website is a pretty good place to start.
Stop writing for search engines. Start answering actual questions.
Imagine you’re a contractor specializing in energy-efficient home improvements.
Someone searching for your services might once have typed:
“home energy contractor Maine”
Today, that same person might ask:
“Who can help me make my old house more energy efficient without replacing every window, and how much should I expect to spend?”
That’s a much more interesting question.
It also gives you a much better opportunity to demonstrate why someone should work with you.
An actual explanation of how you approach old houses, what improvements make sense, what common mistakes cost people money, and what a typical project involves could be more useful than another paragraph repeating “Maine energy contractor” six times.
The same applies to a nonprofit explaining its programs, an architect describing a design process, or a freelance photographer talking about what clients should expect on a shoot.
You already know things your prospective clients don’t. Write those things down.
Be specific. Be candid. Show your work.
You don’t have to publish a novel. A thoughtful, genuinely useful answer to a question your customers ask every week can be more valuable than a dozen generic blog posts.
Give people—and machines—some evidence.
Here’s something that sometimes gets lost in conversations about websites: credibility is not a graphic design style.
You can put together the most beautiful, minimal, sophisticated website in the world. But if it doesn’t tell anyone who you are, what you actually do, or whether you’ve ever successfully done it, you’ve built a very expensive mystery.
Show projects. Name the people doing the work. Explain your process. Include relevant examples, testimonials, qualifications, or measurable results when you have them.
For local businesses, maintain accurate contact information and business profiles. Make it easy to understand where you work and whom you serve.
None of this guarantees a mention in an AI-generated answer.
But it helps establish something considerably more important: that your organization is real, credible, and capable of delivering what it promises.
Please don’t buy the magic AI dust.
A new vocabulary has emerged around AI discovery, including acronyms like AEO and GEO.
Some of the underlying ideas are useful. Some are old SEO concepts wearing new hats. And some are being marketed with spectacular confidence and very little evidence.
Google currently says there’s no special markup, AI text file, or additional technical requirement needed to appear in its AI search features beyond the normal requirements for Search.
That doesn’t mean every AI service works the same way, or that there isn’t more to learn. There is.
It means you should be skeptical of anyone promising guaranteed placement in AI-generated recommendations through a mysterious technical trick.
The internet has never suffered from a shortage of people selling shortcuts.
The boring stuff is still surprisingly important.
Before investing in an elaborate AI visibility strategy, check the basics.
Does your website work well on a phone? Are your services explained clearly? Do your important pages load reliably? Can someone contact you without solving a puzzle? Is your information current? Can search engines actually access your pages?
And are you publishing anything that genuinely demonstrates the experience and perspective of the people behind your business?
If not, that’s where I’d put the effort.
Because here’s the thing: you don’t need to win every search. You need to be discoverable and convincing to the people who actually need what you do.
Search will keep evolving. AI will keep evolving. New platforms will appear, disappear, and convince everyone that the last platform was a terrible mistake.
Your best defense isn’t chasing every development.
It’s building a digital presence that has something worthwhile to say, says it clearly, and makes it easy for the right people to take the next step.
Which, come to think of it, was always the point.
Fabric Portland is an independent creative and digital agency in Portland, Maine. We build websites, identities, content, and communication systems for organizations with stories worth telling—and work worth doing.