The million-dollar question: Is SEO dead?

The million-dollar question: Is SEO dying? My straightforward answer is no; in fact, it’s growing! It is evolving, though. New elements are being incorporated into the usual processes and day-to-day tasks. Part of that evolution is AEO, GEO, LLMO or whatever you prefer to call it.

SEO is actually growing

With a quick and simple Google Trends search, you can see that interest in “SEO” as a topic has been growing over the years - especially in the last two.

That’s definitely not the picture of a 'dying' industry.

ChatGPT Is Not Replacing Google - It’s Expanding Search

A recent Semrush study showed that people who have been using ChatGPT did not reduce their Google Search usage; they actually increased it!

This strongly supports everything I’ve mentioned so far. People appear to look for answers in LLMs and then return to Google for further research. To me, that seems perfectly logical, especially considering how much older Google is and how much trust it still commands. Users either want to expand their search or double-check what they’ve already learned.

Good SEO is good GEO

This isn’t just my opinion. It comes directly from Google’s former search liaison, Danny Sullivan, during his keynote at WordCamp US on Aug. 28 2025.

Here's the full video of his keynote speak:

But what does that mean?

First of all, I completely agree with the statement above; and if you think about how LLMs work, you probably will too. Good SEO means creating content that is genuinely helpful and answers what users are looking for. It also means offering a great on-site experience: fresh content, clear text structure, easy-to-read and digestible paragraphs, and fast-loading pages without massive JavaScript bundles loading all at once. These are all elements that also work well with LLMs.

December 2025 Update

Another Googler, this time John Mueller, during Search Central Live Zurich shared the following slide:

If SEO is not dying then what?

Well, if the SEO industry is far from dying, then what's going on? My two cents are:

1. We have to admit that the search landscape has changed over the past 2 to 3 years. But wasn’t that also the case a few years before that? Was SEO the same 2 years ago as it was 5-7 years ago? Some strategies have remained the same, others have evolved, and a few new ones have emerged.

2. You need to adapt and broaden your way of thinking. I’d turn a deaf ear to all the “gurus” out there proclaiming that SEO is dead or that older tactics no longer work at all. Instead, I encourage you to upgrade your arsenal with new skills that will help you thrive in this new era. Incorporate AI tools into your processes and aim for a more holistic search strategy.

P.S. SEO is here to stay :) 

Featured image credits to: https://www.piercom.com/