SEO vs AI Search: Why It’s Not Either/Or | MarTech

AI overviews, ChatGPT, zero-click results, and other recent developments have all led to the latest wave of farewell to SEO.

Except SEO isn’t dead. It can even bloom.

Search engines still have approximately the command 88% of all search traffic. But also AI Usage has almost doubled. So what gives?

Well, consumers don’t care about AEO vs. GEO vs. SEO. Or even necessarily choose between Google and ChatGPT. They just use both.

Why the either/or story is dangerous

The marketing world loves a good binary. But contrasting search engines and AI search is the wrong choice.

These are not competing realities. They are parallel streams of discovery that smart brands must master simultaneously.

The psychology behind this false choice is simple: we crave certainty. We want to know where to invest our limited resources. Should we double down on the proven channel or move to the emerging channel?

• Over-indexing AI searches versus organic Google means giving up most of the search market share that counts now.
• Hesitation means that competitors can open moats that cannot be closed the future.

What are consumers actually looking for?

The main premise of the either-or story is that the growth of AI search comes at the expense of Google’s organic usage. Google’s global search market share fell to 89.62% as of Marchthe lowest point in more than ten years.

Meanwhile, ChatGPT’s growth trajectory keeps the company on track 1 billion users by the end of 2025. It seems like an open and shut case, right?

However, consumers are not abandoning Google. They simply search more, on a greater number of platforms.

According to recent Semrush data, ChatGPT adoption has not reduced Google’s organic usage. Instead, Google search sessions actually increased after users adopted ChatGPT 10.5 to 12.6 sessions per week.

People don’t replace their typical Google behavior with ChatGPT; they add AI on top of their existing search behavior.

This creates a compounding opportunity, especially in e-commerce.

Search engines remain huge for ecommerce:

• At least 43% of ecommerce traffic comes from Google’s organic search results.
• Organic traffic accounts for 23.6% of all ecommerce sales.

In addition, shopping searches in ChatGPT jumped 7.8% to 9.8% of all searches between January and June.

The total addressable market for search visibility has multiplied. Consumers are conducting more searches than ever, but now those searches are spread across traditional and AI-powered channels.

How can brands leverage the opportunities of holistic search?

Tracking: Extensive measurement is a must

The first step in building a truly connected optimization strategy is to ensure comprehensive tracking is in place. However, understanding your performance in traditional search and AI responses often means working in silos and making transitions.

For major brands, this is where business tools become critical.

Semrush Enterprise AIO enables brands to track visibility in traditional search engines while simultaneously monitoring brand mentions, quotes and sentiments on AI platforms, such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI mode.

The integration is important because it enables a clear understanding of brand visibility in search environments and provides a single view to identify any gaps or opportunities. Separate steps can be taken that provide performance dividends for both forms of search.

Content optimization: same principles, different execution

On the content side, while SEO best practices largely support AI search performance, your content will likely need some structural changes and checks for current coverage.

Here are some guiding questions to ensure your content performs in both organic search results and Google’s AI searches.

Are you answering what users actually ask?

The fundamental “who,” “what,” “where,” “when,” and “why” information that forms the backbone of comprehensive content.

When users ask, “How does this work?” or “Why does it matter?” and your article doesn’t get noticed quickly, you lose relevance in both search formats (and also the reader’s interest).

AI models recognize when content elaborates on the demand clusters that users actually care about. Answering multiple key questions in advance will improve your up-to-date completeness and, by answering more questions, increase your chances of being cited in AI answers.

Are you giving the topic full context?

AI models understand topics as networks of related ideas, not as isolated keywords. After evaluating the key questions, cluster coverage assesses whether your article contains relevant subtopics.

Want to write about sustainable products? Consider broadening the discussion to include eco-friendly materials, ethical sourcing and green packaging.

This helps increase the authority of your content and increases the chances of your brand appearing in a greater number of searches. However, don’t confuse the pursuit of conceptual completeness with keyword stuffing. Be realistic when you think about what is relevant.

Is your content easy for AI (and for humans)?

Perfect information doesn’t work if it’s hard to read. Check that the content follows a logical structure, using guiding questions where possible.

Readability, formatting, and clarity ensure that both humans and AI models accurately interpret the meaning of your content. This includes everything from a consistent heading hierarchy to balanced paragraph lengths and scannable formatting.

Exchange guesswork for guidance

Semrush Enterprise AIO addresses this through dual-channel optimization capabilities. The platform provides real-time scores that identify how content should be structured for maximum search performance, while highlighting opportunities for more direct answers to key questions or expanded topic coverage.

The key phrase here is: do this holistically. You don’t optimize twice, but instead create content that delivers in both areas.

The brands that execute this successfully are building content hubs that capture traditional long-tail traffic while positioning themselves for citations from AI platforms.

The revenue nexus: why it matters to your bottom line

Let’s connect the dots on the metric that ultimately matters: revenue impact.

Visitors from AI searches are 4.4 times more valuable as the average organic search visitor in conversion terms. These users end up further down the funnel, with more context and higher intent. They have often used AI to extensively research options before clicking through to specific sites.

Meanwhile, search engines still drive the vast majority of discovery and brand awareness. It is the top engine that introduces potential customers to your category and brand.

• Ignoring search engines produces volume.
• Ignoring AI searches yields conversion efficiency.

Brands that optimize for both channels are currently attracting premium customers while maintaining volume from established channels. They’re building a customer acquisition engine that doesn’t rely on a single point of failure.

What this means for brands

The era of single search optimization ended the moment AI platforms started meaningfully redirecting traffic. This is what actionable customization looks like:

Immediate actions:

• Implement tracking across both traditional and AI search channels. You cannot optimize what you do not measure.
• Monitor your best performing content through a dual-channel lens. Does it appear in quotes from AI platforms? If not, why not?
• Identify structural gaps in content where competitors appear in AI responses but you don’t.

Priorities for 90 days:

• Check whether your approach to content supports both traditional crawling and AI digestion.
• Check the structure of your main content and pages.
• Test AI-optimized content and monitor overall search impact.

Strategic imperatives:

• Build organizational capabilities that treat search holistically rather than as silos.
• Think of platforms like Semrush Company that enable unified tracking, analysis and optimization.
• Develop content strategies that engage customers wherever they start on their search journey.

The false choice between traditional SEO and AI search is a fundamental misunderstanding of how modern search detection works.

Your customers don’t choose between Google and ChatGPT. They use both, often in the same research session. Your strategy must reflect that reality.

The brands that dominate search in 2026 and beyond will recognize that customer discovery spans multiple channels and have built systems to win wherever customers search.

Written by:
Patrick Geaney