SEO is not defunct—it's being redefined. Come along as we offer opinions on AEO and GEO and provide best practices to help you be found in 2025 web searches.
Returning to your website, today's panic concerns SEO and what search will be like moving forward. So let's talk about it.
Is SEO defunct?
Contrary to what half the internet will tell you, SEO isn't defunct—it's going through a metamorphosis. It's going to be called AEO or GEO now. Why? Let's examine how SEO was born.
The dawn of the internet
At Imarc, we zealously celebrate anniversaries, and we have a bunch of people who you might hear say, “We’ve been around since the dawn of the internet.” For a digital agency, that’s a long, long time, but for technology in general, it’s really not. While some might argue that the internet began in the 60s with ARPAnet, the internet most people have come to know, love, and use daily is much newer. The "www" experience was created in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, and Google, which has long been seen as the Big Daddy of SEO best practices, emerged even later in 1998.
As a GenXer, bridging the analog world with the digital is part of my natural makeup. Searching for things before search engines existed was commonplace. Imarc was founded in 1997, which makes us older than and wiser than Google. I'm just kidding—no one knows more about searching for things than Google, but our agency and several of our leaders grew up in tech—creating, using, and living in a digital world.
How Google created SEO best practices
Over the next 20+ years, Google began releasing best practices for being found, and we all began to idolize them for their insights (Sure, there were other search engines, but Google has always been the one our world rallied around). But as the internet was still a relatively new commodity, there was nothing to compare it to!
Slowly, we all latched on to how search was meant to work and created ways to "optimize," cough, cough, hack it to do what we wanted. Keyword stuffing emerged, and black hat SEO shops took full advantage of it, sending people to nefarious destinations based on previously safe queries. What a perilous time to internet search - keyboard cat, the hamster dance, shopping, anyone?
Nowadays, the internet and the people using it are savvier. Most have grown up using some sort of search-enabled device every day, and they know what they want to find. That isn't a bad thing. It just means that businesses have to actually do the strategic work to find out what their audience needs instead of pressing their agenda on them without permission (this is the general philosophy behind inbound marketing, which propelled Hubspot's rise). It also means you are set up for failure if you don’t have a defined audience. So what does search look like next? We’re glad you asked!
What does search look like in 2025?
Confident people
Today's searchers know precisely how to find things. As evidence, Google has noticed that query length has changed since the launch of AI mode. Per Search Engine Land, "Short queries dropped from 42% in January to just 31% in June – suggesting users are increasingly communicating in more natural language." Now, businesses must consider natural phrases using 3-4 words instead because natural communication is more specific and targeted.
Changes in the buying journey
This isn't new. The buying journey is much more covert than it was in decades past. According to 6Sense, “Buyers complete 70% of their buying journey before engaging with sellers.” That means modern businesses must expose all the information buyers need to do their research. The past was about gates—the future is letting buyers into your world and allowing them to discover value.
Less traffic
Look, we're not going to lie to you. The modern search experience will generate less traffic for your website. Why? Because if you do the right things, the quality of your traffic will increase, and your conversions will happen more readily from a smaller pool. Your prospects will be well-informed when they reach your site because they will have already read AI overviews or done other research to decide whether you are the solution they want.
It can feel like your metrics are tanking, but that's a fallacy. They're changing to support a more informed, intentional buyer's needs.
AI-native search engines
AI-native search engines are now being built into Google competitors like Safari, potentially disrupting the search experience by giving the search audience more choices. We doubt people will move away from Google entirely (after all, they have AI mode), but what we do expect to see is a minor Monopoly breakup scenario play out in source tracking dashboards.
Either way, businesses will still need to optimize for different types of seekers, and that comes down to a new age of best practices, some of which were always good choices.
What are the best practices I should follow for AEO or GEO success?
Depending on who you ask, SEO is now Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). Both are acceptable terms and are related. AEO seeks to provide the most helpful information to a query (that's not new—SEO was supposed to do that as well). GEO is about the rise of robots (again, kidding—it's about AI, like everything else in today's news cycle). Either way, there are some things you can do to surface your business in both search engine and AI results from tools like ChatGPT.
Best practices for AEO & GEO
Use clear, semantic HTML tags like <header>, <main>, <article>, <section>, <h1>–<h6>, <p>, etc.
Keep your content visible in plain HTML. Don't hide it behind JavaScript or login walls, unless the requirements specifically dictate it. For example, it's best to avoid features like infinite scroll.
Throughout new elements and design, utilize short paragraphs and clear subheadings.
Include descriptive alt text for images and other accessibility best practices (As you would with past SEO best practices).
Use clean, readable URLs (e.g. /services/web-design instead of /page?id=123) that provide hierarchy and structure.
Add meaningful metadata: <title>, <meta name="description">, and Open Graph (og:) tags (again, like you have probably already done in if you've been in charge of past SEO).
Use structured data with Schema.org (in JSON-LD) for content like blog posts, FAQs, etc.
Ensure there is an up-to-date sitemap.xml that readily provides the entire site structure.
Ensure large language models (LLMs) can read via robots.txt and llms.txt.
Combat clutter and/or "hidden" content so an LLM can get context easily.
Traditional SEO is focused on keywords and keyword density, optimization of metadata, optimization of technical components, structure and length of content, and quality and quantity of backlinks.
GEO and AEO seem to care more about content accuracy and in-depth coverage of clear topics, reputation and authority of domains, verifiability of content that includes facts, uniqueness, depth, author expertise, and the quality of cited sources and reputation behind them.
How Imarc plans to navigate SEO, AEO & GEO
At Imarc, we have always honored best practices for SEO and accessibility/compliance by using technical checklists during our builds. GEO and AEO have slightly expanded our list of items to check, but ultimately, we are confident in our ability to continue delivering value that can be found easily by the right searchers.
It should be noted that one advantage we have as a digital agency is that when we redesign or design a website for a client, we are able to consider that site's architecture and craft an overall content strategy. This makes upkeep of SEO, AEO, and GEO best practices easier than it might be for those who are simply having to react to industry changes.
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Digital marketing is not static, but those who move with the change will be well-positioned for whatever comes. You can count on Imarc's team to track changes in SEO, AEO, GEO, and more to keep your website performing and your marketing at large, providing you with enviable business outcomes.
Do you have a specific question about SEO, AEO, GEO, or digital marketing? We're here to help. Say hello.
