SEO in 2025: Why SEO Is Changing in the Age of AI

Since 2009, I’ve generated hundreds of millions of visitors from Google search. But for the first time in 17 years, I’m questioning everything I know about SEO.

SEO used to be simple. You’d find a keyword, post, optimize content, get backlinks, and boom—huge traffic, huge income. But that playbook is dead. Why? Mostly because of AI. AI has flooded Google with cheap, mass-produced content, and in response, Google has cracked down harder than ever, erasing perfectly legitimate websites from search results. But that doesn’t mean SEO is dead. Google still gets 5 trillion searches a year. That’s roughly 100 times more conversations than ChatGPT is expected to have this year. SEO has just evolved. And if you don’t evolve with it, you’re going to waste months or years on strategies that don’t work anymore.

So in this article, I’m going to share exactly what I’d do if I were learning SEO from scratch in today’s AI era.

The Fundamentals of SEO Haven’t Changed

Despite all the changes AI has brought to SEO, fundamentals haven’t gone anywhere. People still search using keywords and topics. You still need to create content that search engines can find, index, and understand. And backlinks still help pages rank high in Google. So the first thing I’d do to learn SEO in this new AI era is to learn the fundamentals of search engine optimization because they haven’t changed.

Learning the fundamentals and getting good at executing them used to be enough to drive tons of free search traffic before AI tools, but they’re no longer enough to stay competitive. The reason comes down to a mental shift most people—even pro SEOs—haven’t figured out yet.

The Mental Shift in SEO: From Mechanical to User-Centered

Before AI content tools became mainstream, ranking on Google was easy. People would copy the top-ranking page, add a few extra points to make it feel original, sprinkle in some keywords, cover subtopics, get a few backlinks to the page, and first-page rankings would come fast. And because it worked, everyone did it. SEO copywriting became so mechanical that writing for SEO became an industry phrase.

But here’s the flaw: search engines don’t buy from you—people do. Now that AI can mass-produce this kind of content, it doesn’t seem like Google wants to reward writing for algorithms the way it once did. Instead, it seems like Google is doubling down on what it’s always wanted—to deliver the most relevant and useful result for any given search query. Are they getting it right all the time? Not even close, but they’re trying.

Read More: Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines – For insight into Google’s approach to evaluating content quality.

Shift Your Focus: Prioritize User Intent

If I were learning SEO today, I’d ignore many of the outdated mechanical approaches to writing for search engines and instead focus on creating genuinely useful content with a user-obsessed mindset. What does that mean? Well, let’s say you wanted to rank for the query “how to start a YouTube channel.” Instead of asking, “How do I rank for this keyword? What do I have to cover?” start by getting obsessed with what the searcher actually wants to know. Are they a total beginner? Do they need gear recommendations? Are they struggling to find a niche or something else? Then dig deeper. Why do they want to start a YouTube channel? Is it a creative outlet or a way to make money? How do they want the information? Would a checklist, step-by-step tutorial, or interactive guide help most?

Read More: Neil Patel’s Guide to Keyword Research – Learn more about understanding your audience’s search intent and conducting keyword research effectively.

If you don’t understand the searcher’s intent, you’ll end up creating content that doesn’t actually help the people you’re trying to serve. But if you nail what they’re really looking for, you won’t just rank higher—you’ll keep people engaged, build trust, and convert more visitors into customers.

AI Tools: Embrace Them, But Use Them Wisely

That doesn’t mean you should ignore AI tools. In fact, I think that every SEO—new and experienced—should be embracing AI tools rather than resisting them. The problem with generic, robotic AI content isn’t the tools; it’s how people are using them. AI tools are faster and better than most of us at brainstorming, writing, and analyzing data. But the quality of their output is only as good as the guidance they receive.

Take Joe Schmo, a guy who knows nothing about SEO. He can’t guide AI to produce good content or optimize his site for better performance because he doesn’t understand SEO himself. So what happens? AI ends up guiding him. But take Sam Edward O, a dude who’s helped millions of people learn SEO and get traffic to their site. He’ll probably do keyword research on his own, do some audience research, and collect clues about that audience from Google search results. Then he’ll take what he’s found, feed it to a tool like ChatGPT, and guide it to help him execute on his SEO strategy.

I actually shared the exact tactics and processes in a video when I used ChatGPT to rank number one in Google in 1 hour. AI isn’t going anywhere. It’s one of the most revolutionary technologies since the internet itself. So instead of avoiding it, learn how to use it properly. SEO goes way beyond just content creation, so the use cases are truly endless.

Don’t Rely on Google Traffic Alone: Diversify

Now, learning SEO shouldn’t just be about learning what to do; it’s also about knowing what to prepare for. Because once the traffic starts rolling in, it’s going to feel like free money. And that’s when things get dangerous. Google’s going to keep sending you free and consistent traffic that doesn’t fade over time because that’s SEO by design. The harsh reality is that that traffic can vanish overnight. It’s happened to hundreds of creators, and we’ve actually heard their stories and shared them on our YouTube channel. It’s real, it hurts, and it’s unpredictable.

So if I were learning SEO from scratch today, I would be preparing myself to diversify beyond just Google. I know that sounds counterintuitive in a video about learning SEO, but SEO isn’t just about Google. The skills you’ll build while learning and doing SEO—like keyword research, understanding search intent, link building, and technical SEO—will apply to nearly every search-driven platform in some way, shape, or form.

For example, when I first started with YouTube SEO, I knew nothing about it. But I applied my Google SEO skills to YouTube, and we’re now consistently getting over a million views from YouTube search alone that are important to our business. I’ve done the same with Pinterest, Reddit, eBay, Quora, and the list goes on. From my experience, any platform that sorts and surfaces content based on user queries follows similar core principles. But if you can master Google SEO, you’ll be way ahead of the curve when optimizing for other search engines.

Conclusion: Stay Relevant, Be Worth Finding

At its core, SEO is still about one thing: connecting searchers with the best search results. But in a world where AI can turn out endless mediocre content, copying what already exists isn’t enough. And honestly, it shouldn’t be enough. You need to be worth finding. So if you want to learn SEO and actually succeed in the AI era, check out our free SEO course for beginners and then apply the rest of what I’ve shared with you today.