AI, LLMs, GEO, AEO. It’s all the rage. But what is the reality?
What are the real, ground-floor SEOs who are actually doing client work (and not just posting junk on Linkedin based on zero experience for clicks) seeing?
I asked 4 of the top SEOs. What they shared with me was insane. Here’s who I interviewed:
- Kevin Indig, Growth Advisor at some of the world’s fastest-growing startups. Previously led SEO and Growth G2, Shopify and Atlassian.
- Michal Suski, Co-Founder and Head of Innovation at Surfer SEO.
- Gaetano DiNardi, Growth Advisor at Gong, Cognism and 50+ SaaS companies.
- Irina Maltseva, Growth Lead at Aura; SEO Consultant at Riverside, Nextiva, and more.
Here’s what they said…
1. How do you envision AI reshaping the future of SEO practices?
Kevin: Shifting from clicks to influence is going to be hard for many experts in the field that have spent the last 20 years operating on clicks. At the moment, I see Google going away from sending traffic out – unless it’s transactional – and becoming more of a conversational experience. Not that Google didn’t already keep more clicks for itself over time, but I see this trend accelerating with AI Overviews and, of course, AI Mode.
My tip for future-proofing your SEO strategy? Structure your content so it’s both crawlable for Google and digestible for LLMs — something that should simply be default for every page on your site now.
2. Can you share insights on the role of human oversight in the AI content creation process, and how it influences the effectiveness of SEO outcomes?
Michal: AI can sometimes produce artifacts that may cause the reader to experience an allergic reaction and rage quit. Humans are there in the first place to check for red flags in content (Free AI Humanizer we have built at Surfer helps with this). The second thing is to make sure that readers get the response for potential questions quickly. AI can help brainstorm these questions, but a human is the best to double-check the delivery of content. AI is there to promote writers to editors.
AI isn’t taking over search—it’s additive to SEO. Use AI to enhance your original voice and unique POV instead of letting it do all the work for you.
3. How do you balance optimizing for both traditional search engines and AI chatbots to ensure comprehensive online visibility?
Gaetano: Modern SEO is about association between brands and their “capabilities” — not individual page level signals. Your content strategy should largely mirror what your brand is getting known for, problems that are solved with your product’s features, etc. Random “one-off” pages that deviate too far astray are unlikely to rank in the top 10 positions, and even more unlikely to get surfaced in AI platforms. Covering your brand’s top flagship topics deeply and comprehensively is how to win in both classic and AI SEO.
Stop focusing on “keyword difficulty” (a very poor misleading metric) and look at topical authority. What pages and topic clusters rank well for you in comparison to others? Focus on those and triple down. You can rank in these spaces with far less authority and effort.
4. What are the limitations of using AI for competitor analysis, and how do you balance AI-generated insights with human expertise to ensure effective SEO strategies?
Irina: AI tools are great at spotting patterns and surfacing insights, but competitor analysis comes with two major limitations:
- Data accuracy: Even the most advanced tools provide estimates. The most reliable numbers still come from GA4 and GSC, while AI outputs are directional.
- Context: Businesses often misdefine their competitors. I’ve seen small companies with a single marketer benchmarking themselves against HubSpot, which has hundreds of marketers and years of domain authority. Without a realistic context, AI-driven comparisons can mislead strategy.
That’s why balance is key. AI can accelerate research, but human judgment must stay in the driver’s seat. In short, AI should be an assistant, not a strategist. Humans remain the brain behind the execution.
At least in client data we are seeing across 100+ accounts, AI isn’t replacing anything, it’s simply adding to the pile of strong touchpoints.
And that’s a wrap on this week’s special “Ask An SEO” edition.
Part 2 coming soon.
-Jeremy
