As artificial intelligence rapidly changes how people search online, many businesses are asking the same question: will traditional SEO still matter in five years?
According to several marketing agency owners and digital growth experts interviewed by Presence News, the answer is yes — but the definition of SEO is expanding far beyond keywords and rankings.
Many experts believe the future of SEO will focus less on gaming algorithms and more on becoming a trusted source of information that both humans and AI systems rely on.
SEO Is Shifting From Rankings to Visibility
Josiah Roche, Fractional CMO at JRR Marketing, explained that search behavior is already changing as AI summaries and answer engines become more common.
“About 60–80% of clicks in most service businesses still come from branded, local, or high-intent searches,” Roche said. “That part of SEO isn’t going away in five years.”
However, he noted that businesses relying on mass-produced blog content targeting slight keyword variations may struggle as AI systems increasingly prioritize authoritative and trustworthy information.
Roche described the future of SEO as “search visibility,” where technical structure, topical expertise, and clean information architecture matter more than simply publishing more pages.
He also shared a case study where rebuilding 40 pages around buyer intent questions and reducing crawl waste improved organic demo leads by roughly 35% over six months.
AI Companies Are Still Investing Heavily in SEO
Blake Smith, Digital Marketing Consultant at blakesmithy.com, pointed to hiring trends among major technology companies as evidence that SEO remains strategically important.
Smith referenced a recent high-level content strategy role at OpenAI reportedly tied to discoverability, content systems, and AI search infrastructure.
“The same foundations that made websites discoverable in Google — technical structure, topical authority, semantic relevance, and brand trust — are increasingly influencing whether businesses appear inside AI-generated responses,” Smith explained.
According to Smith, SEO is no longer limited to backlinks and rankings. Instead, the industry is expanding into areas such as:
- AI citation optimization
- Entity authority
- Structured knowledge signals
- Multi-model search visibility
- Brand mentions across LLM ecosystems
- Machine-readable content architecture
Smith also noted that large companies including Canva continue expanding organic growth and search-related hiring.
Authority and Trust Are Becoming Central
Arvind Rongala, CEO of Edstellar, said traditional SEO is evolving toward credibility and expertise rather than isolated optimization tactics.
Rongala pointed to research from HubSpot showing that search-driven content remains one of the strongest long-term channels for organic growth, especially in B2B industries.
“The future of SEO is less about manipulating algorithms and more about building authoritative digital trust,” Rongala said.
Experts increasingly believe that search engines and AI systems reward businesses that consistently publish valuable, experience-driven information rather than generic content written solely for rankings.
SEO and AI Visibility Are Becoming the Same Strategy
Brett Smith, Founder and CEO of 7aSavvy, emphasized that businesses should not think of SEO and AI visibility as separate concepts.
“If your website has thin content, weak structure, inconsistent business details, or unclear expertise, that creates a void for AI systems,” Smith explained.
He described traditional SEO as the foundation for helping both humans and machines understand a company clearly.
That includes:
- Organized website structure
- Strong internal linking
- Consistent business information
- Clear topical expertise
- Frequently updated content
- Easy navigation for users and crawlers
Many experts now view SEO as the infrastructure layer powering visibility across search engines, AI assistants, voice search, and future discovery platforms.
The Future of Search May Reward Real Expertise
While AI-generated answers may reduce some traditional website clicks, experts interviewed by Presence News largely agreed that trustworthy brands and authoritative publishers could become even more valuable in the years ahead.
Instead of rewarding mass content production alone, future search ecosystems may increasingly favor organizations that demonstrate expertise, consistency, and credibility across multiple digital platforms.
For publishers, agencies, and businesses alike, the message appears clear: SEO is not disappearing — it is evolving into something broader than rankings alone.