Keynote: SEO is Dead Long Live SEO - Pubcon Austin 2025

The final version of my keynote address to Pubcon Austin 2025 where I talk about the fear that SEO is dead and whether or not AI optimization is "just seo" before giving tips to survive in this new world.

Transcript

1. @RyanJones #pubcon SEO is Dead. Long Live SEO. Ryan Jones
2. @RyanJones #pubcon Ryan Jones SVP @WeAreRazorfish Founder, SERPrecon.com @RyanJones Linkedin.com/in/jonesy www.RyanMJones.com
3. @RyanJones #pubcon My day job Title: SVP, SEO Role: I co-run the SEO Practice How Long: going on 15 years Company name changes: 6 (so far)
4. @RyanJones #pubcon My night job What: SEO Tool Based on Information Retrieval Features: AI Share of voice, GEO Optimization, Real metrics! Sign up: SERPrecon.com (everyone gets a free trial!) Coupon Code: WELCOME3. (10% off first three months) Swag? Stickers – come see me
5. @RyanJones #pubcon What else I do
6. @RyanJones #pubcon And WAY too much cornhole…
7. @RyanJones #pubcon Let’s talk about AI vs SEO
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9. @RyanJones #pubcon
10. @RyanJones #pubcon Slide 2: The Myth [Big bold quote on screen: "SEO is dead."] Script: How many times have we seen this headline? Every time the algorithm changes, someone sounds the alarm. But this time, it's different, right? Because now AI is answering questions for us. It's summarizing. It's skipping the blue links. So... is SEO really dead? What we're seeing isn't the death of SEO. It's the evolution of search. Google, ChatGPT , Perplexity — they're not just giving us a list of results. They're giving us answers. Which means the game has changed.
11. @RyanJones #pubcon The Media agrees
12. @RyanJones #pubcon Google is still dominating Google 90% Other 5% Bing 3% Yahoo 2% Search Market Share 5.8% 13.5% 14.4% 59.4% Gen AI Market Share AI vs Google Market Share 21.9M 350M 376.6M 517M 16.5B 31.8X
13. @RyanJones #pubcon Prediction: AI usage will dip in June
14. @RyanJones #pubcon SEO isn’t dead. You’ve just been doing SEO wrong.
15. @RyanJones #pubcon Bad SEO is dead
16. @RyanJones #pubcon We have a perception problem
17. @RyanJones #pubcon What is good SEO? Semantic Relevance Topics & Passages User Intent Value Add Quality, Uniqueness, Relevance, Authority, Trust, Expertise Real Marketing Ambient Findability
18. @RyanJones #pubcon So what is it now?
19. @RyanJones #pubcon And No, we aren’t replacing it with “Vibe SEO”
20. @RyanJones #pubcon Gotta change how we think of SEO. We need to update our branding. Clients have a real problem. Traffic is down. We can’t say “it’s just SEO” That traffic is gone.
21. @RyanJones #pubcon It’s not a pretty picture for traditional SEO metrics
22. @RyanJones #pubcon Gen AI drives less than 1% of traffic across major brands Source: Publicis Groupe Clients 0.08% 0.1% 0.06% 0.1% 0.02% Appliances Insurance Finance Healthcare Spirits 99% of AI traffic is from ChatGPT 0.02% Auto
23. @RyanJones #pubcon This is part of the problem Source: Patrick Stox
24. @RyanJones #pubcon But the clicks aren’t coming back Source: ahrefs
25. @RyanJones #pubcon BOTH of these are True! Source: Advanced Web Ranking
26. @RyanJones #pubcon Most AI searches have 0 historical search volume. 80% of these 1,955 keywords have <100 monthly searches.
27. @RyanJones #pubcon “The future of search is verbs” —Bill Gates
28. @RyanJones #pubcon How Old is Taylor Swift?
29. @RyanJones #pubcon NO, I just want the F*@#%^&! number!
30. @RyanJones #pubcon It’s time to evolve: Full funnel engagement Semantic relevance SOV / Visibility Keywords Organic rankings Upper funnel awareness FROM Multi-modal AI search AI Overviews / Citations Quick Answers / People Also Ask TO AI systems Search algorithms Text / voice queries
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32. @RyanJones #pubcon Retire multi-channel attribution models
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35. @RyanJones #pubcon For AI It’s all about SOV now.
36. @RyanJones #pubcon For SEO too!
37. @RyanJones #pubcon From keywords to topics
38. @RyanJones #pubcon That’s right. SEOs are coming for that brand budget!
39. @RyanJones #pubcon The new user It's not just a person behind a keyboard. It's also the AI model reading your content before the person ever sees it. AI is now the first audience. It decides what to include, quote, or reference — using Search. We're not just optimizing for people anymore — we're optimizing for machines that summarize for people.
40. @RyanJones #pubcon
41. @RyanJones #pubcon Every SEO Agency is showing you this slide right now 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 AI Overview Rankings AIO launched on May 17th Widespread rollout occurred mid August AIO coverage peaks at 4,008 listings
42. @RyanJones #pubcon How do you optimize what you can’t measure?
43. @RyanJones #pubcon Let’s un-pack the AI overview patent
44. @RyanJones #pubcon Generate LLM output
45. @RyanJones #pubcon Generate synthetic queries (We can reverse engineer this!)
46. @RyanJones #pubcon This is what we care about!
47. @RyanJones #pubcon Or, we can go to Google testimony
48. @RyanJones #pubcon You don’t need to rank for that query. You need to be retrieved. (sorry link builders and guest posters)
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51. @RyanJones #pubcon If you rank for 1 query, you can do it for many!
52. @RyanJones #pubcon It’s not the race you think it is
53. @RyanJones #pubcon The future might be keyword-less
54. @RyanJones #pubcon If you really want to be scared, read this book.
55. @RyanJones #pubcon How do teams and SEOs adjust for this future? How does the C suite adjust? “Just make my clicks go up” “they’re not coming back” If “it’s just SEO” why do you need more $$?
56. @RyanJones #pubcon Step 1: Your org structure and OKRs are the problem
57. @RyanJones #pubcon Stop Letting Social Own AI. They’re looking at it through the wrong lens (Sentiment)
58. @RyanJones #pubcon Clicks are vanity metrics
59. @RyanJones #pubcon Tools need to do better We need semantic relevance We need SOV and upper funnel measurement Historical Keyword Volumes won’t cut it anymore The future will NOT resemble the past
60. @RyanJones #pubcon All of the AI System prompts are here: https://github.com/asgeirtj/system_prompts_leaks Measuring sentiment of AI answers makes no sense If asked to represent a specific side of a controversial issue, follow the user’s instructions while still maintaining a neutral, distanced tone. For controversial topics without a clear consensus, respond in a neutral tone, summarizing the levant points of view, and don’t take a side. As an LLM, you don’t have personal opinions.
61. @RyanJones #pubcon Note: the tool above is FREE! So I built
62. @RyanJones #pubcon Prediction: Agencies Replace In-House SEO
63. @RyanJones #pubcon Here’s why you will FAIL:
64. @RyanJones #pubcon Thank you! More Sites of Mine: WTFSEO.com SEODataViz.com ServerHeaders.com SEOnews.pro Use code: “welcome3” to get 10% off for 3 months. Ryan Jones SVP @WeAreRazorfish @RyanJones Linkedin.com/in/jonesy www.RyanMJones.com