State of Search Keynote: SEO is Dead Long Live SEO

This is the updated version of my SEO is Dead Keynote that I performed at State of Search Dallas - October 2025.

1. @RyanJones SEO is Dead. Long Live SEO. Ryan Jones
2. @RyanJones Ryan Jones SVP @WeAreRazorfish Founder, SERPrecon.com @RyanJones Linkedin.com/in/jonesy www.RyanMJones.com
3. @RyanJones 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 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: SOS25. (25% off FOR LIFE!) Swag? Stickers – come see me
5. @RyanJones What else I do
6. @RyanJones And WAY too much cornhole…
7. @RyanJones Let’s talk about AI vs SEO
8. @RyanJones
9. @RyanJones
10. @RyanJones 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 The Media agrees
12. @RyanJones Publisher monetization and traffic impact GenAI answers often provide direct responses, reducing the need for users to click through to a website. This could significantly decrease website traffic, ad revenue, lead generation and e- commerce transactions. Visibility in AI Responses Brands fear their content may not be included in AI-generated summaries, diminishing visibility and authority in key topics. Additionally, if competitors are featured where we are not, brands risk losing SOV and trust. Data Ownership and Attribution Brands have concerns about how their content is used, cited and credited in AI-generated responses. With fewer visitors to owned properties, brands will lose valuable first-party data for personalization and retargeting. Conversion Funnel Disruption Without clicks to owned properties, brands risk losing control of their customer journey and data collection, making it harder to convert visitors into paying customers. Brands may need to rely on paid channels to make up for lost traffic. Brands Are Concerned
13. @RyanJones We Looked At Data On How People Typically Discover New Brands And Products: Confidential 13 1. Search Engines (43%) Top 5 discovery channels in 2016*: Top 5 discovery channels in 2025*: 2. Ads On TV (40%) 5. TV/Films (26%) 3. Ads Online/ In-App (37%) 4. WOM (36%) 1. Ads Online/In-App (35%) 2. Search Engines (34%) 5. Wom (30%) 3. Ads on TV (32%) 4. Ads on Social Media (30%) Source: GWI Core | 2024 GWI Study * Percentages represent total global respondents citing the channel as one used for discovering new brands and/or products
14. @RyanJones 14 The Biggest Declines 1. Ads In Print (-42%) 2. Search Engines (-20%) 3. Ads On TV (-20%) The Biggest Increases 1. Vlogs (+37%) 2. Brand’s Social Posts (+20%) 3. Endorsements From Celeb. /Influencers (+15%) Source: GWI Core | 2024 GWI Study • 67% of consumers* now use at least one social platform for search • 48% of consumers globally now interact with an AI chatbot at least once a week
15. @RyanJones 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
16. @RyanJones By The Numbers: AIOs Impact On Google Results 16 Keywords with “informational” intent triggered AI Overviews (Ahrefs). Decrease in CTR on those informational keywords containing an AI Overview (ibid). Number of keywords examined within the Ahrefs study that identified these findings (ibid). YoY Increase in search impressions (BrightEdge). Decrease in CTR to those results (ibid). Increase in queries of 8+ words (ibid). 49% 7x 99.2% -30% -34% 150K
17. @RyanJones Need to change how we think of SEO. We have to update our branding. Clients have a real problem. We can’t say “it’s just SEO” That traffic is gone.
18. @RyanJones And No, we aren’t replacing it with “Vibe SEO”
19. @RyanJones So what is it now?
20. @RyanJones SEO isn’t dead. You’ve just been doing SEO wrong.
21. @RyanJones Bad SEO is dead
22. @RyanJones We have a perception problem. Many self-proclaimed SEOs are just spammers
23. @RyanJones What is good SEO? Semantic Relevance Topics & Passages User Intent Value Add Quality, Uniqueness, Relevance, Authority, Trust, Expertise Real Marketing Ambient Findability
24. @RyanJones It’s not a pretty picture for traditional SEO metrics
25. @RyanJones 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
26. @RyanJones This is part of the problem Source: Patrick Stox
27. @RyanJones But the clicks aren’t coming back Source: ahrefs
28. @RyanJones BOTH of these are True! AI increases clicks (for some) and others aren’t coming back. Source: Advanced Web Ranking
29. @RyanJones Most AI searches have 0 historical search volume. 80% of these 1,955 keywords have <100 monthly searches.
30. @RyanJones “The future of search is verbs” —Bill Gates
31. @RyanJones How Old is Taylor Swift?
32. @RyanJones NO, I just want the F*@#%^&! number!
33. @RyanJones 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
34. @RyanJones
35. @RyanJones Retire multi-channel attribution models
36. @RyanJones Story #1
37. @RyanJones Story #2
38. @RyanJones For AI It’s all about SOV now.
39. @RyanJones This is NOT a bad thing for the business It’s only bad for the SEO reporting Silo
40. @RyanJones SOV Matters for SEO now TOO!
41. @RyanJones That’s right. SEOs are coming for that brand budget!
42. @RyanJones 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.
43. @RyanJones How do you optimize what you can’t measure?
44. @RyanJones Let’s un-pack the AI overview patent
45. @RyanJones Generate LLM output
46. @RyanJones Generate synthetic queries (We can reverse engineer this!)
47. @RyanJones This is what we care about! In English: give me documents that match the queries I just generated.
48. @RyanJones Or, we can go to Google testimony
49. @RyanJones You don’t need to rank for that query. You need to be retrieved for semantically relevant queries. (sorry link builders and guest posters)
50. @RyanJones Change our thinking: From keywords to topics
51. @RyanJones
52. @RyanJones
53. @RyanJones If you rank for 1 query, you can do it for many!
54. @RyanJones It’s not the race you think it is
55. @RyanJones The future might be keyword-less But It will still involve RAG
56. @RyanJones If you really want to be scared, read this book.
57. @RyanJones 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 $$?
58. @RyanJones Step 1: Your org structure and OKRs are the problem
59. @RyanJones Step 2: Take More Credit!
60. @RyanJones Step 3:Do Real marketing. E.g.Clicks are now vanity metrics
61. @RyanJones Step 4: Start Owning AI Others (e.g. social) are looking at it through the wrong lens (Sentiment)
62. @RyanJones 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.
63. @RyanJones 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
64. @RyanJones Note: the tool above is FREE! So I built
65. @RyanJones Prediction: Agencies Replace In-House SEO
66. @RyanJones Here’s why you will FAIL:
67. @RyanJones Thank you! More Sites of Mine: WTFSEO.com SEODataViz.com ServerHeaders.com SEOnews.pro Use code: “SOS25” to get 25% off for LIFE! Ryan Jones SVP @WeAreRazorfish @RyanJones Linkedin.com/in/jonesy www.RyanMJones.com