Search is no longer just SEO – Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is now essential. AI-generated content without human oversight risks being flagged as low quality or spam by Google. Success in 2025 means creating original, human-led, multi-channel content that earns trust.
brightonSEO April 2025 came hot on the heels of Search Central Live in Madrid, where John Mueller (Google’s Senior Search Analyst and Search Relations team lead) revealed that automated or AI-generated content may now be hit with Google’s lowest quality score.
This (and expanded spam definitions – such as scaled content abuse) have followed Google’s Helpful Content Update (in March 2024) which saw the search engine remove a whopping 40% of content from SERPs. The main message? Content needs to have original value for real people to not be considered spam.
This means that our latest and arguably most powerful tactic yet – AI-generated content – could be penalised without a human in the loop.
In fact, this was exactly what happened to the Content Manager of a very prominent social media platform I met at Brighton who tested programmatic AI content on a large scale and was penalised – so make no mistake, it happens.
Search marketers the world over – it’s time to sit up and pay attention.
It was Alex Hoffman of Passion Digital who suggested we drop the ‘E’ in SEO.
Bold? Maybe. Accurate? Absolutely.
The truth is, the way people are looking for information is now vastly different than even 12 or 24 months ago. Jon Earnshaw from Pi Datametrics, detailed how our search landscape is now made up of:
Though they are increasing in popularity, make no mistake – AI platforms remain untrusted by many, are often outdated, can easily hallucinate and are often still reliant on organic search. But the tech powering AI search is changing rapidly.
RAG models (which crawl the web – albeit not in realtime – and prefer new, fresh and regularly updated content) were credited by many at brightonSEO with generating the best content (Veronica Hollier, Tresorit).
When it comes to optimising for AI results, it is worth noting that ChatGPT models with web search pull all of their content from Bing – making a strong case for optimisation here (Josh Blyskal, Profound).
You don’t always see what’s right in front of you, and I think this has been the case for me with SERPs. The truth is, they’ve changed a lot since the days of 10 blue links – all because our search behaviour has changed and naturally, Google wants to keep searchers in its product (we’ll likely see this more and more with the move to Google’s AI Mode).
Ray Saddiq from Rise At Seven, described how:
The goal is to perform well in the entire search ecosystem – not simply to rank highly in traditional search engines.
What’s more, we need to ensure our brand is seen, not just searched – as only 40% of Google searches result in organic traffic – the rest are zero-click searches (Alex Hoffman, Passion Digital). It’s a similar picture when we consider that presence in AI search results drives very limited referral traffic (Baruch Toledano, Similarweb).
When we really break down SERP anatomy in this way, it is clear that to perform well in traditional search, SEOs need to collaborate with and inform organic social, PPC and PR strategies in a significant way.
We need to look at our Search Optimisation strategy through an omni-channel lens – review all touch points, identify the gaps and build fixes into our roadmaps and workflows. Search data and intelligence need to be underpin activity across organic social, PPC and PR to be effective.
It might be clear to us already how organic and paid search can work together to tag-team on keyword optimisation and visibility. True also for link building and PR around certain topics and search terms – Listicles and comparative content are the most cited forms of AI content and most popular in SERPs (Josh Blyskal, Profound).
What is perhaps less clear, is how search engine optimisation can, and should, influence social search optimisation. Alex Hoffman of Passion Digital gave us some really practical takeaways to do just that:
It’s no longer a question of whether your audience is on social media, it’s how this content is pulling into AIRPs and SERPs (Alex Hoffman, Passion Digital) and it is pulling heavily into LLMs (Lily Ray, Amsive Digital). Optimising social content and engaging on forums (by posting on popular threads in Reddit for instance) can be highly effective for AI search (Josh Blyskal, Profound).
We also need ways to counteract negative press, reviews and perceptions for this reason by using social listening tools. Negative sentiment management is the key we need to provide accurate and up to date information. It’s time to take your brand reputation and visibility into your own hands (Marcus Tober, Semrush).
So when we consider, as SEOs, where solely our sphere of influence lies, we have to turn our attention to:
When it comes to the rapidly changing areas of AI overviews and AI search, here’s what we know so far:
Here’s the good news. Traditional SEO (optimising for Google SERPs rankings and top 10 visibility) is still highly relevant. Following SEO best practice can stand you in good stead for good LLM results (Marcus Tober, Semrush).
That said, let’s explore specifically how to optimise for our un(der)tapped areas of potential – AI overviews (AIO) and AI results pages (AIRPs):
You are what you EEAT
EEAT is the holy grail of high quality content for both traditional and AI search. According to Emma-Elizabeth Byrne from Gentoo Media, it requires:
How to Achieve EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
User Experience:
Keywords + Targeting:
Technical optimisation:
Paid AI Partnerships
According to Marcus Tober from Semrush, Perplexity is working with certain partners to promote their businesses. He warns that such partnerships are likely to drive the most clicks from AI search. There is also direct shopping within Perplexity Pro.
At Nu Coton, we fully expect to see paid opportunities in AI search coming down the line.
Gareth Simpson from Seeker, described AI search as step 0 in the customer journey – where your brand meets prospects before they even know they need you.
Anticipating needs before prospects are even aware of them is something that Folashade Uba from A.P. Moller Maersk, delved into when she explored predictive analysis.
By anticipating user behaviour we can plan accordingly, making our tactics more proactive than reactive (i.e. creating content on a topic after it has started trending).
We do this to some degree when we optimise for seasonality within the market. However we can look for other high potential topics in advance, using Ahrefs’ global growth and global forecast functions – allowing us to work on topics 1-2 months before they start trending and share this intel with PR, organic social and paid social teams.
Jon Earnshaw from Pi Datametrics, makes a good point when he asks, how should we measure success in the changing era of search? Is traffic still our main KPI? Is it impressions? Brand mentions? Share of voice? AIRP conversational CTR?
It is still very hard to get this data. There is no GSC equivalent for gen AI engines. Will there ever be? One thing we can do right now is track LLM traffic in GA4 and take credit as an SEO (Lily Ray, Amsive Digital).
Josh Blyskal from Profound suggests we start building our muscle now by:
Lily Ray from Amsive Digital wrapped up brightonSEO April 2025 very nicely with a clear summary on the current state of search. Here’s what we shouldn’t and shouldn’t do:
Do
Do not
A senior performance marketing strategist driving growth for SAAS, tech and cybersecurity brands across the globe. Specialising in search, SEO, GEO and ppc, she has become the go-to partner for senior leaders seeking measurable growth. Rachael is known for her analytical mindset, sharp execution and ability to build performance engines that deliver measurable results.