The SEO industry has a problem: most agencies are selling the same services they sold a decade ago. Blog posts, backlinks, meta tag tweaks, and monthly reports. Meanwhile, the search landscape has fundamentally changed.
What Has Changed
Google AI Overviews now appear on 30% of searches. ChatGPT and Perplexity are mainstream search tools. Voice search is growing. Featured snippets and PAA boxes dominate above-the-fold visibility. Structured data is essential, not optional. Entity signals matter more than keyword density.
What Agencies Are Still Doing
Writing blog posts. Building backlinks from guest posts. Tweaking title tags. Sending monthly reports showing “keyword positions.” None of this addresses AI visibility, GEO, AEO, or shadow queries.
How to Evaluate an SEO Agency
Ask them: Do you implement schema markup? Do you optimise for AI recommendation? Can you show me where my business appears in ChatGPT responses? Do you know what shadow queries are? If the answer to any of these is no, they are behind.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Are backlinks still important?
Backlinks still matter for traditional Google ranking, but they are no longer the dominant factor they were. Content quality, structured data, GBP signals, and entity consistency now carry more weight for local search.
How do I know if my current agency is behind?
Ask them three questions: Are they optimising for AI recommendations? Do they implement schema markup on every page? Are they tracking your visibility in ChatGPT and AI Overviews? If the answer to any of these is no, they are using outdated methods.
Should I fire my current agency?
Not necessarily. Many agencies are competent at traditional SEO but have not adapted to AI search. I can work alongside your existing agency — they handle the traditional elements while I add the AI layer.
What makes AI SEO different from what most agencies do?
Most agencies focus on backlinks, blog posts, and basic on-page SEO. AI SEO adds structured data on every page, entity optimisation, shadow query targeting, and content specifically formatted for AI extraction and citation. It is a different discipline.
Is it too early to invest in AI SEO?
No — it is exactly the right time. AI search usage is growing exponentially but most businesses have not optimised for it. Early adopters gain a significant competitive advantage that is harder to replicate once everyone catches up.