If you search on Google or ask a ChatGPT-style assistant, you are increasingly likely to get a written answer before a list of links. For a business that depends on being found, that raises a fair question: is it still worth investing in SEO, meaning the work that helps your website appear in search engines?
The short answer is yes, with some nuances. Some things have genuinely changed, others are the same as ever, and there is a part that nobody outside those companies knows for certain. In this article we separate the three, so you can decide where to put your time and budget.
What has changed
The most visible change is the shape of the results page. Search engines increasingly show an AI-written answer above the links, and conversational assistants answer directly, sometimes citing the pages they took the information from.
This has several practical consequences:
- Fewer clicks on simple questions. If someone only wants opening hours or a definition, they may take the answer and never visit a website.
- Clarity matters more. A system that summarises needs to find clear, well-structured answers. Confusing text is harder to cite.
- Longer, more conversational searches. People type complete questions with their context, instead of two or three loose words.
- New places to appear. Besides Google, your company may or may not be mentioned in the answers of different assistants.
What hasn’t changed
Here is the important part: the foundations of SEO are the same, because both search engines and assistants need pages they can read, understand and consider trustworthy.
- Your website has to be technically sound. It should load quickly, work well on mobile and be easy for search engines to crawl, that is, to go through and read its pages without obstacles.
- Your content has to answer what your customer is looking for. With specific, original and up-to-date information, not generic filler.
- Reputation still counts. Other trustworthy websites mentioning or linking to you, consistent company details everywhere and reviews from your customers.
- Searches with buying intent still lead to websites. Someone who wants a quote, to compare providers or to make a booking ends up visiting a page. The summarised answer helps them choose which one.
What we don’t know (and should say so)
Neither we nor anyone outside those companies knows exactly how search engines decide which pages to show, or how assistants choose which sources to cite. The search engines’ own public guidelines are known and trends can be observed, but the systems change often and the changes aren’t always explained.
That’s why you should be wary of anyone who promises to “rank you in AI answers” with a particular technique. The sensible approach is to do well what makes sense in any case and to measure what happens to your website.
If a tactic only works by fooling a system, it will stop working when the system changes. If it works because it helps people, it has a much better chance of lasting.
What to do in practice
Write to answer, not to fill space
Review the key pages on your website and ask whether they clearly answer what your customer is asking. Put the direct answer first and the detail afterwards. Use headings that describe the content. Include what only you know: indicative prices, timescales, how you work, examples from your sector.
Show who is behind the business
An “about us” page with real people, full contact details and an address that matches your profiles on other platforms helps both people and systems trust you.
Use structured data
Structured data is a set of labels, invisible to visitors, that describe the content in an orderly way: “this is a business, this is its address, this is a frequently asked question and this is its answer”. It helps search engines understand the page. It guarantees nothing, but it is good practice at little cost.
Look after your local listing
If you serve customers in a particular area, your Google business profile, with up-to-date opening hours, photos and reviews, is still one of the most direct ways to appear when someone searches nearby.
How to measure now
If summarised answers reduce clicks on informational questions, looking only at total visits can lead you to the wrong conclusions. Look at these as well:
- Enquiries and sales that come from search engines, not just visits.
- Searches for your brand. If more people search for your name, something is working, even if they arrive by different routes.
- How assistants describe you. Every so often, ask several assistants about your sector and area, and note whether you appear and what they say. It isn’t an exact measure, but it gives you clues.
- The pages that generate the most enquiries. Those are the ones most worth improving.
The next step
Pick the five most important pages on your website, usually the home page, your main services and the contact page. For each one, write in a single line the customer question it should answer and check whether it does so in the first paragraph. That exercise takes an afternoon and often reveals more improvements than any tool.
If you’d like a fuller review, at Brains we carry out SEO audits covering the technical side, the content and the measurement, and we explain them without jargon. You’ll find the details on our digital marketing page, and you can tell us about your case whenever you like.