A question posed by Ross Hudgens, Founder and CEO of Siege Media—”Would we create this content if SEO didn’t exist?”—really resonated with me during SEO Week. It perfectly captures the dilemma so many brands face. For years, we’ve been in a cycle of creating content for search engine algorithms, often losing sight of whether it truly added value to our audiences. That approach is rapidly becoming a liability.

As a Strategy Director, I’ve been (skeptically) watching AI’s steady creep into the search world. Attending SEO Week, and listening to experts discuss these shifts, crystallized a lot of thoughts for me. We’re not just talking about algorithm updates anymore; this is a fundamental change in how people find information and how search operates.

The data paints a clear picture. We’re seeing a rise in “zero-click” searches. At the same time, more and more people are turning to AI chatbots for answers, with some data indicating these tools are now a primary source for many. 

This isn’t a signal that organic search or SEO is dead. But it’s deafening wake-up call stated by Wil Reynolds: content that’s just “good enough for SEO” is no longer good enough, period.

So, what are my key strategic takeaways for brands looking to thrive in this new landscape?

Build category authority, not just brand recognition.

A consistent theme I picked up from various discussions at SEO Week was that while brand awareness remains important, it’s no longer sufficient. What’s becoming crucial are strong brand authority and category signals, which are particularly important with the introduction of  AI mode. This means brands need to be deeply associated with their specific area of expertise in the minds of both their audience and the search engines. It’s about becoming the recognized go-to name when someone thinks about your particular field.

How brands can adapt:

• Become the definitive voice: Don’t just participate in your category; aim to define it. This means creating deep, insightful content showcasing your leadership and understanding.
• Earn relevant endorsements: Think about who the respected players are in your category. Getting linked or mentioned by them carries far more weight than generic links. (Yes, link-building still matters.)
• Foster authentic community dialogue: User-generated content and community discussions have consistently been highlighted as powerful trust signals—when people are naturally talking about your brand in the context of your category, it’s invaluable. Reports show that younger audiences especially value these peer conversations.
• Demonstrate expertise in every piece: Your content should ooze genuine expertise. This isn’t just about keywords; it’s about providing insights only a true specialist could offer.

Understand conversational search and thematic relevance 

How people search is changing. It’s becoming more natural, more conversational, especially with AI tools. For brands, this means moving beyond a rigid focus on exact-match keywords and thinking more about the broader themes and underlying intent behind user queries.

How brands can adapt:

• Build topic clusters: Instead of scattered articles, create interconnected content hubs that explore important themes comprehensively, addressing a wide range of related questions a user might have.
• Structure content for human (and AI) understanding: Clear headings, well-defined sections, and logical flow are crucial. If a human can easily understand your content, AI systems generally can too.

E-E-A-T is foundational: Your expertise must be clear to AI too.

Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are more critical than ever. A key insight from SEO Week is that AI models (particularly Mixture of Experts, or MoE, models) increasingly act like sophisticated research assistants, looking for the most credible and authoritative sources to inform their answers. Your content is evaluated on its expertise, and the best content is even helping train these AI tools.

How brands can adapt:

• Be timely and opinionated (when appropriate): With Reasoning Models and MoE models, it’s more important than ever to lean into your expertise and have a genuine opinion worth citing. This is an opportunity for brands to contribute timely and expert commentary.
• Ensure your website is the expert on you: Your own site should be the most comprehensive and accurate source about your brand, its history, its products, and its unique knowledge.
• Use structured data strategically: While not a replacement for quality, using schema markup and other structured data can help AI systems better understand the key information and entities on your site, reinforcing your expertise.

Rethink SEO as “Relevance Engineering.”

SEO is no longer just a set of technical tactics or a siloed performance channel. It’s becoming a core strategic function that needs to be deeply integrated with brand building and overall business objectives. During SEO Week, Mike King of iPullRank introduced this as a shift from traditional SEO into what we can call: “Relevance Engineering.” It’s about a broader, more holistic approach to ensuring your brand is meaningfully present and valuable wherever your audience is looking for information.

This involves thinking about how all your online activities contribute to user engagement, brand perception, and business growth, not just search rankings.

How  brands can adapt:

• Apply the “Human-First” test relentlessly: For any content piece, technical change, or SEO initiative, ask that crucial question: “Would we do this if search engines weren’t a factor?” If the answer is no, it’s worth a serious rethink.
• Integrate search strategy with brand building: Your SEO efforts should actively build and reinforce your brand’s authority and message. For example, digital PR should focus on genuine reputation building, not just link acquisition.
• Measure what truly moves the needle: While traditional SEO metrics have their place, also look at brand lift, the depth of user engagement (time on page, scroll depth, content saves), and how your efforts contribute to real business outcomes.

Consider the Agentic Web

A forward-looking idea that sparked a lot of thought was the concept of an “Agentic Web,” where AI assistants or “agents” could become primary consumers of online information, acting on behalf of users. This means we need to start thinking about how our content is structured and presented not just for human website visitors but also for these AI intermediaries.

How brands can adapt:

• Focus on extreme clarity and structure: A well-organized website with clear, logically structured content is essential. This makes it easier for AI systems to parse and understand your information.
• Explore emerging standards for AI interaction: Keep an eye on developments like llms.txt, which aim to guide AI agents interacting with websites, much like robots.txt does for traditional web crawlers.

The Optimism: A Return to Value in the Age of AI

I’ve been feeling surprisingly optimistic about adapting to the evolution of search. This isn’t about technology rendering human creativity obsolete. Instead, it seems to push us toward what many of us in strategy have always advocated: a focus on genuine quality, deep audience understanding, and creating real value.

The brands that will succeed are not those that find the newest trick to “game” AI, but those that commit to answering that fundamental question—”Would we create this if SEO didn’t exist?”—with a confident “Yes.”

This evolution of search invites us to build stronger brands and deeper audience relationships. It’s a shift away from chasing algorithms and towards earning attention through true worth. And that, for me, is a very exciting prospect.