SEO Expert Breaks Down Google’s AI Search

A well-known search marketing expert has pushed back against the idea that Google’s AI-driven search demands overly complicated strategies.

Speaking on the topic of SEO for generative AI, one of the industry’s most recognised figures offered a clear-eyed perspective on how Google’s new AI search actually operates.

Greg Boser, a pioneer in search marketing, shared his thoughts based on decades of experience—experience that few others in the field can match. His insights highlight some key facts about Google and offer a simpler understanding of the evolving SEO landscape.

Digital Marketers And The History Of SEO

Greg’s post was sparked by a tweet he felt exaggerated the decline of SEO’s importance. He began his critique by highlighting how some search marketers hold an outdated view of SEO, largely because they are relatively new to the field and unaware of its evolution.

For instance, he pointed out that buying links is one of the oldest SEO tactics around. Interestingly, newcomers have rebranded this practice as PBN (private blog network), as if changing the name somehow makes it new or acceptable. Greg added wryly that he’s never seen a PBN that was truly private—once something is published online, Google is almost certainly aware of it. If an automated spambot can find it in minutes, then Google almost certainly has as well.

Greg went on to suggest a tongue-in-cheek guide for those wanting to write articles claiming SEO as we know it is dead. His advice included framing SEO as only what it was between 2000 and 2006, focusing heavily on buying backlinks and keyword stuffing, and insisting that rankings were the sole key performance indicator (KPI).

Google’s Organic Links

In the second part of his post, Greg highlights that Google has not relied on the traditional ten organic links in search results for quite some time. The idea of Google providing direct answers to queries is nothing new.

He wrote:

“2. Portray the current situation as if it has only unfolded in the past two weeks. Avoid mentioning any developments from the last 15 years, such as:

2009: Rich Snippets
2011: Knowledge Graph (shifting from strings to things)
2013: Hummingbird (semantic understanding of conversational queries)
2014: Featured Snippets (direct answers appearing at ‘position zero’)
2015: PPA Boxes (anticipating related follow-up questions)
2015: RankBrain (machine learning interpreting ambiguous queries)
2019: BERT (natural language processing to better grasp context)
2021: MUM (an advanced version of BERT)
2023: SGE (the introduction of AI in search results)”

Overstate The Problem

The next section responds to what Greg sees as a naive marketing tactic that aims to create fear around AI search, positioning the marketer as the essential solution.

He explained:

“3. Exaggerate how complicated things are to generate fear and anxiety, then conclude with a message like, ‘Your only hope is to hire a GEO expert.’”

Is AI Search Complex And Does It Change Everything?

It’s fair to say that AI Search is indeed complex, largely because Google’s AI Mode — and to a lesser degree AI Overviews — now display links covering a much broader range of search intents compared to traditional searches. Previously, even Google’s Rich Snippets were closely aligned with the original search query’s intent.

However, this has changed with AIO and AI Mode results. The concept of Query Fan-out, which is described in a patent, explains how the original query gets expanded into multiple follow-up questions.

Greg Boser made a valid point in a follow-up post, noting that the Query Fan-out approach is quite similar to Google’s People Also Ask (PAA) feature, only now it’s integrated into the AI Mode results.

He commented:

“Yeah, the query fan thing is the rage of the day. It’s like PAA is getting memory holed.”

AI Mode Is A Serious Threat To SEO?

I agree with Greg to some extent that AI Mode does not pose a threat to SEO. The fundamental principles, such as promoting your website and focusing on technical SEO, remain important. What has changed is that AI Mode doesn’t just respond directly to a single query; instead, it provides answers covering the entire information journey. While it might be easy to dismiss this as simply People Also Ask (PAA) appearing above the fold, it still represents a significant shift because it complicates what you are aiming to rank for.

Michael Bonfils, another experienced SEO professional, recently pointed out that AI search is effectively removing the early and middle stages of the sales funnel. He observed:

“This is, you know, we have a funnel, we all know which is the awareness consideration phase and the whole centre and then finally the purchase stage. The consideration stage is the critical side of our funnel. We’re not getting the data. How are we going to get the data?”

So, yes, AI Search is unlike anything seen before. However, as Greg highlights, it remains SEO at its core, and adapting to change has always been part of the process.