🎤 SEO Is Dead (Again)? ChatGPT, SGE & The Shift in Search Behavior
Let’s look clearly at what’s happening in search right now.
Some say SEO is finished. But what we’re seeing is a shift in how people find, evaluate, and interact with information.
📌 According to recent traffic data from Semrush, ChatGPT is now referring users to over 30,000 websites per day, up from fewer than 10,000 just a few months prior. That’s a remarkable expansion in visibility for sources that weren’t even on the radar in search a year ago.
📉 At the same time, Google’s new AI search interface, Search Generative Experience (SGE), is starting to answer user queries directly on the results page. While this trend is still early, some marketers are reporting notable declines in organic traffic. Search Engine Land highlights growing concern that direct answers may be reducing clicks to publisher sites.
🧠But the most telling insight? A study from Semrush found that 70% of prompts entered into ChatGPT don’t resemble traditional search queries. These are not just reworded questions, they're often completely new types of input that search engines like Google have never indexed before.
This is bigger than a change in ranking mechanics. It’s a change in the questions people are asking, and the platforms they trust to answer them.
There’s even a growing conversation about rethinking how we structure content, less formulaic, and more human, because if AI tools are handling the standard, maybe our edge is found in personality, depth, and resonance.
SEO isn’t dead. But has shifted.
So here’s the question:
Are you still playing by yesterday’s rules?
Or are you adapting to how people are searching right now?
