Does SEO still work now that AI answers questions?
Yes. Google says its AI features are rooted in its core Search systems, so SEO best practices still apply. What changed is the return. An AI Overview correlates with fewer clicks, and fewer of its citations come from top-10 pages. Keep the basics and measure appearances, not clicks alone.
- Google says optimising for its generative AI features is still SEO, so SEO best practices still apply.
- Ofcom reports that about 30% of UK searches now show an AI Overview, so most searches still return a normal results page.
- Ahrefs found an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower click rate for the top-ranking page. That is a correlation, and Ahrefs sells search tools.
- In another Ahrefs study, 37.9% of AI Overview citations came from top-10 pages, so ranking helps but does not decide.
- Measure Google results and AI answers separately, because average position does not carry over to an AI answer.
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of helping people find your pages in Google. AI answers now sit on top of many Google searches, so people ask whether the work still pays. It does, but what it earns has changed.
Does SEO still work?
Yes, for Google. Google says that from its perspective, optimising for generative AI search is optimising for the search experience, and thus still SEO. It says SEO best practices continue to apply because its generative AI features are rooted in its core Search ranking and quality systems [1].
Google Search is also where most UK searching happens. Ofcom reports that 82% of UK adults use it [2].
Is SEO dead because of AI?
No source used on this page says so. AI answers appear on part of the searches, not all of them. Ofcom reports that about 30% of searches now show an AI Overview, and that 53% of adults say they see these summaries often [2]. That leaves most searches with a normal results page.
Do AI answers mean fewer clicks?
Often, yes. Ahrefs compared 150,000 keywords that had a Google AI Overview with 150,000 informational keywords that did not. It used Search Console data from December 2023 and December 2025. It found an AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower click rate for the top-ranking page [3]. That is a correlation, not proof of cause, and Ahrefs sells search tools.
Fewer clicks do not mean fewer people learn your name. An answer can name your business without a visit. We found no study that measures what this does to bookings or sales, so be careful with any claim that it does.
Does ranking in Google still get you into AI answers?
It helps, but less than it did. Ahrefs matched 4 million AI Overview URLs, from 863,000 keywords, against the normal results for the same queries. It found that 37.9% of the cited URLs ranked in the top 10, 31.2% ranked 11 to 100, and 31.0% ranked beyond 100 [4].
Ahrefs says the cause is query fan-out. Google splits a question into related searches, and pages that appear often in those searches get cited. It also warns that AI Overviews are probabilistic, so these figures show patterns, not guarantees [4].
What stays the same, and what changes?
The basics stay the same. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet to appear in its AI features. It also says you do not need special markup, AI text files, or a special writing style for them [1].
What changes is how you measure. Clicks and average position still describe your Google results. They do not show whether an AI answer names you.
How do you measure it now?
Use two sets of numbers.
- Google results. The Performance report in Search Console shows how often someone saw a link to your site on Google, how often they clicked it, and its average position [5].
- AI answers. Ask your buyers' questions on each engine, many times, and record how often your business is named, linked, or recommended.
Average position does not carry over. An AI answer has no list order like Google's results, so count how often you appear instead.
What should you do?
Keep the basics, then add the new measure.
- Make sure engines can reach your pages and that each page is indexed [1].
- Write one page for each question a buyer asks, and answer it in the first sentence.
- Check Google results and AI answers on a schedule, and record them separately.
We found no study that compares businesses that kept doing SEO with those that stopped. No one can say what SEO will earn for your business, so judge it by what you can measure.
We asked 11 buyer questions, 3 times on each engine.
C8 check, October 2026. ChatGPT (chatgpt.com, logged out, model not shown), Perplexity (Perplexity API (sonar)), Gemini (Flash-Lite). Each prompt asked 3 times on each engine, logged out, one fresh session per run.
Sources
- Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central. Accessed 2 Oct 2026.
- From apps to AI search: how the UK goes online in 2025, Ofcom. Accessed 2 Oct 2026.
- AI Overviews Reduce Clicks by 58%, Ahrefs. Accessed 2 Oct 2026.
- Update: 38% of AI Overview Citations Pull From The Top 10, Ahrefs. Accessed 2 Oct 2026.
- Performance report (Search results), Google Search Console Help. Accessed 2 Oct 2026.
First published
Angshu Dey is the Creative Director of Ravenence, leading creative direction, brand identity, and the design of the sites Ravenence builds.
