The second list is the one that pays. It was true when people typed keywords into a box, and it's true when they ask an assistant in a full sentence.
The clicks that are left are worth more
The traffic worry is real. A Pew Research Center study of Google searches made in March 2025 found people clicked a traditional result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, against 15% when one didn't. Clicks on the links inside the summary came in at 1%.
Look at which clicks disappear, though. It's the quick questions: what something is, how long it takes, roughly what it costs. Someone who asks those and gets an answer was never close to hiring you. The people who still click are further along. They're comparing options, checking a business is real, looking for a phone number or a booking form. That's the traffic a service business runs on, and it still comes from organic results.
We go into the numbers in our guide to surviving Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.
There is no separate AI checklist
Plenty of agencies now sell "AI SEO" as a new product. Google's own documentation says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page has to be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet. No special files, no special markup.
What Google does describe is query fan-out. To build an answer, it can run several related searches across subtopics. So a site where each page answers one question well, and links to the pages that answer the next questions, gives the answer more to draw on. That's the same clear structure and sensible internal linking that has helped rankings for years.
The shortcuts haven't changed either. Mass-produced pages, keyword stuffing and bought links are still spam under Google's policies, and they're no more convincing to an assistant than to a search engine. Our SEO dos and don'ts for 2026 covers what to fix first.
Agreement beats volume
Assistants are cautious about recommending a business on one source's say-so. They look for agreement: the same name, address and phone number on your site, your Google Business Profile and the directories that list you, and other sites saying the same things about what you do.
That makes a few unglamorous jobs more valuable than they used to be. Keep your details identical everywhere they appear. Ask happy customers for reviews, and reply to the ones you get. Earn a mention from the local paper, a trade association or a partner's site. Each one is a small vote that the business on your website is the business people are asking about.
None of it needs a new tool. It needs someone to do it every month.
What the fundamentals look like in practice
Panacea Life Sciences makes CBD products, one of the most crowded categories online. Starting in May 2020, six months of SEO and content took its site from about 600 visits a month to about 48,000, with organic search as its largest channel. The Panacea case study has the detail.
None of that was an AI trick. It was a site search engines could read, content that answered real questions, and authority built month by month. That's exactly what assistants draw on when they decide who to recommend, which is why the fundamentals keep paying when the interface changes.
What to do about it
- Make your site easy to read for people and machines: fast, well structured, with clear page titles and structured data.
- Answer the questions your customers actually ask, in your own words, with specifics only you can give.
- Keep your business details consistent everywhere they appear.
- Earn mentions from places your customers already trust.
- Measure what organic search brings in, not just where you rank.
None of this is new. That's the point. The businesses that did the fundamentals well are in the best position for whatever search turns into next. The ones that chased shortcuts are the ones with something to worry about.
