Artificial intelligence
Customer & Marketing
Will GEO replace SEO?
Publiée le January 7, 2026
Publiée le January 7, 2026
The emergence of generative engines suggests that SEO will become obsolete. Yet the two disciplines are complementary. GEO does not replace, but enriches SEO.
The figures show that the role of generative engines is growing all the time. A study by Romanesko estimates that there will be over a billion AI users by the end of 2025, and that 900 million people use ChatGPT every week. Google’s AI Overviews now appear in 60% of searches in the US, up from just 6% at the start of 2025. At the same time, traffic to AI platforms has jumped +721% in one year, and some experts predict that AI queries will surpass Google’s before 2027. Elsewhere, AI News Hub reports that 63% of sites already receive traffic from AI, and that ChatGPT attracts 300 million weekly users. These trends show that the search environment is diversifying, and that brands need to respond to this evolution.
Generative engines change not only the volume of traffic, but also the quality of visits. According to Romanesko, the appearance of AI Overviews leads to a 61% drop in organic CTR, and 80% of AI-cited sources do not appear in the top 10 SEO results. Nevertheless, brands that are cited see a 35% increase in clicks, and find that visitors from AI convert 3 to 8 times more than those from traditional SEO. Akselera points out that when the AI Overview appears, the CTR of the first position drops by 34.5%. What’s more, the experts note that visitors arriving via AI stay longer and generate higher average shopping baskets, as they consult content that has already been contextualized. These figures show that the challenge is not to replace SEO, but to extend your strategy to capture this qualified audience.
A comparison table illustrates these differences:
| Traffic origin | Average volume | Average CTR | Conversion rate | Value per visit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional SEO | High (8.5 billion requests/day) | Moderate (0.5-2%) | 2-3 % | Basic |
| AI Overview | Growing (13.14% of Google queries in 2025) | Low (34.5% drop in 1ʳᵉ position) | 3-8 x higher | Higher (35% more clicks) |
| Other AI (ChatGPT/Perplexity) | 63% of total site traffic | Not measured (objective = citation) | Highly variable (depends on call-to-action) | High (informed visitor) |
Rather than opposing SEO and GEO, a hybrid strategy should be developed:
Audit your AI presence. Test your brand on ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and note whether you are quoted. Analyze prompts where you don’t appear.
Optimize retrievability. Make sure your pages are indexable (no blocking robots.txt files), adopt server-side rendering and use sitemaps to facilitate exploration by AI robots.
Create differentiating content. Offer proprietary data, unpublished studies, customer reviews and comparisons to provide insights that AI can’t find elsewhere. Romanesko insists on the importance of offering unique points of view and experiences to stand out from the crowd.
Strengthen your E-E-A-T and win backlinks. Get quotes from the press, blogs and communities to increase your authority. AIs prefer credible and diversified sources.
Be present on several platforms. Publish your content on platforms such as Reddit, Quora, LinkedIn, YouTube or TikTok, as AIs often draw information from these networks. Adapt your message to each channel.
Measure and iterate. Track your SEO and GEO KPIs simultaneously. Monitor AI traffic share, ASoV, sentiment and Q→Q velocity.
The “GEO vs. SEO” debate is irrelevant. Statistics show that generative engines are taking an increasing share in discovery and conversion, but they still rely on solid SEO foundations. By adopting a hybrid strategy – optimizing pages for SEO, structuring content for AI, developing social proof and diversifying channels – brands can benefit from the best of both worlds and secure their long-term visibility.
Walker Sands observes that SEO “builds the credibility and technical foundation” that AI engines exploit. In other words, good domain authority, backlinks and a solid technical structure remain essential for AIs to find and interpret your site. GEO adds another layer: it aims to make your content exploitable by generative models, for example by structuring information and incorporating social proof.
Mike King (iPullRank) explains that AI systems search and quote document passages based on probabilities; answers vary from day to day. The algorithms break down the query (“fan-out”), retrieve documents using embeddings and combine the passages according to statistical weightings. So, being first in the SEO rankings is no guarantee of being cited by an AI; you have to increase the probability of being chosen by covering a subject exhaustively and diversifying your sources.
While SEO focuses on organic traffic and position, GEO introduces new metrics: brand mention in responses, citation rate, share of voice, traffic referred by AIs, and duration of presence. Walker Sands insists on measuring brand perception (sentiment) and share of voice in AI responses. BrandRadar proposes to go further with indicators such as Answer Share of Voice (ASoV), Question-to-Quote velocity (time between first mention and request for quote) and visibility mapping by prompt. These KPIs show that success is now measured in terms of inclusion and influence.
In the local domain, TNG Shopper describes how AI directly answers questions like “Where can I buy shoes near me?” by recommending three stores. If your local data is inconsistent, or if your store locator is thin on content, the AI may not choose you. So it’s crucial to keep your Google Business listings up to date, get reviews and enrich your local pages.
GEO does not supplant SEO, but is an extension of it. AIs use probabilistic architectures where the query is divided into sub-queries and information is merged according to probabilities. By combining SEO optimization (authority, technical structure) and GEO strategy (structured content, UGC, local consistency), you maximize your brand’s visibility both on classic SERPs and in generated responses.
So, rather than choosing between these approaches, it’s better to take advantage of each of them: reinforce the technical foundations for SEO, create fan-out-friendly micro-content for GEO and enrich your pages with UGC testimonials. This synergy will keep your brand at the center of the modern search landscape.