I spent the past year doing SEO the “right way.”

Keywords. Content. Optimization. Everything that’s supposed to work.

But recently, something stopped making sense. Traffic didn’t grow the way it should have. People are still searching. But they’re clicking less.

Something Is Changing

If you’ve used Google recently, you’ve probably seen it. At the top of many search results, there’s now an AI-generated summary — AI Overviews. Users don’t need to click anymore. The answer is already there.

This changes everything:

  • Fewer users click on websites
  • Content gets intercepted by AI
  • The path of traffic is shifting

It used to be: Search → Click → Website

Now it’s increasingly: Search → AI Answer → Done

What I’m Seeing as a Website Owner

As someone actively working on my own website, this shift feels very real. It made me question something I used to take for granted: Is SEO still enough?

In the past, SEO was about one thing: getting people to click your link. But now, that assumption is breaking. Users may never visit your site at all. They get what they need directly from the search page.

And that made me realize something important: the thing we are optimizing for is changing.

A New Layer: Optimizing for AI

If SEO was about optimizing for search engines, now there’s another layer we need to think about: AI.

Specifically: Can your content be understood, extracted, and used by AI?

This is where a new concept starts to emerge: GEO — Generative Engine Optimization

SEO vs GEO

Traditionally, SEO focused on rankings, clicks, and keywords.

But GEO focuses on something different:

  • Clarity of content
  • Direct answers
  • Structured information
  • How easily AI can interpret and reuse your content

One way to summarize it: SEO gets you clicks. GEO gets you quoted by AI.

What I’m Starting to Do Differently

On my own website, I’ve started experimenting with small but important changes:

  • Writing more direct question-and-answer content
  • Reducing unnecessary fluff and making ideas clearer
  • Structuring content so key points are easy to extract
  • Focusing on clarity over cleverness

I’ve stopped thinking only about “Can this rank on Google?” and started asking “Can AI understand what I’m saying?”

This Isn’t the End of SEO — It’s a Shift

Some people are asking: Is AI killing SEO?

I don’t think so. I think AI is doing something more subtle: it’s rewriting how traffic flows. In the past, traffic belonged to websites. Now, more of that traffic is being filtered through AI first.

The Real Question

So the question is no longer just: “Can people find my website?”

It’s becoming: “Will AI use my content?”

AI hasn’t killed search. But it is changing something more fundamental: how information gets distributed.

In the past, you needed to be found by users. Now, you also need to be understood — and even used — by AI.

The rules are changing. And with that, new opportunities are being redistributed.

I’m actively building FlowAnRiver while figuring out these shifts in real time. If you’re navigating the same questions, you’re in the right place.