There has been a lot of noise over the past year about the “death of SEO.” Every time Google or OpenAI makes an announcement, my inbox fills with articles predicting the end of search as we know it.
The truth is, SEO is not dying. It is evolving, and fast. AI is changing the way content is found, ranked, and recommended, but the fundamentals of visibility, authority, and relevance remain. The biggest shift is in how these signals are interpreted by large language models (LLMs) and AI-powered search interfaces.
Let us break down what has changed in the last year, what the now-famous “&num=100” parameter means for AI tools, and why traditional search engine SEO is still the most important marketing channel for most businesses.
The New SEO Reality: When AI Meets Search
Until recently, SEO was mostly about ranking on Google’s ten blue links. Then came the rise of AI-driven search assistants – ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others. These tools started answering queries directly rather than listing websites.
Instead of showing hundreds of results, they summarize what they find across the web. This changed how visibility is earned. Businesses began asking a new question: How do we rank on LLMs?
In early 2024, several agencies started selling “AI SEO” services promising visibility on ChatGPT responses or Perplexity summaries. Many of them claimed that structured data and schema markup were the “golden key” to ranking inside these AI models.
While structured data still plays a role, AI researchers and technical SEO experts have since clarified that LLMs do not read or index web pages the same way Google’s search crawlers do. They process text through tokenization a mathematical way of breaking down language into weighted probabilities, not a structured dataset.
As a result, the rules are different. But they are not disconnected from traditional SEO.
What Does &num=100 Mean and Why It Matters
If you have worked with SEO long enough, you know the &num=100 parameter. It was a way to modify Google search URLs to show up to 100 organic results per page instead of the default 10.
For years, many AI engines like Perplexity and even ChatGPT’s web browsing tool pulled data programmatically from Google search results using this expanded parameter. It allowed them to scan and summarize the top 100 Google search results in real time.
In September 2024, Google quietly restricted or throttled this parameter. The move was designed to limit large-scale scraping that AI systems were using to train or feed their responses. This meant that AI engines could no longer simply mirror Google results they needed to rely more on their own indexes or smaller-scale API integrations.
The impact? Suddenly, the visibility of content in AI results became more closely tied to how well it was represented across multiple search and content ecosystems not just Google’s first page.
But here is the important part: the majority of AI engines still source heavily from Google-indexed content. In our own internal tests across 30+ sites, we found that businesses with strong traditional SEO presence also performed best in AI-generated results, especially for brand or product-related queries.
The Hype vs. Reality of “AI SEO”
There is a lot of hype around “AI SEO.” The idea sounds appealing optimize your site for ChatGPT visibility, feed structured data to LLMs, and dominate AI search. But in practice, it does not work that way.
AI systems do not have live SERP visibility metrics. They pull from pre-trained data, public content, and verified sources such as Wikipedia, schema-rich news sites, and high-authority pages. This means:
- Schema markup alone does not guarantee visibility.
- AI cannot crawl your new blog post in real time unless it is surfaced through APIs or external links.
- LLM visibility is probabilistic, not algorithmic. It depends on text quality, relevance, and frequency across the web.
So when agencies pitch “AI SEO services” as a shortcut to visibility, they are often selling half-truths. As Rand Fishkin (founder of Moz and SparkToro) recently noted, “AI search is an evolution of search, not a replacement for it. Businesses that already have authority online will keep showing up in AI outputs.”
Why Traditional SEO Still Matters More Than Ever
While AI is reshaping how search results are presented, it has not replaced the foundation on which visibility is built.
Traditional SEO Drives Leads
For most businesses especially small and medium-sized ones, early lead generation remains the goal. And no channel drives qualified, high-intent leads as effectively as search engines either through ads or SEO.
According to BrightEdge Research, organic search still drives over 53 percent of all trackable website traffic. Google alone processes over 8.5 billion searches every day (Internet Live Stats). AI-driven discovery tools are growing, but their share of actionable business traffic is still minimal and largely informational.
AI Search Is Informational, Not Transactional
LLMs excel at answering questions, explaining concepts, and summarizing knowledge. But they are not yet where people go to buy.
AI engines cater more to informational intent queries like “how does solar energy work” or “best SEO tools for small agencies.” Google, on the other hand, captures commercial intent searches such as “solar panel installer near me” or “buy SEO service package.”
That distinction is critical. Businesses that rely on lead generation, bookings, or direct conversions cannot afford to shift focus entirely to AI search visibility.
Informational vs. Commercial Intent: The Trade-Off
Let us look at this distinction more closely.
| Search Type | Example Query | Intent Type | Best Optimized Through | Business Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Informational | “What is HVAC maintenance” | Knowledge-seeking | AI SEO / Blog Content | Brand visibility, awareness |
| Commercial | “Best HVAC company in Toronto” | Purchase intent | Traditional SEO / Ads | Leads, inquiries, sales conversions |
AI SEO can help raise awareness and brand familiarity. But small businesses that depend on immediate leads need Google Ads and regular SEO for sustained results.
The Sustainability Question: Can “AI SEO” Alone Work?
For large content publishers, media outlets, or educational platforms, focusing on AI visibility makes sense. They thrive on informational search. But for most small businesses, an AI-first SEO strategy is not sustainable.
Here is why:
- AI traffic cannot be accurately tracked. Unlike Google Analytics or GSC data, there are no transparent metrics for how often your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
- AI search users rarely convert immediately. The journey is longer, and transactional behavior remains low.
- Algorithm volatility is high. LLMs change data sources frequently and may not surface the same sites consistently.
- Commercial keywords still belong to Google. High-intent phrases are where your actual revenue is found.
So, while it is wise to monitor how AI platforms evolve, abandoning regular SEO and ads to chase “AI rankings” is premature and risky.
The New Balanced Approach to SEO
As AI becomes part of the ecosystem, the right strategy is not to replace traditional SEO, but to extend it. Think of it as a three-layer approach:
1. Core Layer – Traditional SEO
Focus on fundamentals:
- Technical optimization and site speed
- Keyword research around commercial intent
- Local SEO, reviews, and Google Business visibility
- Quality backlink acquisition
2. Engagement Layer – Content & Authority
- Produce high-quality informational content that AI systems may reference
- Build topical authority with in-depth blogs and explainer pages
- Use schema and structured data to improve context understanding
3. AI Layer – Visibility Across LLMs
- Maintain brand consistency across forums, directories, and news mentions
- Publish content that is likely to be cited or summarized by AI engines
- Experiment with generative search experience (SGE) integrations as they roll out
This hybrid model ensures that you get leads now while positioning your brand for the AI-driven future.
The Role of Ads in the New Search Landscape
Google Ads and paid media continue to complement SEO. For small businesses especially, Ads bridge the time gap between starting SEO and seeing organic traction.
As per Wordstream’s 2024 benchmark report, average Google Ads conversion rates for lead-based industries range between 4 and 7 percent, often delivering immediate ROI while SEO compounds over time.
When both channels work together; Ads for instant leads, SEO for sustainability, the outcome is predictable growth.
The Real Takeaway: Lead Generation Still Rules
The core purpose of SEO has always been to drive business results. Visibility without conversion is vanity. That is why, no matter how advanced AI becomes, traditional search engine SEO remains the most practical and revenue-oriented strategy for 95 percent of businesses today.
AI-driven SEO may shape the top of the funnel, but regular SEO and paid campaigns own the bottom.
Closing Thoughts
AI is reshaping the digital landscape faster than any of us predicted. But the fundamentals of search – relevance, trust, and authority remain unchanged.
The smart path forward is not to replace your SEO strategy with an AI-centric one, but to evolve it. Continue building your organic presence, keep optimizing for commercial intent, and let your visibility in AI engines grow passively as a byproduct of genuine authority.
For small and medium businesses that need immediate lead generation, traditional SEO and Ads will remain irreplaceable. AI SEO will mature over time, but for now, it is best seen as an enhancement, not a foundation.
The businesses that will win in this new era are those that adapt intelligently balancing innovation with the fundamentals that drive results.
