Search Engine Optimization Series: How AI Is Affecting SEO
As we move further into 2026, it’s imperative that business owners & non-profit managers learn how AI is affecting SEO to be able to make strategic decisions about search engine optimization priorities and website enhancements for 2026.
How AI Is Affecting SEO: Statistics on How SEO Is Changing Because of Artificial Intelligence
It’s critically important that businesses understand how AI is affecting SEO. Why? 2026 looks to be the year where AI takes on a much larger role in how people find & access data.
In 2024, roughly 15 million US adults used generative AI as their primary tool for online search.
In 2025, roughly 115 to 180 million people used generative AI tools on a daily basis – with roughly 2 billion people actively using AI-powered search monthly. No surprise: more than half of the Gen Z population (52.9%) and millennials (52%) are the individuals who currently are the highest adopters of the use of AI for their work and personal lives more than other population groups.
That’s a HUGE jump in the amount of people now using AI searches.
However, these statistics, while impressive, are tempered by the total daily searches using the Google Search Engine. In 2025, the Google search engine is processing more than 13 BILLION searches per day.
Learning Point: So, this means that businesses & non-profits must still focus on best-practice Search Engine Optimization aimed at pleasing the Google algorithm – while also building for the future when generative AI will have an even larger role in how people find information on the internet.
How AI Is Affecting SEO: How Internet Search Is Changing Because Of AI
Best-practice Search Engine Optimization for websites is still the number one place to start – when it comes to powering up a website’s ability to rank and attract site visitors.
For more information, check out our EXPERT ARTICLE on best-practice Search Engine Optimization.
Once you’ve applied best-practice search engine optimization to your website, then you can start the process of enhancing your website to get your information picked up by the various AI tools. Here’s a look at how AI is shifting internet searching:
- A Shift To Conversational Search Queries: Basic SEO relies on short keyword phrases embedded in on-page content that a site visitor would see, along with writing Search Engine Results Page (SERP) headlines & META descriptors that are set on the back-end of the website. The SERP information incorporates the targeted keyword phrase set for the page. With the emergence of AI tools, internet searchers are starting to ask complex, content-rich questions to receive a conversational answer from AI instead of a list of links.
- A Shift To AI-Generated Summaries: Today’s AI tools are providing answers to user search queries, which appear at the top of the page above links to websites. This significantly reduces the need to click through to websites to get answers. As a result, AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of the search results page have created a phenomenon known as “zero-click searches.”
- A Shift To “Answer Engine” Optimization: AI is basically turning search engines into “answer engines” by providing deep, synthesized information over broad, ranked lists of websites.
How AI Is Affecting SEO: How To Modify Website SEO To Appeal To AI Search
There are specific actions to take to modify website content, SEO & coding to appeal to AI Search.
Quality Content Is Still King
First, quality content is still the king. Websites must contain well-written content relevant to the product, service, or mission of your organization. Deploy well-written, informative content, and regularly update website content. At a minimum, website managers should add one new piece of quality content relevant to the product, service, or mission every month.
Optimize Website Pages For Natural Language Queries
It’s important to make a list of the typical questions related to your product or service offering, or non-profit mission. Then incorporate conversational questions with quality answers on the pages of your website.
“Chunk” Content So It Can Be Digested As Snippets of Information By AI Tools
Instead of one big “sea” of text on a website page, it’s important to organize and break up content with H2 and H3 subheads. This makes it easier for AI to parse and summarize what’s on your website page.
Demonstrate “Authority” (Expertise) Regarding Your Product, Service, or Organizational Mission
Search engines and AI both look for “authority,” i.e., proven expertise. Authority can be established with clusters of website content that focus on a specific topic, with detailed author bios, and high-quality sources.
Summary: How AI Is Affecting SEO
In addition to applying SEO basics, it’s critically important to optimize website content for AI search. Once these two tasks have been completed, then advanced, technical changes can be added to pages and website page coding to further enhance a website’s ability to appeal to AI tools. We’ll cover advanced SEO for AI in coming blogs.
In the meantime, need help with basic SEO and/or SEO for AI? Contact DeWinter Marketing & PR USA for help!
