SEO is not dying — it is bifurcating. By 2030, SEO will exist as two distinct disciplines: traditional SERP optimisation (in slow decline) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) (in rapid growth).
2024: AI Overviews appear in ~7% of UK searches 2025: AI Overviews appear in ~30% of UK searches 2026: AI Overviews appear in ~50% of UK searches; ChatGPT/Perplexity referrals start showing in GA4 2028 (forecast): AI-mediated answers handle 60%+ of informational queries 2030 (forecast): Traditional blue-link SEO shrinks to a long tail of transactional and local queries
Local SEO — "near me" intent stays human-mediated Branded search — direct navigation always exists Transactional queries — users want to compare and buy Long-tail commercial — niche product and service searches
Informational top-of-funnel content — AI absorbs these queries Generic listicle content — "10 best X" pages get summarised Thin keyword-targeting pages — no entity depth, no AI citation
1. Audit your top 50 pages — flag which are informational vs transactional 2. Restructure informational pages for GEO citation 3. Build entity authority — schema, sameAs, knowsAbout, citations 4. Track AI referrals separately — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude 5. Invest in brand — branded search is the most defensible channel
Read our pillar essay on SEO in the GEO era.