How will SearchGPT & Perplexity Change SEO & Content Strategies?

The emergence of AI-powered search engines like SearchGPT is not just changing how we find information—it’s fundamentally altering how we create and optimise content. 

Traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) strategies are being upended by AI’s ability to understand context, intent, and nuance. No longer is it sufficient to simply target keywords and build backlinks. 

Key Changes in SEO:

• AI-generated summaries appearing directly in search results
• Increased focus on user intent rather than exact keyword matches
• Preference for comprehensive, authoritative content over keyword-stuffed pages

Adapting Content Strategies for AI Search

Here’s how Contactora is helping clients stay ahead:

1. Depth and Expertise: We’re focusing on creating in-depth, expert-level content that provides unique insights AI can’t easily replicate.
2. User-Centric Approach: Our content addresses specific user intents and questions, moving beyond simple keyword targeting.
3. Structured for AI and Humans: We’re optimising content structure to be easily digestible by AI systems and human readers, using clear headings, concise paragraphs, and structured data markup.
4. Balancing AI Visibility and Direct Engagement: Our strategies now include a dual approach—creating AI-friendly content for search visibility while developing exclusive, high-value content to drive direct website engagement.

Most Impacted Sectors

The impact varies significantly based on content type and business model, with some sectors seeing traffic drops between 18-64% after the introduction of AI search features. 

Businesses heavily reliant on informational content and affiliate marketing are particularly vulnerable to these changes, while those offering unique, experience-based content or local services may maintain stronger positions.

Product Review Sites


Product review websites face the greatest disruption from AI search engines. 

These sites will likely see significant drops in affiliate link traffic as AI generates product recommendations and sends users directly to stores, bypassing traditional review sites.

Informational Content Sites


Websites focusing on educational and informational content are experiencing substantial traffic decreases:

• Top-of-funnel educational content has seen up to 71% decrease in traffic
• Listicles and glossaries are particularly affected
• Category pages showing reduced visibility

Digital Publishers


News and media websites face significant challenges:

• Reduced click-through rates as AI provides direct answers
• Decreased ad revenue from lower website traffic
• Potential loss of content monetisation opportunities

E-commerce Platforms

While major e-commerce platforms may benefit from direct AI shopping recommendations, smaller online retailers could face challenges:

• Reduced visibility in search results
• Increased competition for direct product searches
• Need for stronger brand authority to maintain visibility

Optimising Content for AI Search

Creating content for AI search builds upon existing best practices while introducing new technical considerations. The key lies in balancing traditional SEO with emerging AI requirements.

Content Structure and Quality

Well-organised content that directly addresses user queries remains essential. Your writing should present key information early, maintain a clear narrative flow, and support claims with current data and expert insights. 

Original research and analysis help establish authority with AI systems and human readers.

Technical Implementation

The technical foundation of your content plays a crucial role in AI comprehension. Implement schema markup to identify content types, maintain a clean HTML structure, and ensure mobile-friendly formatting. These elements help AI systems better understand and categorise your content.

User Experience

While optimising for AI, remember that human readers remain your primary audience. Break text into digestible sections and use visual elements like tables and diagrams when they add value. 

A consistent tone and clear narrative structure keep readers engaged while satisfying AI requirements.

Future-Proofing Your Content Strategy

The shift towards AI search demands a forward-thinking approach to content creation. This isn’t just about adapting to current changes—it’s about preparing for future developments.

Multimodal Content Development


AI search engines are becoming increasingly sophisticated in processing different content types. Text alone is no longer enough.

Visual content, including images and videos, now plays a crucial role in search visibility. These elements should complement your written content, not just decorate it.

Audio content is gaining importance, too, with AI systems becoming better at understanding and indexing podcasts and voice recordings.

Data-Driven Decision Making

Understanding how AI interacts with your content requires careful monitoring of performance metrics.

Track changes in search visibility, user engagement, and conversion rates. This data helps identify which content formats and topics resonate best with AI systems and users.

Regular analysis allows you to adjust your strategy quickly as AI search capabilities evolve.

Building Brand Authority

AI systems prioritise content from recognised authorities in specific fields.

Develop deep expertise in your core topics rather than trying to cover everything superficially. This focused approach helps establish your brand as a trusted source.

Create content that offers unique insights and analysis that AI can’t easily replicate. This might include original research, expert interviews, or detailed case studies.

Content Distribution Strategy

Don’t rely solely on search engines to distribute your content.

Build direct relationships with your audience through email newsletters, social media, and community engagement. These channels become more valuable as search patterns change.

Consider developing gated content for high-value resources, balancing visibility with lead generation.

What you can do now to adapt content to AI-Driven Search Results

Let’s look at what you can do right now to better adjust your content to appear within AI search results.

Featured Snippets and Direct Answers

AI search engines often provide direct answers to queries in the search results. This can reduce click-through rates on websites.

To adapt, focus on creating content that goes beyond simple answers. Offer in-depth analysis, unique perspectives, or additional context that encourages users to seek more information.

Structure your content to increase the chances of being featured in these snippets. Use clear, concise language to answer common questions in your field.

Long-Form Content vs. Bite-Sized Information

While AI can quickly provide short answers, comprehensive content is still valuable.

Long-form articles that cover topics in depth can establish your authority and provide value that brief AI responses can’t match.

However, ensure your long-form content is well-structured and easy to navigate. Use clear subheadings, bullet points, and summary sections to make information easily digestible.

User Intent and Query Refinement

AI search engines are becoming better at understanding user intent and refining queries.

Create content that addresses various aspects of a topic, anticipating follow-up questions users might have.

Consider developing content clusters around main topics, with interlinked articles that cover different angles and depths of information.

So Will SEO Die in 2025?

SEO isn’t dying, but it’s transforming. Despite AI’s growing influence, 35% of shoppers rely on search engines more than social media or retailer websites for purchase decisions.

Growth Areas

Community-driven content and video optimisation are gaining importance. Forums, user-generated content, and local reviews increase value in search results. These formats offer authenticity and depth that AI struggles to replicate.

Expert Insights: The Future of Search

The transformation of search has sparked diverse perspectives from industry leaders. We asked some industry experts the question, “How will SearchGPT & Perplexity Change SEO & Content Strategies?”. Let’s take a look at what they said.

Wesley Littlefield

Anglers | Marketing Manager

Optimise Content Formatting for AI

“For one, I think brands will need to be more strategic about their content formatting to appeal to AI-driven summaries that appear right in the SERPs. This could mean more concise, straightforward information upfront, making sure the key takeaways are easy to spot and could fit neatly into an AI response.

But there’s also a tension here. 

Not every brand will be excited about the idea of AI using their content without driving traffic back to their site or properly crediting them. It raises questions around ownership and visibility-after all, if a business’s best content is being summarized directly in the SERPs, where’s the motivation for the user to actually visit the site? I think this will push companies to balance AI-friendly content with high-value, in-depth resources that AI can’t easily replicate. 

This unique content like exclusive interviews, proprietary insights, and interactive tools will serve as a draw for users who are seeking something beyond the quick answers that AI search provides.”

Natalie McKinney

Criterion.B | Manager of Content

Balance AI Visibility with Brand Autonomy

“I see SearchGPT and other generative AI search engines pushing content strategies to evolve in interesting ways. First, AI-powered search will likely lead to even greater emphasis on high-quality, intent-driven content that serves up precise answers. 

For marketers, this means optimizing content to rank in traditional SERPs and to answer nuanced questions that AI search engines might prioritize. We might see increased structured data, conversational tone, and FAQ-style content tailored for quick and direct responses that align with user queries.

At the same time, there’s a valid concern about content being sourced by AI engines without proper attribution, which can impact brand visibility. For some businesses, that’s understandably a drawback – producing content that fuels AI engines without driving direct traffic back to their sites. However, I believe there’s a positive flip side: as AI search matures, companies that consistently produce authoritative, reliable content will have more significant opportunities for enhanced visibility, even in AI-generated responses. This trend might encourage brands to build trust and authority signals, strengthening their overall digital presence to benefit as AI platforms prioritize credible sources.”

Olivia Chiavegato

The Vitallist | Founder, CMO, Head Writer

Affiliate Marketing Shifts to Social Media

“As the owner of an affiliate blog, the emergence of GenAI search engines isn’t promising. Personally, I believe credit is due to writers who put time and effort into creating thoughtful content. In terms of future content strategies, I think affiliate marketing will be done in more of an influencer type role, working on social media platforms to provide value to followers. I also think the emergence of online communities will be a better space to directly reach consumers than through GenAI search engines.

Another concern I have with these types of models is the potential of sponsorship to skew AI outputs to recommend a certain brand, and what the disclosure criteria around this will look like.”

Max DesMarais

Vital Design | Director of Strategy

Adjust Expectations for Organic Traffic

“In our experience with AI overviews in search engines, and the increasing use of GPTs for searches, we are seeing a clear trend in the reduction of organic traffic being generated by many organic queries.

Even when clients are showing up as the primary source in a search engine AI overview, or the primary source in another tool like ChatGPT, or Perplexity, we are seeing decreased organic traffic.

That doesn’t mean that we won’t see the value out of these rankings, and visibility in tools like searchGPT, but it does mean we need to change our expectations in terms of organic traffic. We will likely see a reduction in traffic generated by many queries because of these AI tools being leveraged across the internet.

These changing expectations may mean that certain content strategies may shift in priority due to our inability to measure success, and lack of website traffic driven. This doesn’t translate to reluctance, it simply translates in a slightly different formula to weigh the benefits, and to measure success with our content marketing strategies.”

Shreya Jha

Appy Pie | Social Media Expert

Craft Authoritative Insights for AI

“SearchGPT and generative AI search engines are likely to reshape content strategies by pushing brands to focus even more on concise, high-value, and factual content that can be easily synthesized by AI into direct answers. This shift may lead to a greater emphasis on crafting content designed to provide clear, authoritative insights that are favored by AI algorithms. However, businesses might also grow cautious about investing in content that could be used in AI responses without attribution, potentially impacting brand visibility and traffic.

To balance this, companies may start to prioritize content that adds unique value or builds brand-specific assets, like interactive media or community-based resources, that AI tools are less able to replicate without credit. This could lead to a dual approach where some content is optimized for AI-driven SERPs while other high-value content remains exclusive to owned platforms to retain user engagement and direct traffic.”

Anna Shults

Springs | Co-Founder & CMO

Create High-Quality Factual Content

“In my opinion, the global approach to SEO and content strategies hasn’t fundamentally changed yet. Yes, we now have the option to appear in ChatGPT or Perplexity, but just like before, to rank in search results, you need to create unique and high-quality content – which, of course, ChatGPT can help improve and enhance.

However, the type of content you create can matter. I mean that more “creative” and
emotionally-driven articles, consisting of the author’s reflections, have a lower chance of appearing in search results, whereas articles filled with factual data, statistics, and precise information – which are easier to align with specific queries – have a better chance.

Here, not only does accurate information and statistical data play a big role (which SearchGPT prefers to use when forming responses to users), but also a well-structured, logically organized format, simple and clear sentences, the use of key phrases that align with user intent, and how comprehensively the topic is covered-all of these factors are considered when generating search results.

And of course, as ChatGPT integrates further into search algorithms, ranking factors may change, so it’s important to stay up-to-date on these developments.”

Harmanjit Singh

Origin Web Studios | Founder and CEO

Embrace AI for Content Distribution

“AI search engines demand a fundamental shift in content strategy. Running a website development agency taught me that adaptation drives success in digital evolution.

Three major changes shape our approach. First, focus on comprehensive, expert-level content. Our technical blog posts now dive deeper into web development topics, providing unique insights AI can’t generate. This depth increased our organic traffic by 40%.

Second, user experience becomes paramount. While AI summarizes information, people still crave engaging, well-structured content. We emphasize interactive elements and visual explanations in our client education materials, resulting in 50% higher engagement rates.

Third, authority building matters more than ever. Our team now focuses on creating original case studies and research-backed articles. This proprietary content helps establish credibility both with AI systems and human readers

Pro tip: Don’t fear AI – embrace it as a content distribution channel. We’re experimenting with AI-optimized formats while maintaining our unique voice and expertise.

Remember, successful content strategy balances AI considerations with genuine value creation for your audience. Quality content will always find its readers, regardless of how it’s discovered.”

Conclusion

We are already seeing the impact of Search AI, but SEO isn’t dead. The emphasis is still on creating quality content that key with your ICP. If you are worried about how AI Search will impact your business or need help adapting your marketing strategy for 2025, contact us.