78% of companies are missing out on the new battle for visibility. AI doesn’t kill SEO, it transforms it. The rules have changed.
Everyone is talking about the death of SEO. This is the wrong debate. The real question is: If 78% of companies are missing a major visibility opportunity, what have the remaining 22% understood that the rest are still ignoring?
Artificial intelligence does not kill natural referencing. It makes it more complex and, above all, it shifts the rules of the game. Marketers who have not yet integrated this change are navigating on sight in an environment that they no longer completely control.
The false debate: “Will AI kill SEO?”
Google remains dominant with around 90% global market share. But ChatGPT already represents 5.6% of search traffic, an unprecedented increase in just two years. This is not an anecdote: it is the signal of a shift in uses.
Even more revealing, Google’s AI Overviews mean that almost 60% of searches no longer generate any clicks to an external site.
The real issue is therefore no longer to be clicked, but to be cited.
Be the source that the AI chooses to mention in its response. This shift changes everything in the logic of content production and distribution.
From visibility to rank to brand authority
For a long time, SEO was based on a relatively simple equation: more inbound links, better rankings, more traffic. This equation is not wrong. It is now insufficient.
Unlinked brand mentions are becoming an increasingly strong signal for algorithms. To be cited without being linked is to already exist. At the same time, GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is emerging as a discipline in its own right: being present in LLM responses, not just in Google SERPs. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude have their own source selection logics, distinct from those of traditional search engines.
However, only 22% of marketers currently monitor their visibility in these tools. This is precisely where the battle for the next 3 years is being played out. Those who invest now in this emerging discipline will take a structural lead that is difficult to make up for.
What doesn’t change
Before putting everything back together, a clarification is necessary. Backlinks remain a central ranking criterion, Google officially confirmed this at the Search Central Live APAC 2025 conference. Content quality and sector expertise are more important than ever: LLMs rely on reliable, recognized and regularly cited sources. Superficial content has no chance of being selected as a reference by an AI.
The EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) framework now applies well beyond Google. Working on your EEAT means investing in an authority recognized by all engines, human or artificial.
What French companies must do in practice
The temptation is to wait until the market stabilizes. This is precisely the trap.
Adopting “Search Everywhere Optimization” means thinking about your visibility on Google, LLMs, social networks and review platforms in a coherent and coordinated way. Invest in content that is referenced, cited by others, taken up by the media, mentioned by experts, rather than in content that is simply optimized for keywords.
Starting to measure your presence in AI has become as strategic as tracking your positions on Google. Today, almost no one does it. Tools and methodologies exist, it is a matter of integrating them into marketing dashboards.
Finally, do not abandon link building, but expand it: combine link acquisition and mention strategies, digital PR, editorial partnerships, expert speaking engagements, to build a reputation that shines on all fronts.
The window of opportunity is open, for how long?
The history of SEO is punctuated by pivotal moments where those who anticipated took a lasting lead: the arrival of Google, the move to mobile, the rise of quality content. We are living in one of those moments.
Companies that wait to see how the situation evolves will be 2 to 3 years behind those that act now. In 18 months, the cards will have been redistributed. The question is not whether your SEO strategy needs to evolve. It’s whether you’ll be among those who chose to act first.
