What is AI SEO and Why Does it Matter in 2025?

What is AI SEO

In short, AI SEO means using AI tools to optimize your content for search. Here, you typically use prompts for SEO audits, keyword research, and predictive analytics, which you can then automatically implement using those same tools.  

AI powered tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) change how people use the web. For example, SGE matches searches to intent to provide AI overviews. Using the same approach, businesses can use learning algorithms to analyze buyer and user intent, enabling the creation of highly targeted content. 

AI SEO versus GEO: What’s the Difference? 

AI SEO is about using LLM tools to improve search engine optimization. This is sometimes called machine learning SEO or algorithmic SEO. 

On the other hand, GEO or Generative Engine Optimization is the term that’s being used to talk about strategies for ranking content in AI query results. As both of those terms develop, we expect to see them used interchangeably, despite the inherent differences in meaning.  

How is AI Impacting Search Engine Optimization? 

AI affects search in a lot of big ways. For example, clickability is down. Despite a 21.64% increase in searches between May 2024 and May 2025, search clicks fell by 30% in the same period. That’s bad news for brands relying on traffic and exposure to make sales. 

The good news is, there are still plenty of ways to get clicks. For example, using helpful content that can’t be easily summarized. Working to build recommendations and citations is also increasingly important, because it means content is more likely to be shared as a link to help you generate traffic. 

Here are some of the big changes in SEO thanks to AI: 

• Technical SEO is more available to everyone. An AI assessment of your page can tell you exactly what you’re doing wrong and how to fix it, complete with the code you need to do so 

• Keyword and competitor research are faster and easier than ever before. We've had keyword research tools and generators for over a decade. Now, we also have LLMs to provide search queries, intent analysis, and technical analysis. 

Hubspot’s marketers saved an average of 12.5 hours per week on SEO tasks when using AI for search engine optimization. 

What’s the bottom line? If you’re not using AI keyword and search tools, your competitors still are. You’ll be spending more money and more time than they are, even if you’re achieving the same results. 

How to use AI for SEO? 

AI can fit into your SEO strategy in a lot of ways. For example, machine learning algorithms can: 

• Use semantic analysis to show intent and search queries used by your target audience, allowing you to build highly relevant content

• Monitor search data to show trends for topic research. Here, prompts are key. 

• Do keyword analysis and selection based on clickability, intent, and user demographics. If you’re using AI for keyword research, the key is to get your prompts right. Use a prompt generator like LightState to help. 

  • Search intent 

  • Search volume 

  • Ranking difficulty (Competition)

  • Difficulty for your brand to rank (E.g., based on domain authority and topic authority)

• Improve keyword and content research. Unlike traditional keyword tools, AI keyword tools excel at long-tail and search phrases, which better define intent upfront. 

• Generate content outlines and research ideas for human writers 

• Audit existing content to identify opportunities for optimization 

  • Auditing on-page keywords 

  • Updating titles, headers, meta descriptions 

  • Adding or reworking sections to meet search intent

  • Identifying outdated or old content (even if it’s just dates)

  • Identify poorly performing content that might need a boost 

• Analyze KPIs to identify top-performing content 

• Generate technical SEO data like structured data and schema markup. This data enables things like rich display in search. It also creates structure, which improves GEO by making it easier for LLMs to parse your site. Google currently uses 31 types of schema data. However, you can simply have a tool like Jasper or use ChatGPT or Gemini to generate it for you and then copy-paste it into your website. 

• Find link opportunities based on semantic opportunities across your site. Even ChatGPT can handle this, just ask it to use your sitemap to find internal linking opportunities. 

  • Add internal links to improve search architecture

  • Add links to orphaned pages 

• Backlink analysis to review inbound links and recommendations and to compare your referring domains with those of your competitors. 

• Detect (and sometimes fix) technical issues like broken data, links, etc. 

• Track ranking across devices, locations, and search engines

• Crawl your site and run technical audits 

Here, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll always want a human auditor to validate AI suggestions. Having a manual review in place can save you from an AI tool making mistakes. 

Best AI Tools for SEO: Building your SEO Tech Stack 

There are plenty of tools you can use to improve SEO across your domains. Here, we’ve focused on tools that help you build SEO strategy, analyze your site, analyze how you’re ranking, and your brand performance. 

Lightstate – Lightstate monitors brand appearance across queries, helping you to identify visibility, user search and intent, and trends. It costs from $79 per month. 

Hubspot Breeze – Hubspot offers a full suite of tools to suggest opportunities, topics, and even generate content. 

Paige by Merchant – Paige automates local SEO strategies including Google Business Profile management. It costs from $99 per month

AlliAI – AlliAI finds keywords and auto-optimizes your web pages based on SERPS. It also offers built in A/B testing. It costs from $299 per month. 

SEMCopilot – SEM Copilot analyzes your keywords to show backlink scores, technical issues, competitor ranking, etc., per keyword. This tool stands out with an AI Narratives for GA4 tool, which you can use to import google analytics data. It costs up to $499 per month.

SERanking – SERanking has been a mainstay of keyword tracking for some time. Now, with its AI overviews and keyword analysis, it uses AI to research keywords for you including those that are showing up in AI overviews. It costs $65 per month. 

OutRanking – Outranking uses machine learning keyword research to generate content plans and keyword plans designed to outrank your competitors. It costs from $79 per month. 

ScaleNut – Scalenut offers a keyword planner and SERP analyzer to help you make content plans. It also has a content creator. It costs $39 per month. 

NitroPack – Nitropack is an AI SEO tool designed to automatically handle technical SEO tasks. You get a site audit and automatic updates to streamline website performance. It costs from $21 per month. 

Brand24 – Brand24 monitors your backlinks and shares mentions where you aren’t linked, so you can reach out and request a backlink. It costs $149 per month. 

MarketMuse – MarketMuse is an AI search engine tool designed to identify content gaps, keywords, and user intent to help you address those on your site. It costs $141 per month. 

Link Whisperer – Link Whisperer uses semantic analysis to create internal linking across your website to improve internal searchability. It costs $97 per month. 

What about LLM engines themselves? Can you use tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, CoPilot and Gemini for SEO? Of course! You just have to build the prompts yourself and do more of the work. In addition, because these models aren’t trained around the specific needs of search engine optimization, you’ll have to work harder to get your results.