How search is changing

In the space of just a few years, we've gone from talking almost exclusively about search engine optimisation (SEO) to a whole load of new acronyms: AEO, GEO, AIO, AXO… EIEIO? Add in generative search, voice assistants, and a sprinkling of AI chat tools, and it's not surprising that many marketers aren't sure what matters anymore, especially when accompanied by all the headlines declaring the "death of SEO".

Despite all the noise, this isn’t about tearing everything up and starting all over again. The basics still matter, but the way people search, and how answers are delivered, has changed. Users can now get much of what they need straight from the results page or an AI-generated summary, without ever visiting a website.

This article looks at some of the acronyms shaping modern search and what they mean for marketers. 

What's with all the acronyms?

Let's be honest, we love a bit of terminology in marketing, but the pace at which new acronyms have appeared over the last couple of years has gone… well… a little into overdrive, shall we say?

For a long time, SEO was the main way we talked about search. Now it's joined by a whole load of other labels trying to describe how AI is changing the way people find information online. As Nicola Hughes, head of SEO at TAL Agency, says: "Within an industry that already seemed to have countless acronyms, it still feels like we've experienced an explosion of new ones almost overnight."

To understand how these terms relate to each other and where they differ, it helps to look at what each one focuses on:

It's easy to think that each new acronym means search has completely changed, or that we need to abandon everything we know and start again. In reality, many of these describe the same change: search is becoming more answer-led, conversational, and increasingly influenced by AI-generated summaries.

That doesn't mean the fundamentals don't matter anymore. Hughes says that although the language around search is changing, the basics remain unchanged: "At its core, what delivers good search visibility hasn't changed at all. Both search engines and AI are still trying to present the most useful and accurate information to searchers, meaning that everything that mattered before – clear site structure, top quality content, the right authority signals, and website technical elements – still matter today. GEO, AEO and all these other acronyms aren’t replacing traditional SEO, but are evolutions of it."

SEO isn’t dead - but the interface has changed

One of the biggest questions around AI and search is whether SEO still works at all. With AI-generated summaries answering questions instantly on the results page (regardless of whether the information is correct or not), it can feel as though traditional optimisation has been pushed aside.

The shift is less about what search engines value and more about how information is presented to users. Instead of scanning pages of blue links, people are interacting with AI overviews and conversational tools that pull all the information together from different sources. In many cases, this removes the need to click through to a website at all.

Matthew Robinson, senior PR and SEO strategist at Definition, sees this as a natural progression: “AI visibility is really the natural outcome of impactful brand, marketing and communications… It’s evolution, not revolution.”

That change has understandably created a fair bit of anxiety for marketing teams. Some companies that have invested heavily in SEO are beginning to question whether it still has value, especially when visibility doesn’t automatically guarantee traffic. Robinson notes: “In many cases, there’s no longer a need to click through to a website, which leads to less traffic.”

That doesn’t mean SEO has stopped working; user behaviour has changed. When people don’t click through, it’s because their need has probably already been met, and the search experience has done its job.

Less clicking, more answers

For most marketers, SEO has meant earning a spot on the results page and driving clicks. But that’s not always how people find answers anymore.

AI overviews and conversational tools pull information together and present it as one clear response. Often, the answer is there without any need to click through.

Nick Arnold, senior SEO account manager at Marketing Signals, explains the distinction: "Traditional SEO has always been about ranking pages for target keywords. AEO and AI-led discovery are about providing answers to users' questions."

He points out that voice and conversational search demand much clearer content: “Voice-assisted search typically rewards content with a clear structure, easy-to-understand language, strong FAQs and content that directly addresses the challenges that people are facing and trying to find answers for.”

This has fuelled the rise of "zero-click" searches, where being visible doesn't always lead to a website visit, making success feel harder to measure.

Rhys Gwynne, digital lead at Bray Leino, says this has changed how brands think about the value of visibility: “Visibility and traffic have become uncoupled, but the basics still hold. You still need to understand intent, earn trust, and make choosing your brand the easiest decision.”

Unsurprisingly, this has caused some concern – perhaps more than it should, as Robinson explains: "Although it's growing, AI-referred traffic represents no more than 1-2% of total website visits for the average organisation, and yet it's getting a disproportionate share of stakeholder attention."

The challenge now is resetting expectations. AI overviews aren't there to drive traffic, they're there to give answers. If someone doesn't click through, that doesn't automatically mean something's gone wrong.

It also changes what marketers should measure. Traffic still counts, but it's no longer everything: "The contrast to this is that the users who do click through after an AI interaction can be much more valuable. They're better qualified, further along in their research, coming with clearer intent. The volume is smaller, but the quality is substantially better," says Robinson. 

Measuring success in a less predictable search world

One of the biggest headaches with AI-led search is measurement. For the most part, reporting has felt somewhat predictable. You ran a search, saw the same results and tracked rankings over time. AI changes that.

Robinson points out that AI systems don’t behave in a fixed way: “AI systems are probabilistic, not deterministic. If you run the same query ten times, you’ll likely get ten different answers, while results are also personalised based on factors like search history, location, and context.”

That makes visibility much harder to track. You can’t optimise for every single outcome, which means relying on one ranking or report just doesn’t work anymore.

According to Robinson, that change is pushing teams back to basics: “You have to reverse-engineer the customer journey and try to optimise for as many different search scenarios as possible. You’re playing a game of probability, trying to increase your odds.”

In practice, it’s less about keywords and more about understanding what your audience actually wants to know. What people really ask, what they struggle with, and what sales teams hear every day all start to matter more when it comes to how brands show up in AI answers.

There’s no single rulebook 

It’s easy to get distracted by all these new acronyms, but they aren’t the real story. What’s changing is how visibility works and whether your brand shows up in the answers people are actually seeing.

Robinson points out that there’s no single rulebook for AI visibility, but there are some useful questions to start with: “What do we want to be recommended for? Which answers do we want to influence? How do we want to be represented?”

Thinking about those questions will naturally pull teams back to basics. Who are you really trying to help? What problems are you best placed to solve? How clearly does that come across in your content and wider brand presence? The tools and tactics will keep on changing, but the aim stays the same: make it easy for people (and increasingly AI systems) to understand what you do and why you’re worth trusting.

Want to take a deeper dive into Answer Engine Marketing? CIM’s AEM training course explores this emerging field, focusing on how marketers can optimise content for AI-powered platforms and remain visible in evolving AI-driven results.