FoundConf Lily Ray.pdf

The State of SEO
Lily
Ray
& AI Search
by

OCTOBER 2025

Lily
Ray
VP, SEO STRATEGY
& RESEARCH

This is what it has felt like
to stay on top of SEO & AI
search trends this year

AI AUTOMATIONS
PROMPT ENGINEERING
SEMANTIC TRIPLES
TOKEN EFFICIENCY
LLMS.TXT
COSINE SIMILARITY
AGENTIC WORKFLOWS

CHUNKING CONTENT
QUERY FAN-OUT
NAMED ENTITY
RECOGNITION
VECTOR
EMBEDDINGS
GEO, AEO, LLMO

RETRIEVALAUGMENTED
GENERATION

Who else has felt
like this, at least
once this year?

HOW MUCH HAS TRULY
CHANGED WITH AI
SEARCH, AND WHAT ARE
THE MOST IMPORTANT
DEVELOPMENTS?

AI SEARCH IS
EXPLODING
489M unique
monthly web users
on ChatGPT
CHATGPT IS 65% OF
(worldwide)
THE OVERALL LLM
MARKET SHARE

• ChatGPT download growth is slowing
• Usage is stagnating – average time spent per day dropped by
22.5% since July (U.S>)
• GPT-5 failed to impress

• Increasing concerns about hallucinations

LLM APP DOWNLOADS (WORLDWIDE)

KEEP AN
EYE ON
GEMINI

GEMINI REACHES #1 APP IN U.S. APP STORE

NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN
GOOGLE SEARCH

LIZ REID INTERVIEWS:
• Overall click volume and revenue is stable
year-over-year in Google Search
• Average click quality has increased
• Overall search queries are growing
• Google sends ‘slightly more quality clicks’
than last year
• AI doesn’t replace search; it augments and
reinvents search

- LIZ REID,
VP & HEAD OF SEARCH, GOOGLE

ROBBY STEIN INTERVIEW:
• The “vastness of search is underappreciated”
• Core Google Search isn’t really
changing
• AI is expansionary – more and more
questions are being asked with AI
• AI Mode represents a new layer of
search – it acts as a “brain” that uses
Google for you

- ROBBY STEIN,
VP, PRODUCT, GOOGLE SEARCH

WE STILL DON’T
KNOW IF OR WHEN
GOOGLE AI MODE
WILL BECOME THE
DEFAULT SEARCH
EXPERIENCE

BUT GOOGLE IS HEAVILY
PROMOTING AI MODE &
AI FEATURES

AI MODE MOVING
TO CHROME
ADDRESS BAR

GOOGLE
INTRODUCES
WEB GUIDE
• Combines traditional search
with AI features and tries to
understand intent
• Could this be a clue about the
future of AI Mode?

AI IS
EVERYWHERE ON
GOOGLE…
EVEN COMING
FOR GOOGLE
DISCOVER &
YOUR META
DESCRIPTIONS

H/T PAUL SHAPIRO

h/tTheVerge

h/tPaulShapiro

AGENTIC AI MODE

(GOOGLE AI ULTRA SUBSCRIBERS)

• Books restaurant reservations,
local service appointments
and event tickets
• Powered by Project Mariner
• (AI browser agent)

SEARCH LIVE
(AVAILABLE IN US)

SEO METRICS ARE
EVOLVING QUICKLY.
AND AI PRESENTS SOME
NEW THREATS TO SEARCH.

AI Overviews are
leading to
declining organic
clicks

GOOGLE HAS CHANGED
THE RANK TRACKING GAME
Num=100
parameter
disabled

Limited rank
tracking visibility
for positions 20100

Crawl to Visit Ratio (Cloudflare)
AI CRAWLERS ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY CRAWLING SITES VS. SENDING TRAFFIC
Service

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Average

% Change Jan-Jul

Anthropic

286930.1

271748.2

121612.7

130330.2

114313

71282.8

38065.7

147754.7

-86.7

OpenAI

1217.4

1774.5

2217

1200

995.6

1655.9

1091.4

1437.8

-10.4

Perplexity

54.6

55.3

201.3

300.9

199.1

200.6

194.8

172.4

256.7

Microsoft

38.5

44.2

42.3

43.3

45.1

42

40.7

42.3

5.7

Yandex

15.5

13.1

13.1

15.7

14.7

15.9

21.4

15.6

38.3

Google

3.8

6.3

14.6

22.5

16.7

13.1

5.4

11.8

43

ByteDance

18

16.4

3.5

2.3

1.6

1.6

0.9

6.3

-95

Baidu

0.6

0.7

0.8

1.5

1.2

1

0.9

1

44.5

DuckDuckGo

0.1

0.2

0.2

0.2

0.3

0.3

0.3

0.2

116.3

(FROM CLOUDFARE RADAR’S DATA) – H/T GLENN GABE

AI AUTOMATIONS & WORKFLOWS
Now your entire SEO workflow can be automated… apparently?

PRESSURE AND
CONFUSION FROM THE
MEDIA & C-SUITE

Let’s be clear:
AI Search (AEO) is real and it matters
But be skeptical of popular advice that
'SEO is dead'

THE REALITY

SEO

SO
MUCH
OVERLAP

AEO

RAG: TRADITIONAL SEARCH POWERS AI SEARCH

GOOGLE RESEARCH

GPT-5 IS EVEN MORE RELIANT ON SEARCH
“Without grounding, this model
is virtually useless.
It’s designed to be the brain
on top of tools and information
it’s provided with.
This means SEO has never
been more relevant than
now.”
- Dan Petrovich (Dejan)

AEO/GEO TACTICS:

vs
Fact Fiction

THE CLAIM
Without GEO/AEO,
your website will be
invisible in AI
search.

MY NEW ARTICLES APPEAR IN AI SEARCH A
FEW HOURS AFTER PUBLISHING

MY TEAMMATE WILL’S
RECENT ARTICLE ALSO
APPEARED IN ALL LLMS
WITHIN A FEW DAYS
(AND STILL APPEAR)

OPENAI USES SERPAPI
& CHATGPT ATLAS BROWSER USES GOOGLE

NEW CHATGPT ATLAS BROWSER USES GOOGLE

USES
GOOGLE
SEARCH

Google confirms
“good SEO is
good GEO”

DEBUNKING GEO MYTHS

THE CLAIM:
Google is dead.
Now everyone
starts their search
on ChatGPT.

AI SEARCH IS
EXPLODING... BUT
LET’S NOT
FORGET GOOGLE.
Google search still sees
almost 6x more unique
monthly web visitors
than ChatGPT
(Similarweb data)

DRILLING DOWN TO “SEARCH-LIKE” PROMPTS

Google still receives

~210x more searches
than ChatGPT daily

(search-like prompts)
- Rand Fishkin, Sparktoro

AI SEARCH IS STILL UNDER 1% OF TRAFFIC

- GLENN GABE

95% OF
CHATGPT
USERS ALSO
USE GOOGLE

AI SEARCH LEADS TO
ORGANIC SEARCHES

WHILE THERE IS SIGNIFICANT
OVERLAP, USERS OFTEN USE SEARCH
ENGINES & LLMS IN DIFFERENT WAYS.
REMEMBER: AI SEARCH IS EXPANSIONARY.

LLMS

SEARCH

Creative writing

Fact-checking & research

Homework help

Looking up images and videos

Brainstorming

Navigating to websites

Learning a language

Online shopping

Coding

Finding music & lyrics

Personal Assistant

Maps & directions

Therapy & companionship

Local business information

Summarizing documents

Breaking news & real-time information

Writing emails & cover letters

Live sports scores

Personalized recommendations

Browse products, services, real estate

Image generation

Site: search

GOOGLE CONFIRMS THIS:
• LLMs and search exist
together (users go to Google

for fact-checking)
• AI allows searchers to ask
longer questions

• Focus on unique perspectives

THE CLAIM
Query fan-out
revolutionizes our approach
to writing good content.

QUERY FAN-OUT

1 search runs multiple searches simultaneously,
anticipating the next questions the user might ask

BEST SEO TOOLS

BEST SEO TOOLS FOR ENTERPRISE BRANDS

WHICH SEO TOOLS ARE BEST FOR WEBSITE CRAWLING

WHICH SEO TOOLS HAVE LLM TRACKING
SEO TOOLS FOR LOCAL BUSINESSES

BEST FREE SEO TOOLS 2025

QUERY FAN-OUT:
NEW NAME FOR
EXISTING SEO
PROCESS?

QUERY FAN-OUT REPORT IN DEMANDSPHERE:

TWO FREE QUERY FAN-OUT SIMULATORS:

HTTPS://AICOVERAGE.LOCOMOTIVE.AGENCY/

HTTPS://QUERYFANOUT.AI

ADD REFRENCE CONTENT TO
NOTEBOOK LM; USE THIS
PROMPT TO GENERATE
(SIMULATED) FAN-OUT
QUERIES

THE CLAIM
Content creation can be fully
automated by AI, and it will
rank and be cited just fine.

MOST PURE AI-GENERATED CONTENT CASE
STUDIES EVENTUALLY LOOK LIKE THIS:

AI OVERVIEWS & AI MODE ARE
AFFECTED BY GOOGLE CORE UPDATES,
SO BE CAREFUL

AI CONTENT IS…
DANGEROUS FOR
SEARCH (GRAPHITE)

“URLs with minimal to no
AI content dominate the
search results for the first
20 positions.” - Graphite

WHAT HAS CHANGED?
AND WHAT TO DO NEXT?

SEO

SO
MUCH
OVERLAP

AEO

NEW METRICS
BRANDED IMPRESSIONS

SHARE OF VOICE IN AI SEARCH
DIRECT/ORGANIC CLICKS TO HOMEPAGE
AI SEARCH VISIBILITY BY TOPIC

TRAFFIC, ENGAGEMENT & CONVERSIONS
FROM AI SEARCH REFERRALS
AI SEARCH VISIBILITY BY LLM

MONITOR BRAND MENTIONS & COMPETITOR MENTIONS

Owned
vs.
Earned
vs.
Social

OWNED
YOUR WEBSITE & OWNED
ASSETS

EARNED
3RD-PARTY MENTIONS OF
YOUR BRAND

SOCIAL
YOUR BRAND’S SOCIAL
ACCOUNTS

GROW THE
“OWNED”
CATEGORY

Footer Text Test
Add important facts & statistics

H/T WIL REYNOLDS @ SEER

THE IMPORTANCE OF
ANSWERING &
REINFORCING ALL
BRANDED QUESTIONS

AI SEARCH IS A NEW FORM OF
E-E-A-T & REPUTATION
MANAGEMENT

PROACTIVELY ANSWER ALL
POSSIBLE QUESTIONS A USER
MIGHT HAVE ABOUT YOUR BRAND
USING CONCISE, CLEAR LANGUAGE.

VISIT OUR BRANDED QUESTION CHECKLIST

BUILD & ENHANCE PAGES FOR E-E-A-T &
AI SEARCH VISIBILITY

Consider
Personalization
AS LLMS BECOME
INCREASINGLY
PERSONALIZED,
SO SHOULD YOUR
CONTENT

TRANSLATED & REGIONALLY
APPROPRIATE CONTENT
TARGET CONTENT TO
SPECIFIC AUDIENCES

SPEAK TO SPECIFIC
DEMOGRAPHIC PAIN POINTS
FAQ, Q&A, UGC
EXPAND CONTENT WITH
AUTHENTIC, HONEST ANSWERS
TO COMMON QUESTIONS

MONITOR
TOP CITED
DOMAINS &
PAGES
These fuel LLM responses.

Monitor Top Landing Pages from AI
Search for Any Site

REVERSE-ENGINEER
TOP CITED PAGES IN
LLM RESPONSES
ChatGPT citations often
include pages affected by
Google algorithm updates

USE BRAND & PRODUCT
SENTIMENT ANALYSIS
AS “SOCIAL
LISTENING” FOR AI
SEARCH
Collaborate with
social & PR teams

MONITOR BRAND SENTIMENT FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO
IMPROVE REPUTATION AND QUALITY OF OFFERINGS

DIGITAL PR HAS BECOME MUCH MORE IMPORTANT

Get mentioned on top
cited URLs in your niche

LLM DEALS WITH PUBLISHERS
Many of the most cited sites in ChatGPT
have deals with OpenAI

SET UP ANALYTICS, ASK
YOUR CUSTOMERS
WHERE THEY FOUND YOU

BRANDED IMPRESSION MONITORING IN GSC
Set up regex filter for brand name + misspellings; exclude
common words like “evaluate” from LLM trackers

SEPT 24 - AUG 25,
WORLDWIDE
github.com
5%
microsoftonline.com
8%

reddit.com
8%

wikipedia.org
8%

nih.gov
5%

live.com
4%microsoft.com
4%
instagram.com
3%
bing.com
3%
amazon.com
3%
canva.com
3%
researchgate.net
3%
linkedin.com
3%
indeed.com
2%
yahoo.com

facebook.com
8%

x.ai
2%
youtube.com
24%

2%

Sites Receiving the
Most Traffic from AI
Search (Worldwide)

THE REALITY:
AI Search is Heavily Influenced by Wikipedia,
Reddit and YouTube

REDDIT CITATIONS IN
CHATGPT ARE DROPPING FAST
(1 MONTH AGO)

USING YOUTUBE FOR
PROVIDING
INFORMATIONAL
CONTENT

LEVERAGE YOUTUBE FOR EDUCATIONAL VIDEOS

H.T. ETHAN SMITH, GRAPHITE
h/t Ethan Smith, Graphite

h/t Ethan Smith @ Graphite

LOG FILE
ANALYSIS
Monitor your most
visited pages by LLMs
and focus on UX &
conversion rate
optimization

LLM CITATIONS ARE HIGHLY
VOLATILE (BY DESIGN):
KEEP CONTENT UPDATED
• Freshness prioritized
• Personalized information
• Rotating sources

• Non-deterministic results
• Frequent retraining

BE CAREFUL WITH
INACCURACIES &
HALLUCINATIONS IN
AI RESPONSES

KEEP TABS ON
AGENTIC UPDATES
IN CHATGPT &
OTHER LLMS
Agentic browsing &
commerce
Chat with apps in
ChatGPT

AgentKit – tools for
building agents

TAKEAWAYS

TAKEAWAYS

•

SEO fundamentals drive AI visibility

•

(content optimization, unique/original

Take ownership of the AI Search data
provided by LLM tracking tools

content, website architecture, technical
SEO & performance optimization, E-E-A-T)

•

Collaborate with social media & PR teams
(YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, review sites) to

•

Update KPIs and set up LLM tracking &

analytics to understand AI search impact
•

Answer all branded questions (owned
assets) with clear, detailed facts & data

generate more AI search visibility

THANK
YOU
@lilyraynyc



本文档为站内渲染。原始文件本地路径：saas/source/seo-llm/raw-seo知识库-TXT整理-seo方法论-ppt-John喜欢和引用的那些海外演讲嘉宾PPTs-FoundConf-35b565.txt（仅本地保留，不入库不部署）