Staying a step ahead

How SEO strategies need to adapt to new search behaviours

- NEERAJ SANCHETI

NOT LONG AGO, SEO was a straightforward game: find the right keywords, publish optimised content, build backlinks, and climb the ranks. Land in the top three, and the traffic rolled in. Simple. Celebratory.

AI has rewritten the rules. Search behaviour has changed. The internet is flooded with AI-written content. Traditional SEO strategy is failing big time with organic traffic down by 15-25% as per a recent survey by Bain. Most CMOs are still grappling with how to adapt their SEO strategies to today's fragmented search behaviour.

Google still commands a little less than 90% of global search traffic. But it's no longer the only gatekeeper. ChatGPT is clocking nearly 122.6 million daily active users as of May 2025, and it's growing every month. Other platforms like Gemini, Perplexity and Claude are catching up fast.