A REFLECTION ON SEO & AI SEARCH IN 2025

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

Most GEO tactics recycled core SEO, while risky shortcuts threatened long-term visibility. AI search cut clicks but increased upstream influence, pushing marketers to track brand presence, not traffic. Traditional SEO still powers AI answers through indexing and ranking. The real shift is toward brand mentions, multimodal content, and off-site credibility. AEO expands SEO, not replaces it, and Google remains the main source of website traffic.