How does artificial intelligence affect search engine algorithms?

By 2027, online search will change because of AI. People will click on fewer links in search results because neural networks will immediately show the answer directly in the search engine or chat. Already today, 60% of queries do not require visiting websites, and this share will continue to grow.

What is happening?

The situation in internet promotion has changed dramatically. Previously, the main goal was to get into the top 10 on Google so that the user would click on the link, but now it is important to appeal not to people, but to the AI search engine algorithm itself.

You need to create content of such high quality that AI will choose your site as a source and cite it, giving the user an instant answer. This approach—AI SEO—is already yielding impressive results: some companies are seeing a nearly sixfold increase in traffic from AI, and such investments are paying off better than the old methods.

• 

Why is this important?

Ignoring this trend could lead to real financial losses. Experts believe that up to 25% of potential traffic, which is now generated through smart assistants such as Perplexity or Google Gemini, could be irretrievably lost. The rating system itself is also changing: the main indicator of success is no longer the number of clicks, but the citation rate — how often and for what queries AI uses content from your resource as a source. This is the new currency of the digital world. Ranking algorithms have also evolved: they give clear priority to sites with live reviews, unique research (first-party data), and expert opinion, recognizing template and useless content.

What to do? A simple action plan

There is no need to panic, but you need to take systematic action. To adapt to the new realities, you just need to consistently follow a few key steps that will rebuild your website to meet the requirements of AI search.

1. Check visibility. The very first step is diagnosis. You need to understand whether artificial intelligence can already see you. To do this, use special services that analyze whether Google AI Overviews or ChatGPT cite content from your pages and for which specific queries.
2. Change your approach to content. The old tactic of “filling in keywords” is useless. You need to create content that provides a comprehensive answer to the user's question. Write in simple language, structure the information using subheadings, lists, and question-and-answer blocks. Be sure to back up your statements with verified data, statistics, and examples.
3. Test and monitor. The world of AI SEO is changing rapidly.
4. You can't find one perfect formula and use it for years. Experiment with formats and headlines that sound more natural and conversational. It's important to set up analytics (for example, in Google Analytics 4) to track traffic from AI sources separately and understand what content works best, and then scale up the successful experience.

Many teams are already building processes where AI is not a source of ready-made text, but a tool for accelerating and expanding capabilities. But in order not to lose ground and stay at the top of search results, it is important to understand not only what the neural network does, but also how to work with AI texts so that they are useful to both people and search engines. Check out the practical recommendations in the article How to work with AI texts to stay at the top — they will help you build a competent editing and optimization process.

This plan is not a one-time action, but the basis of a new long-term strategy. Implementing it will allow you not only to stay afloat, but also to actively attract a new type of target audience that trusts the answers of smart assistants.

What to avoid? Common mistakes

On the path to adaptation, many people make similar mistakes that negate all their efforts. These often arise from the desire to use old, familiar methods in new conditions. Here is a list of the main pitfalls to watch out for:

1. Publishing raw AI text. Posting content that is entirely generated by a neural network without thorough review and editing is the fastest way to failure. Search engines are learning to recognize such material and mark it as low-value, which leads to a loss of ranking.
2. Ignoring structure. If a page is a solid block of text without clear semantic blocks, it will be extremely difficult for an AI algorithm to extract a clear answer from it. The absence of a structure (FAQ, How-to, tables) sharply reduces the likelihood of being cited.
3. Spamming keywords. Smart algorithms, such as BERT, analyze meaning and context rather than word density. Meaningless repetition of the same phrases no longer works and can be perceived negatively.
4. Writing without expertise. The most valuable asset right now is unique experience, data, and opinion. Content that contains nothing but a retelling of well-known facts is of no interest to either AI or the end user.

By avoiding these mistakes, you can significantly increase the chances of your site becoming a trusted source of information for artificial intelligence, and through it, for thousands of potential customers.

How to win in the new reality

The era of passively waiting for clicks from search engines is coming to an end. The time has come for active participation in shaping the answers that AI assistants give to users - AEO. The winner is the one who thinks one step ahead and creates a content partnership with algorithms. The optimal strategy is a hybrid: use the speed and scalability of AI to create drafts and basic structure, but be sure to bring in human expertise to verify facts, add unique insights, and bring in real-world experience.

Thus, the key task for 2026 and beyond is to stop measuring success solely by the number of articles and positions. We need to start measuring it by the quality and usefulness of the information that artificial intelligence finds and approves. It is worth starting this transformation today, as it will help not only to adapt to change, but also to gain a significant competitive advantage in the new digital ecosystem, where traffic is controlled by algorithms.