Hi there..
“Search Is No Longer About Words”
Search is going through its biggest shift since the smartphone.
And no, SEO isn’t dying. But it is evolving fast enough that most brands are about to be caught flat-footed.
Users are no longer just typing. They’re talking to assistants, snapping photos with Lens, watching videos, and using AI-generated answers.
If your brand isn't built for this, you're losing visibility right now.
⚡ Quick Insight
Despite the hype, traditional SEO isn’t disappearing, just like newspapers didn’t kill radio, and radio didn’t kill TV.
But your mix is changing.
Google is still dominant, but competition is real:
ChatGPT now pulls ~800M monthly users.
AI assistants are becoming answer engines.
Website clicks across platforms are declining.
Visibility now requires diversification, if you're only optimized for Google, you're already behind.
🧠 The Future of SEO Is Multimodal
1. What is Search?
Google’s Gemini, AI Overviews, and Lens are merging text, voice, and image inputs.
OpenAI’s GPT-5 “sees” screenshots, “hears” questions, and gives answers without sending users to websites.
Real-world shifts:
Google Lens usage is accelerating for product and local searches
Voice queries rising in cars, kitchens, and smart devices
Younger users rely on TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube as search engines
AI assistants are becoming “personal researchers”
Search isn't a text box anymore, it's a conversation.
2. Diversification Isn’t Optional Anymore
Website clicks are dropping across industries. That traffic is not coming back.
non-Google search alternatives:
Pinterest for lifestyle, food, and retail
TikTok for how-tos, shopping, and trends
Amazon for product discovery
YouTube for multimodal visibility (still massively underused)
Bing where ChatGPT gets its search data
If leadership is risk-averse…
Start by testing on Medium, Substack, or YouTube, not your main site.
Winning play: A hub-and-spoke system.
One topic → blog → short video → Pinterest pins → LinkedIn post → TikTok → YouTube Short.
One idea, six distribution channels.
3. AI Search Threat (and Opportunity)
Yes, ChatGPT is taking attention.
But the majority of traffic still comes from…Google.
Important nuance:
Running a search engine is hard, AI platforms still rely on traditional indexes.
Behavioral shift is the bigger threat: people love “talk → answer” convenience.
GPT-style memory means personalized search results are the new norm.
AI isn’t replacing search. It’s rerouting it.
Does your Brand show up how you want to?
4. Content Optimization for AI Visibility
Blocking AI crawlers?
Unless you’re a publisher or a government agency, it’s a competitive handicap.
People are already using AI to research higher-ticket decisions: healthcare, home services, B2B, financial, and retail.
The new must-have:
👉 Video.
One client saw 40% fewer returns from adding product videos because customers finally understood what they were buying.
If it can’t “read” or “watch” your content, you don’t exist.
5. Measurement: What Matters Now
Clicks and time on site will matter less every quarter.
Here’s what we’re starting to audit at ScaledOn:
Multi-platform visibility checks:
Google AI Overviews
ChatGPT
Perplexity
Bing + Copilot
Lens surfacing
YouTube search results
Your brand needs presence across all four ecosystems, not just Google SERPs.
Good news:
“Traditional” SEO will likely remain dominant through 2026.
Don’t chase shiny objects.
Anchor yourself in revenue-producing activities and measure incremental lift.
Baseline brand metrics matter more than ever.
🧭 Final Thought
SEO isn’t dying.
It’s broadening.
In 2005, winning meant stuffing keywords.
In 2015, winning meant matching intent.
In 2025, winning means teaching AI who you are, across text, voice, image, and video.
Brands that rethink their content distribution will thrive.
Brands that don’t… won’t be seen.
Let’s scale smarter,
— Iulia
