30-Year SEO Expert: Why AI Search Isn’t Overhyped & What To Focus On Right Now via @sejournal, @theshelleywalsh
Out of many direct conversations I’ve had in the industry, there’s a mixed reaction to how much AI might impact SEO and search. It depends on your business model as to just how much of a catastrophic effect LLM platforms have taken away your clicks and, more importantly, your end business outcomes.
Google still remains the dominant search engine, and right now is still referring the majority of traffic. Although, traffic volumes are significantly reduced, especially for news publishers.
From my conversations, many SEOs believe that despite this Google is not going anywhere and it’s business as usual.
To dig into this topic, I spoke to Carolyn Shelby, who co-founded an ISP in 1994 and has worked in the search industry since for 30 years, working with major brands such as Disney, ESPN, and Tribune Publishing.
Over three decades, Carolyn has seen disruption in the industry many times over, so I asked for her IMHO: Is AI search overhyped?
Her opinion is that focusing on just 1% of a huge share is a good strategy, that we should be focused on technical accessibility and that no one should be ignoring AI search. She also thinks that Google is purposely throttling it’s own progression right now.
The Blogging Economy Is Imploding
Right now, AI and LLMs are dramatically changing search business models and how you can make money online. The biggest impact of this is within blogging for dollars and page views-for-AdSense business models.
As Carolyn said, “It’s not viable going forward as a sustainable business strategy to spin up garbage content sites and slap AdSense all over them and then make enough money to live. Hobby creators or people that are creating out of love will continue to create because they’re doing it for themselves, not for the money. And the amount of money they will make will be enough to maybe buy them coffee every month, but it is not going to be enough to pay their mortgage.
So, the people that are looking for the money to pay their mortgage or buy them a Lamborghini are going to go where there is money to be made, which is over to TikTok and over to YouTube and over to the video platforms.”
This isn’t a temporary disruption. Right now, we’re experiencing a fundamental restructuring of how value is created and captured on the internet.
The influence of TikTok has been building for a few years and is one platform that could be resistant and even flourish in the face of the changes happening in search.
SEO experts I have spoken to cited TikTok as a space where a startup could break into a niche.
1% Of A Trillion Is Traffic Worth Taking
Recently, in a podcast, Carolyn said that less than 1% of traffic comes from AI tools/platforms. On the surface, 1% might seem to be insignificant, but if you consider that 1% of a trillion is 10 billion, that’s a huge amount of traffic.
“If you told me today that if I focused on nothing but ChatGPT and I could guarantee I would monopolize the 1% of traffic, I would jump on that because that is so much traffic.” Carolyn said.
As marketers, we can easily get swept away by the big ‘trillion’ numbers, but if we remember that it can be far easier to gain traction in a smaller niche with less competition than to drown in a crowded space.
For example, SEOs have all been focused on Google because it has so much traffic potential. However, Bing is less competitive and could convert better, so it could be far more beneficial to invest in Bing.
Carolyn believes that the same logic applies to AI platforms. “It’s better to have the traffic from the people that convert, and it’s better to have people coming to your website that are going to convert in general. If you can increase that, increase that.”
Carolyn was clear that in her opinion AI is not overhyped. “I think if you ignore these other opportunities with the LLMs and with AI, then you’re doing yourself a disservice. I wouldn’t call this overhyped. I would call this a shifting mindset, a shift in a paradigm.”
Google Is Holding Back As A Strategic Play
I asked Carolyn if she thought that Google could claw back its dominance, and she has an interesting theory centered on how Google’s Department of Justice battles might be influencing its competitive behavior.
Carolyn explained that during the appeals process, Google needs to prove it’s not a monopoly, which creates an incentive structure.
“They need to prove that they don’t hold absolute control over absolutely everything that happens. Which means they’re going to be inclined to allow other people to encroach on their position because that reinforces their point that they’re not a monopoly.”
Think of it like a driver spotting a speed trap; you slow down until you’re out of range, then floor it again. Google is playing the long game.
Carolyn also identified Chrome data as a critical factor, as it’s Google’s biggest competitive advantage. User signals and behavioral data from Chrome give them insights that drive innovation and performance and forcing the search engine to share this data would fundamentally alter the competitive landscape.
“You take the Chrome data away, that’s a different story. And I think that would be taking the gas out of their engine.” Carolyn commented.
AI Mode Is Here To Stay
We moved the conversation on to AI Mode, and I asked what she thought of the Google AI-generated search results.
Carolyn’s opinion is that Google is not going to roll it back, and it’s here to stay. “I think they’re going to take steps to make sure that we all get used to it and that we all start using it the way they want us to use it to get the best results.”
Carolyn acknowledged that AI Mode creates friction for users conditioned to traditional keyword searches.
“I feel weird asking Google questions like I would ask ChatGPT,” she admitted. “I’m conditioned to interface with ChatGPT in one way and I’m conditioned to interface with Google in a different way and my habits just haven’t changed yet.”
Her belief is that adaptation is inevitable. Google’s dominance means it can guide users toward new interaction patterns.
“They’ll just keep giving us bad answers and we’ll keep trying again because that’s what we do until we figure out how to get the answers that we want out of the machine … together we’ll all keep iterating.”
Google has maintained a position at the forefront of industry development for the last 25 years with constant iteration, and it has wanted to be a personal assistant for years. AI is enabling that to happen.
“It would be ridiculous for Google to say, ‘We’re going to not evolve and we’re going to stay the way we’ve been doing things for 20 years while everyone else is doing AI.’” Carolyn commented. “There’s too much investment in the infrastructure. It’s to everyone’s benefit to learn how to operate within this new environment.”
What SEOs Should Focus On Right Now
My final question to Carolyn was to ask what she thought SEOs should focus on right now.
For me, the actual marketing strategy has been long overlooked in SEO, and Carolyn echoed this in her response to say there are a lot of marketing aspects that have been ignored.
Although in her opinion, the main focus should be on the technical aspects of SEO, not just for search engines but also for LLMs. She emphasized ensuring content accessibility at the machine level.
“I think focusing on the technical fundamentals.” Carolyn explained, “Can the machines [LLMs] traverse your site and retrieve the content and is the content retrievable in the way you need it to be retrievable?”
SEOs should be aware that different LLMs access content differently. Carolyn noted that some platforms, like Anthropic, only capture first-view content, missing anything in toggles or tabs.
“Your job is to figure out what is being found and making sure that the things that the message that you need to have conveyed is in that stuff that is being read. If it’s not, if it’s hidden in something, you have to unhide it.
“There are a lot of different things to do to get to that point, which is what constitutes SEO. Making sure that it’s accessible and it’s the message that you want seen, that if you boil it all down, that is your job.”
The Future Belongs To Those Who Adapt & Adopt
Rather than dismissing AI search as hype, Carolyn thinks we’re witnessing a fundamental transformation that requires strategic adaptation. Business models are changing, and success demands understanding how machines access and interpret content.
“If you ignore these opportunities with the LLMs and with AI, then you’re doing yourself a disservice.”
The future belongs to those who understand that 1% of a trillion is a huge market, who ensure their content is truly accessible to every machine that matters, and who can adopt real marketing.
The professionals who embrace AI will define the next era of SEO.
Watch the full video interview with Carolyn Shelby here:
Thank you to Carolyn Shelby for offering her insights and being my guest on IMHO.
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Featured Image: Shelley Walsh
