The State of Search 2027: What to Stop, Measure, and Fund
Is declining traffic actually hurting your business? Our State of Search 2027 report shows you how to tell, and where to invest next. The article "The State of Search 2027..."
What happened
Is declining traffic actually hurting your business? Our State of Search 2027 report shows you how to tell, and where to invest next. The article "The State of Search 2027: What to Stop, Measure, and Fund" was originally published on Search Engine Journal.
JW perspective
At the Shenzhen SEO Conference held in Shenzhen, China on September 14, SEO experts reached a consensus: "Optimizing for AI search is "just SEO." This view echoes Google's new AI search guidelines from May 15: "The so-called AEO, GEO are still SEO." In short, SEO is the foundation. The rules will iterate over time and with advances in technology, but they will not die out. Vendors and self-styled "experts" who treat AEO, GEO, AIO, and SEO as separate things can stand down. As the original article's title puts it: The State of Search 2027: What to Stop, Measure, and Fund. When so much content is AI-generated, what is the value of content? If your site's content SEO is generated with AI tools, why would users bother going to your site to get what they could already find through AI tools? It's foreseeable that in 2027, with AI-generated content flooding the landscape, original content will be scarcer than ever. If you want good visibility and recommendation opportunities in content SEO, keeping content original, readable, and information-dense is what matters most. As for the basic rules, they are essentially built around the value and readability of the content itself.
Source: Search Engine Journal (2026-09-18) · https://www.searchenginejournal.com/state-of-search-2027-what-to-stop-measure-fund/589617