How to Improve Your Google Rankings With SEO Fundamentals
AI Search Is Making SEO Fundamentals More Important, Not Less
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Search is changing quickly.
People who once typed every question into Google are increasingly asking ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and other AI systems for recommendations, explanations, comparisons and buying advice. That shift has created an entirely new concern for marketers: how does a website become visible when the answer is generated by an AI system instead of a traditional list of search results?
The response from parts of the SEO industry has been to create new terminology, new services and new optimization techniques around AI visibility.
Some of those developments deserve attention. AI search is real, and businesses have a legitimate reason to understand how their brands and websites appear inside these systems.
But there is another side to the conversation that deserves just as much attention.
Many of the fundamentals that have driven organic search visibility for years are still the foundation. A website needs to be technically accessible. Its pages need to answer real search questions. Its content needs to be useful and relevant. Important pages need to be discovered. Businesses need to understand the keywords and topics that matter to their customers. Authority still has to be earned.
In other words, the rise of AI search does not necessarily mean marketers should throw away their existing SEO strategy.
It may mean they need to execute the fundamentals better and then measure whether those efforts are producing visibility in both traditional and AI driven search.
The Temptation to Chase Every New SEO Tactic
Every major change in search creates an opportunity for marketers to rethink their strategy.
That is healthy when it leads to testing and better decision making. It becomes a problem when the latest development automatically receives more attention than the work that is already producing results.
AI search has created exactly that situation.
There is now a long list of questions surrounding generative search. Should a website create an llms.txt file? Should content be rewritten specifically for language models? Should businesses create separate AI optimization strategies? Should traditional SEO and AI visibility be treated as completely different marketing channels?
Those are reasonable questions. The mistake is assuming that having a new question automatically means there is a proven new answer.
Marketers should be especially careful when a tactic is presented as essential without enough evidence to establish that it consistently produces the promised outcome.
The better approach is straightforward: test the tactic, measure the result, compare it with the alternatives and invest more heavily in the activities that demonstrate value.
Traditional SEO Still Provides the Foundation
Consider what happens before an AI system can mention a company or use one of its pages as a source.
There needs to be information available somewhere.
That information has to be accessible. The website needs to be crawlable. Important pages need to be discoverable. The content needs to make sense in context. The page needs to provide information that is useful enough to be considered relevant to the question.
None of those requirements disappear simply because the final interface is conversational.
A 2026 survey of 131 SEO professionals illustrates how much attention experienced practitioners still place on traditional factors. The survey collected 13,665 individual ratings and found that content relevance, backlinks and content quality were among the factors most frequently selected by respondents as important to Google's rankings.
That survey should not be interpreted as Google's official ranking formula. Google does not publish a numbered list saying that one particular factor is worth a specific percentage of ranking power. What the survey does show is that experienced SEO practitioners continue to place substantial value on the fundamentals rather than treating them as obsolete.
That distinction matters.
The arrival of AI search changes the environment in which SEO operates. It does not automatically remove the need for a technically sound website or useful information.
Technical Problems Can Undermine Everything Else
One of the least glamorous parts of SEO is also one of the easiest to overlook.
Technical maintenance.
A company can spend thousands of dollars producing content and building links, only to discover that important pages have indexing problems, broken links, poor internal linking or other technical issues that make the website harder for search systems to understand.
That is why a technical audit should come before an endless cycle of publishing.
Semrush's Site Audit is designed to crawl a website and identify technical and on page problems. Its current documentation lists more than 140 checks, including issues involving crawlability, indexability, duplicate content, broken links, HTTPS and other technical elements.
The platform has also expanded its auditing capabilities around AI search, including checks related to whether AI crawlers can access content.
This is an important part of the larger discussion.
If a website cannot be properly accessed and understood, creating another article about AI visibility will not solve the underlying problem.
The sensible order is to identify the technical obstacles, fix the important ones and then measure what changes.
Search Intent Matters More Than Simply Finding a Keyword
There is another SEO fundamental that becomes even more important as search becomes more conversational: understanding what the person actually wants.
Imagine someone searches for:
best accounting software for freelancers
That person probably does not want a dictionary definition of accounting software. They may want comparisons, pricing information, features, limitations and recommendations that help them decide what to use.
Now compare that with:
what is accounting software?
The intent is different.
A page that understands that difference has a much better chance of being useful than one that simply repeats the same keyword dozens of times.
This is why keyword research should not be reduced to finding the highest possible search volume.
Good keyword research helps a marketer understand what people are searching for, how competitive those searches are and what kind of content could realistically satisfy the intent behind them.
Semrush's SEO Toolkit includes tools such as Keyword Overview, Keyword Magic Tool, Keyword Strategy Builder and Position Tracking. The toolkit is designed to help marketers research search terms, identify opportunities and monitor how pages perform after they are published.
That information can then be used to make a more practical decision: which topics deserve a page, which existing pages need improvement and which searches are worth pursuing over the long term.
More Content Is Not Automatically Better Content
The pressure to publish constantly can create another problem.
A website discovers a new keyword and immediately creates another article. Then another. Then another.
Eventually, the site has hundreds of pages that overlap, repeat the same information and compete with one another.
A better content strategy starts with the audience rather than the publishing calendar.
What questions are customers asking?
Which topics affect their decisions?
Which pages already perform well?
Where is useful information missing?
Where could an existing page provide a much better answer?
Those questions lead to a stronger content system than simply producing articles because a keyword tool generated another suggestion.
Semrush also provides content research and optimization tools intended to help marketers identify topics, develop content and improve existing pages.
The objective should be simple: create something that deserves to be found.
Backlinks Still Belong in the Conversation
Backlinks are another area where the conversation around modern search can become unnecessarily complicated.
A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. Search engines can use links as part of their systems for discovering pages and understanding relationships between websites.
But that does not mean every backlink is valuable.
A website should not build a huge collection of irrelevant links simply to make a number go up.
The more useful question is whether another website has a genuine reason to reference the page.
Original research can earn links. Useful statistics can earn links. Detailed resources can earn links. Strong industry analysis can earn links. A genuinely useful guide can earn links.
That is very different from treating link building as a numbers game.
Semrush's SEO Toolkit includes backlink analysis and link building tools that allow marketers to investigate backlink profiles, compare competitors and identify potential opportunities.
Used properly, this information can answer practical questions.
Which competitors are receiving links that my site does not have?
Which pages are attracting those links?
Are there relevant publications or websites that might have a legitimate reason to reference my content?
Those questions are much more useful than simply asking how many links a website has.
AI Visibility Creates a New Measurement Problem
There is, however, one thing that traditional SEO reports cannot fully answer.
What happens when a customer stops looking at traditional search results and asks an AI system for an answer?
A brand might have strong traditional rankings and still have limited visibility in AI generated responses for certain questions.
That creates a new measurement problem.
Marketers need to understand not only whether their pages appear in search results, but also whether their brand is being mentioned, recommended or cited when relevant questions are asked through AI systems.
This is where AI visibility tracking becomes useful.
Semrush's AI Visibility Toolkit allows marketers to monitor how brands appear across AI search experiences, examine mentions and citations, compare visibility with competitors and investigate the prompts and topics associated with AI visibility.
That changes the conversation from speculation to measurement.
Instead of saying, “We need to do GEO because everyone else is doing it,” a marketing team can ask a much better question:
Are the things we are doing actually increasing our visibility?
Traditional SEO and AI Visibility Do Not Have to Compete for the Same Budget
This is where many marketing teams can improve their decision making.
They do not necessarily have to choose between SEO and AI visibility.
A company can work on the technical health of its website, improve its important pages, research valuable search opportunities, build relevant authority and then monitor how those improvements affect visibility across both traditional and AI search.
That creates a connected workflow.
Technical SEO provides the foundation.
Keyword research identifies opportunities.
Content addresses those opportunities.
Link building helps establish authority.
Rank tracking measures traditional search performance.
AI visibility tracking shows what happens in generative search environments.
The individual activities are different, but they can support the same business objective: being discovered by people who are looking for what the company offers.
What This Looks Like for a Real Website
Suppose an online retailer has noticed that competitors are appearing for several valuable commercial searches while its own website receives little organic traffic.
The first step should not necessarily be creating an “AI optimized” article.
Start with the website itself.
Are important product pages indexable?
Are there broken links?
Are pages competing with duplicate versions of the same content?
Are the site's most important commercial pages actually targeting relevant searches?
Are there internal links connecting related pages?
Do competitors have authoritative websites linking to pages that the retailer has not yet promoted?
Once those questions have been answered, the business can start improving the pages and content that matter.
After that, it can monitor traditional rankings and AI visibility to see what changes.
That process may sound less exciting than chasing a new optimization trick every month.
It is also much easier to evaluate.
The “Boring” SEO Strategy Can Be the Useful One
There is a reason technical SEO, keyword research, content improvements and link building rarely make exciting headlines.
They are repetitive.
They require research.
They require maintenance.
And they rarely produce a dramatic result overnight.
But businesses do not need their SEO strategy to be exciting. They need it to be useful.
A technical problem that is fixed today can prevent problems tomorrow.
A well researched commercial page can continue attracting relevant visitors long after publication.
A useful resource can earn references from other websites.
A strong internal linking structure can help users and search engines discover related information.
A properly researched keyword strategy can prevent a company from wasting months producing content that nobody needs.
Those activities may not have the appeal of a new acronym, but they are measurable and repeatable.
How to Build an SEO Workflow Around Evidence
1. Find the Technical Problems
Run a site audit and identify issues affecting crawling, indexing, page structure, performance and other technical elements.
2. Find the Opportunities
Research the searches that matter to your customers. Look at search intent, competition, existing rankings and the pages already performing in your market.
3. Improve the Pages
Prioritize pages that can generate meaningful value for the business. Improve their usefulness, structure, relevance and ability to satisfy the searcher's actual question.
4. Build Authority
Develop content and relationships that can earn legitimate references from relevant websites. Study competitors to understand where their authority comes from and where genuine opportunities exist.
5. Measure the Outcome
Track rankings, organic traffic, backlinks and technical health. If AI visibility matters to the business, monitor mentions and citations in the relevant AI search platforms as well.
This gives marketers something much more valuable than a collection of tactics.
It gives them a system they can test.
Where Semrush Fits Into That System
Semrush's SEO Toolkit brings several parts of this workflow together.
Its current SEO Toolkit includes keyword research, competitor research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, on page SEO analysis and technical auditing.
For a marketer, that means the research does not have to happen in one place, the technical audit in another and competitor analysis somewhere else.
You can investigate the market, examine competitors, identify keyword opportunities, audit a website and monitor rankings as part of the same broader SEO workflow.
The platform's AI visibility capabilities extend that process into generative search, where marketers can monitor brand mentions and citations and investigate how competitors are appearing in AI generated answers.
AI Search Changes the Interface. It Does Not Erase the Fundamentals.
The search industry is going through a significant change.
People are asking questions differently. Search engines are generating more answers directly. AI systems are becoming part of the research process. Brands now have to think about visibility in places that did not exist in the same form a few years ago.
That makes experimentation necessary.
But experimentation should not become an excuse to abandon the basics.
A website still needs to be accessible. Its content still needs to answer useful questions. Its pages still need to target meaningful opportunities. Its information still needs to be organized clearly. Its authority still needs to be earned. And marketers still need reliable measurements to determine whether their work is producing results.
The strongest response to AI search may therefore be less dramatic than many marketers expect.
Fix the technical problems.
Understand the audience.
Research the searches that matter.
Create genuinely useful pages.
Build legitimate authority.
Measure traditional search performance.
Then measure AI visibility as well.
That does not mean AI search is unimportant.
It means businesses have more reason than ever to get the underlying SEO work right.
The search interface may keep changing. The need for useful, accessible and authoritative information is much harder to replace.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is traditional SEO still relevant with AI search?
Yes. AI search changes how information can be presented, but websites still need accessible, useful and relevant information. Traditional SEO activities such as technical optimization, keyword research, content development and link analysis remain important parts of managing search visibility.
Should businesses stop focusing on Google and focus only on AI search?
There is no reason to treat the two as mutually exclusive. Businesses can continue improving their traditional search visibility while monitoring how their brands and content appear in AI generated answers.
What is the difference between SEO and AI visibility?
Traditional SEO focuses heavily on how websites perform in search results, including rankings, organic traffic and technical health. AI visibility focuses on how brands and their content appear in AI generated answers, including mentions and citations.
What does Semrush's SEO Toolkit do?
Semrush's SEO Toolkit combines tools for keyword research, competitor research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, on page SEO and technical website auditing. It is designed to help marketers research opportunities, improve websites and monitor search performance.
Is AI optimization a replacement for SEO?
It is more useful to view AI visibility as another area to measure rather than automatically treating it as a replacement for traditional SEO. The technical health, relevance and usefulness of the underlying website still matter.
Final Takeaway
The biggest SEO mistake in the AI era may not be ignoring AI.
It may be abandoning everything that already works because the industry has discovered a new acronym.
AI search deserves serious attention. So do AI mentions, citations and visibility.
But the foundation remains straightforward: build a website that search systems can access, create information people genuinely need, understand the searches that matter, earn relevant authority and measure the results.
7Then use the new generation of AI visibility tools to find out what happens next.