What's the difference between SEO and AI SEO?

It's permanent. ChatGPT gets 100+ million users monthly. Perplexity is growing 20% month-over-month. When people ask these AI tools questions, they cite sources — or they don't cite you at all. Traditional SEO gets you Google rankings. AI SEO gets you cited by AI models when people ask questions in your niche. Miss this, and you're invisible to a massive chunk of search traffic. The good news? Most sites aren't optimizing for AI yet. Get ahead now while it's still easy.

No, but ignoring AI search will kill your traffic growth. People still Google things. But they're also asking ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. If your content isn't optimized for both, you're missing half the opportunity.

Absolutely not—but it's evolving faster than ever. We analyzed 20+ expert opinions from Reddit's r/SEO community and the consensus is clear: SEO isn't dying, it's expanding. While traditional search still drives 80-90% of organic traffic, AI search presents new opportunities through 'query fan-out' where AI systems generate multiple SEO-targetable searches. The real change? You now need to optimize for both traditional search AND AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's SGE. Businesses ignoring this dual approach are leaving money on the table. Curious about what SEO experts really think? [Read our comprehensive analysis of the 'Is SEO Dead?' debate](https://www.easyseo.online/blog/is-seo-dead-2025-reddit-experts-ai-future-search), featuring real data and strategies from professionals actively thriving in 2025's search landscape.