In recent years, the marketing community and SEOers have often asked a challenging question: “Is SEO dead?”. If you understand SEO as just "keyword ranking" and "rank tracking", then yes, traditional SEO is no longer relevant. But if you look at SEO from a broader perspective - optimizing the website's ability to appear, be selected by AI agents and bring quality traffic - then SEO is not dead, but is being reborn in a new form.
In this article, I will analyze:
Why the old SEO model is collapsing.
New trends in search optimization: from SERP to AI Overviews.
The concept of “Aggregate Traffic” instead of “Rank Tracking”.
The future of SEO in the intent era.
And how businesses like Tan Phat Digital are applying this trend to bring competitive advantage.
1. Why is traditional SEO “no longer relevant”?
1.1. Google changes the way it collects data
As of January 20, Google requires JavaScript to collect search information, making it more difficult and expensive to track keyword rankings. SEO tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, SEOmonitor have to "circumvent the law" to operate, while the cost per data point increases.
1.2. Keyword rankings lose value
Even before Google adopted JavaScript, the value of keywords was plummeting. Reason:
Today's SERP contains more than 30 different features: Featured Snippets, People Also Ask, Video carousel, Knowledge Panel...
Google displays ads right in the natural results, blurring the line between SEO and Ads.
Most important: the appearance of AI Overviews, where users can get answers directly without clicking.
Consequence: even if you rank top 1 for a keyword with tens of thousands of searches, the actual traffic volume may bottom.
For example, with the keyword “phone wallpaper”, a website ranks top 1 but only receives less than 100 clicks in 3 months, while there are more 47,000 searches/month.
2. “Is SEO dead” or just a shift?
If you only consider SEO as keyword ranking tracking, then yes, SEO is “dead”. But if SEO is understood as the art of optimizing to appear in the search journey, then SEO is evolving into a new model:
Keywords are no longer the center.
Intent is the future.
AI agents (like Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity) are filtering on behalf of users, select and suggest information.
That means, winning in SEO is no longer about being at the top of Google, but being chosen by AI agents as a data source to respond to users.
3. Aggregate Traffic – replaces Rank Tracking
3.1. Problems with Rank Tracking
Costly and inaccurate.
Search volume does not reflect reality (keyword volume is misleading).
Cannot measure zero-click search (when users receive answers right in SERP or AI Overviews).
3.2. Aggregate Traffic – a new approach
Instead of tracking each keyword, Aggregate Traffic focuses on total organic traffic of a page or domain.
More realistic: a page can rank for thousands of different keywords.
Simpler: just track organic sessions in Google Analytics/Search Console.
More suitable for AI: because AI can distribute traffic without going through traditional keywords.
3.3. Benefits
Measure overall SEO effectiveness.
Focus on “topics” and “intent” instead of keywords.
Clearly reflect the actual trend of increasing/decreasing organic traffic.
4. Keywords have no future – Intent is the key
In the era of LLM (Large Language Models), AI understands context and user intent better than keywords.
For example:
Users do not search for “buy cheap massage chairs” but will ask Gemini:
“I have 20 million, which massage chair should I buy that is suitable for the elderly?”
AI agent will choose a website with clear data (Product schema, warranty information, detailed review).
This leads to a big change:
Research intent (search purpose) instead of researching intent keyword.
Create in-depth contentthat comprehensively answers related questions.
Optimize schema and entities so that AI can easily understand and extract.
5. SEO in the era of AI & Agentic Search
5.1. SEO is not dead, but ASO (Agentic Search Optimization)
ASO focuses on:
Optimizing for AI agents instead of just Google SERP.
Providing clearly structured data.
Ensuring the website is a trusted source for AI to choose choose.
5.2. Reasons Google applies JavaScript crawling
Google wants to limit LLM crawlers (ChatGPT, Perplexity) from “siphoning” SERP data. This shows that:
Google is well aware of competition from AI.
SEO will not stop at Google, but will also expand to other AI platforms.
5.3. The upcoming trend
Zero-click search will become increasingly popular.
Traffic referral from AI agents (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity) will be the new index.
SEOers need to learn how to “reverse” LLM like they did with Google.
6. Practical orientation for businesses and SEOers
6.1. Businesses need to:
Invest in intent-driven content, comprehensively answer questions.
Deploy schema, entity, structured data for AI to read and understand easily.
Monitor Aggregate Traffic instead of focusing on rankings.
6.2. SEOers need to:
Incorporate paid data (Google Ads, PMAX) to understand actual intent.
Analyze user behavior on platforms like Reddit, YouTube.
Track traffic from AI agents (for example, ChatGPT has added UTM for outbound links).
6.3. Case study: Tan Phat Digital
In Vietnam, Tan Phat Digital is one of the pioneers in researching and implementing Agentic Search Optimization for customers.
They don't just stop at traditional SEO but also:
Help businesses standardize data so that AI agents can easily access it.
Build content hub based on intent instead of keywords.
Monitor and optimize Aggregate Traffic to reflect actual effectiveness.
SEO is not dead, but is resurgent born
Traditional SEO based on keywords and rankings is gradually outdated. But SEO in the new era – focusing on intent and AI agents – is still alive and stronger than ever.
Instead of asking “Is SEO dead?”, the correct question is:
Are you ready for SEO 2.0 – Agentic Search Optimization?
Businesses that catch it early, optimizing for both users and AI, will have an outstanding advantage. in the new era of search.
Share
