Over the last year, I've started noticing something interesting.

Some pages are maintaining their rankings, but traffic and clicks aren't what they used to be. At the same time, certain pieces of content that aren't ranking #1 are generating leads and engagement.

It feels like search is changing faster than most SEO reports.

Instead of focusing only on:

• Keyword rankings
• Backlinks
• Domain authority

I've started paying more attention to:

• Topical authority
• AI visibility
• Brand mentions
• Question-based content
• Long-tail coverage
• User intent

A Few Things I'm Seeing

1. Question-Based Content Performs Better

Pages answering specific questions seem to perform better than traditional keyword-first articles.

Examples:

• What is AEO?
• How does GEO differ from SEO?
• Has AI Overviews changed search traffic?

These types of pages appear easier for AI systems to understand and surface.

2. Rankings Don't Tell the Whole Story

A page can rank #1 and still receive fewer clicks because users are increasingly getting answers from Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.

3. Topical Authority Seems More Important

We're seeing stronger results from content clusters than isolated blog posts.

Covering a topic deeply appears to matter more than chasing individual keywords.

4. Original Insights Outperform Generic Content

Case studies, frameworks, and experiments seem to generate more engagement than "ultimate guides" that repeat what's already out there.

What We're Seeing at Mathew Digital

At Mathew Digital, we've been experimenting with:

• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• AI search visibility
• Entity SEO
• Topical authority

One thing that's become clear is that SEO isn't dying—it's evolving.

The conversation seems to be shifting from:

"How do I rank #1?"

to

"How do I become the source AI trusts?"

We've been documenting some of our observations and experiments here:

 https://www.mathewdigital.com

Curious what everyone else is seeing.

• Have AI Overviews affected your traffic?
• Are you actively working on AEO or GEO?
• Are you tracking AI mentions in any way?

Feels like the next few years are going to look very different from the last decade of SEO.