It’s the question keeping legal marketers up at night: “With the rise of AI-powered search, is traditional SEO still worth the investment?”

If you’ve been fielding questions from stakeholders asking for Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO) or wondering why your firm isn’t pivoting its entire strategy to optimize for ChatGPT, you’re not alone. The search landscape is shifting, and Google’s introduction of AI Overviews has created a climate of uncertainty.

However, the panic about the “death of SEO” is largely overstated.

Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, recently addressed these concerns. His message was clear: You do not need to choose between traditional SEO and AI optimization. In fact, trying to separate them could be a costly mistake for your firm.

The “New Stuff” is Built on the “Old Stuff”

When tools like Google’s AI Mode and AI Overviews arrive on the scene, the instinct is to demand a specific strategy for those platforms. Sullivan acknowledged that SEO professionals are in a tough spot when stakeholders demand “the new stuff.” However, he warns against inventing something entirely new merely out of appeasement.

Instead, Sullivan explained that the best way to succeed with AI Overviews is to continue executing the fundamental SEO practices that have always worked. He advised telling stakeholders, “These are continuing to be the things that are going to make you successful in the long-term… I’m keeping an eye on it, but right now, the best advice I can tell you when it comes to how we’re going to be successful with our AEO is that we continue on doing the stuff that we’ve been doing because that is what it’s built on.”

The “fancy new thing” is built upon the foundation of the “same old thing.” Google’s AI is trained to look for high-quality, helpful, and authoritative content, the exact same metrics traditional SEO has prioritized for years.

Abandoning SEO Won’t Help Your Firm’s ROI

There is a growing trend of “AI Optimization” services suggesting that businesses should tailor their content specifically to rank in chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. This often involves creating listicles or tweaking keyword phrases in ways that feel spammy, tactics that reputable SEOs abandoned nearly two decades ago.

Before you pivot your budget to chase chatbot visibility, you must look at the numbers.

The search traffic share for these standalone AI chatbots is a fraction of a percent. Estimates place ChatGPT’s search market share between 0.2% and 0.5%, with competitors like Claude registering close to zero.

Compare this to Google and Bing, which still command the vast majority of global search traffic. From a Return on Investment (ROI) perspective, prioritizing AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) over traditional search makes zero sense. You would be optimizing for a microscopic segment of the audience while neglecting the platform where your actual customers are searching.

The Risks of Over-Complication

Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode are different from standalone chatbots, but the underlying machinery remains the same. Sullivan confirmed that the ranking systems powering these AI interfaces are still based on Google’s classic search algorithms.

If you start bifurcating your strategy by creating one type of content for “Search” and another for “AI,” you risk overcomplicating your marketing operations. Sullivan warned that dramatic shifts in strategy to chase AI rankings often lead to confusion rather than success, “The more that you dramatically shift things around, and start doing something completely different… the more that you may be making things far more complicated, not necessarily successful in the long term.”

Simple, high-quality content remains the gold standard. If you muddy the waters with complex, divergent strategies, you may dilute your overall authority.

The Evolution of Technical SEO

If content is king, what happens to the technical side of SEO?



During the same discussion, Google’s John Mueller offered an interesting perspective on the evolution of technical SEO. In the early days of the internet, simply making a site accessible to a crawler required significant technical heavy lifting.

Today, modern Content Management Systems (CMS) have changed the game.

Mueller pointed out that platforms like WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace now handle the majority of technical SEO requirements “out of the box.” This doesn’t mean technical SEO is dead; complex sites still require expert architectural management. But for many businesses, the barrier to entry has lowered.

Sullivan agreed, noting that this shift is positive. It allows marketers and business owners to stop stressing over backend code and focus on what truly matters: the content. Sullivan notes, “I don’t even want to think about this SEO stuff anymore. I’m just getting back into the joy of writing blogs … That’s what we want you to do. That’s where we think you’re going to find your most success.”

By letting the CMS handle the technical baseline, your team can dedicate its resources to creating the kind of deep, expert-driven content that feeds both the traditional search engine and the AI Overview.

How SEO and AIO Work Together

The verdict is clear: SEO and AIO are not enemies. They are partners.

Optimizing for traditional search is, by definition, optimizing for AI Overviews. The AI needs a source of truth. It needs clear, structured, and authoritative data to generate its answers. If your website provides that through solid SEO practices, you are positioning yourself to win in both arenas

So, what does a robust SEO/AIO strategy look like?

Stick to E-E-A-T:  Google’s criteria for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness apply to AI just as much as traditional links. Ensure your content is written by experts.

Provide Comprehensive Answers:  Platforms like AI Overviews leverage “query fan-out” to break down single, complex queries into multiple, specific sub-queries. When writing about a topic, aim to be as comprehensive as possible. For example, if you’re working on a blog about “divorce” in a particular state, be sure to cover all the angles, from child custody and asset division to alimony and mediation vs. litigation.

Focus on Readability:  If a human struggles to read your content, an AI likely will too. Use clear sentence structure, avoid legalese, and use headings and bullet points to ensure scanability.

Don’t Chase Algorithms:  Algorithms change daily. If you prioritize writing for the human user, you are future-proofing your content against whatever update comes next.

SEO/AIO For Law Firms: A New Visibility Paradigm

The arrival of AI in search is a significant technological shift, but it does not require a complete reinvention of your marketing wheel. As Danny Sullivan advises, the “fancy new thing” is rarely as sustainable as the foundational practices that built it.

The path forward is one of integration, not separation. You don’t need to view AI Overviews as a separate channel that requires a new budget and an entirely new strategy. Instead, see it as the evolution of search, one that rewards the same high-quality, expert-driven content you should already be producing. Focus on your audience. Answer their questions. Demonstrate your expertise. If you do that, the algorithms, human-coded or AI-powered, will follow.