SEO, AI, and LLMS.txt - Part 1 Probably - Episode 115

Summary

Podcast Summary: Grumpy SEO Guy - Episode 115: SEO, AI, and LLMs.txt - Part 1

Release Date: July 2, 2025
Host: Grumpy SEO Guy
Title: SEO, AI, and LLMs.txt - Part 1

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Introduction

In Episode 115 of the "Grumpy SEO Guy" podcast, titled "SEO, AI, and LLMs.txt - Part 1," the host delves into the ongoing debate surrounding the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). With 14 years of experience running an SEO agency, Grumpy SEO Guy offers his unfiltered perspective on whether AI is set to revolutionize or replace traditional SEO practices.

Addressing Concerns: Is AI Replacing SEO?

Grumpy SEO Guy begins by addressing the prevalent anxiety within the SEO community about AI's potential to overshadow or eliminate SEO strategies. He reflects on his extensive experience to reassure listeners that SEO remains a vital component of digital marketing.

Quote: "SEO is not over, it's fine." [02:43]

He emphasizes that SEO has always been evolving, adapting to changes in search engine algorithms and user behavior. The introduction of AI is just another shift that SEO professionals must navigate rather than a signal of its demise.

Debunking AI's Negative Impact on SEO

The host critically examines claims circulating on SEO forums where marketers assert that AI is "stealing" their traffic. Grumpy SEO Guy challenges these assertions by distinguishing between traffic drop due to SEO factors and the actual influence of AI.

Quote: "If your position dropped, that is not an AI problem. That is an SEO problem." [07:00]

He urges listeners to provide concrete evidence if they believe AI is directly responsible for decreased traffic, highlighting that many traffic issues are inherent SEO challenges like declining search volumes or shifting keyword dynamics rather than AI interference.

The Reality of AI Content

Transitioning to the topic of AI-generated content, Grumpy SEO Guy shares his concerns about the reliability and quality of AI-produced material. He points out that while AI can generate content swiftly, it often lacks accuracy and depth, leading to what he terms "AI slop" — content that doesn't genuinely add value to users.

Quote: "AI is wrong a lot." [10:00]

He recounts personal experiences where AI provided incorrect information about products, underscoring the necessity for human oversight to ensure content accuracy and relevance.

AI Content in SEO Strategies

The discussion progresses to AI's role in content creation for SEO purposes. Grumpy SEO Guy cautions against over-reliance on AI for generating website content, particularly in Private Blog Networks (PBNs), as search engines may penalize sites perceived to use AI-generated content excessively.

Quote: "Don't have a website that's only AI because it might not rank again." [13:59]

He introduces the concept of "AI slop," describing it as low-effort, generic content that fails to engage readers effectively. The recommendation is to use AI as a tool for ideation or content summarization rather than as the sole creator.

LLMs.txt: The Potential Tool

Introducing LLMs.txt, Grumpy SEO Guy explains it as a counterpart to robots.txt, designed to guide Large Language Models (LLMs) like AI in navigating and understanding website content.

Quote: "LLMs.txt is a file that is kind of close in purpose to robots.txt, but it's supposed to provide a way for LLMs to navigate or consider your site." [18:50]

However, he expresses skepticism about its current effectiveness, noting that major AI and search engine companies are not yet utilizing LLMs.txt, rendering it more of a theoretical benefit than a practical solution at this stage.

The Future of SEO with AI

Grumpy SEO Guy offers a balanced view of the future interplay between SEO and AI. While acknowledging that AI will increasingly integrate into search engine functionalities, he maintains that SEO will continue to be relevant. The likely scenario involves a symbiotic relationship where AI enhances SEO practices without rendering them obsolete.

Quote: "Search engines and AI are used for different reasons." [24:16]

He predicts that AI will adopt specific metrics to evaluate content quality and popularity, similar to traditional SEO ranking factors, but the exact methodologies remain unclear. Therefore, he advises focusing on creating valuable, user-centric content and building genuine online presence rather than chasing uncertain AI-driven optimization tactics.

Conclusion

In wrapping up the first part of this episode, Grumpy SEO Guy reassures his audience that SEO remains a cornerstone of digital marketing despite the rise of AI. He encourages SEO professionals to adapt to new technologies while maintaining foundational SEO practices that prioritize quality and user engagement.

Quote: "SEO is probably going to be here for a very long time." [26:00]

He underscores the importance of staying informed, being critical of unverified AI claims, and continuing to produce meaningful content that serves the audience's needs.

Key Takeaways:

• SEO Evolution: SEO is continually evolving and adapting to changes, including the introduction of AI.
• Critical Evaluation: Claims that AI is directly stealing SEO traffic lack substantial evidence and may often stem from traditional SEO issues.
• AI Content Caution: While AI can aid in content creation, over-reliance without human oversight can lead to low-quality, untrustworthy content.
• LLMs.txt Awareness: Current tools like LLMs.txt show potential but are not yet widely adopted or effective.
• Future Integration: SEO and AI will likely coexist, each enhancing different aspects of digital marketing strategies.

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For listeners seeking to stay ahead in the SEO landscape, Grumpy SEO Guy's insights emphasize resilience, adaptability, and a focus on quality as essential strategies in the age of AI.

Transcript

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

This is Grumpy SEO Guy, episode 115, SEO, AI and LLMs. TXT. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. I'm the grumpy SEO Guy and I'm sharing with you the strategies that have helped me successfully run my SEO agency for the last 14 years. In this podcast, I'll be sharing my knowledge and experience, discussing tips and strategies, and trying to help you cut through the confusion that permeates this industry. If you listen to this podcast, you will know more about SEO than 99% of people on the planet. Ready? Let's get started. I'm the Grumpy SEO Guy. Let me tell you why I'm grumpy today. I'm grumpy today because people are kind of freaking out over AI and SEO and is AI taking over and all this other stuff. So we're going to talk a little bit about that today. But before we do that, my lawyer tells me that I have to say this right now. A quick disclaimer before we get started. Everything I say here is based on my experience and opinion from 14 years in the industry. I don't officially know how Google or any other search engines work. Everything I say here is hypothetical and based on my experience, this podcast does not constitute advice or services. What worked for me may or may not work for you. Okay, back to the show. But so. So before we get started, let's do a few reminders. New episodes come out on Wednesday, 9am Central Standard Time.

[Listener]

That's.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

That's on podcast platforms. If you are listening on YouTube, it's a little bit after that. If you leave a comment on YouTube, I try to reply on Wednesday, but sometimes it's not until Thursday. If you enjoy the podcast, please subscribe. It would really help. And while we're on the topic of helping, if you want to help support the podcast, you can do [e-mail] grumpyseoguy I appreciate all my Patreon subscribers very much. If you have a more involved SEO question and you'd like to set up an advisory call on Zoom, you can email me at hellorumpy SEO guy.com and we can talk about how to do that. If you have been on any SEO forums lately, there's a lot of talk about AI and how it's taking over and it's replacing SEO. We're going to talk a little bit about this today. Look, I have been in the SEO industry for 15 years, okay? And in this whole time, people keep saying, oh, SEO is over. It's done. Every time there's a change to, like, you know, a search engine or something, they're like, it's over. And it's. It's not. It's. It's fine. It's been just fine. And it's okay, okay? And now that AI is here, people are like, SEO is done. It's being destroyed by AI. Like, really, really.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Anyways, I think what they're trying to ask is, is AI going to replace SEO? And I honestly think that maybe, but I think that people use AI differently than they use search engines, okay? So I don't think that it's going to. I might, I might. I might, you know, not be accurate with this. But I don't think it's going to replace it. But I think they're both going to change a bit. But let's be clear, okay? Search engine optimization was going to change anyway, because search engine optimization is always varying itself, okay? And it's always needing new things and new attributes that have to be paid attention to and all these things, right? Like, SEO from 20 years ago doesn't work the way it works today. Right? But it's here. You know, people still use search engines as long as people use search engines, okay? So it's like, look, but here's. Here's the thing that. Here's the thing that people are saying. People are. There's been a lot of people that are saying AI is stealing my SEO traffic, okay? This is my inquiry to you, okay? If. If you think that AI is stealing your traffic, okay? And you have proof that AI is. Is stealing your traffic, okay? And I don't just mean your traffic decreased and you don't know what your SERPs are, and you don't know what the. And you don't know how many searches there are, Right? Because those are SEO problems, kind of, right? So if you have proof that your traffic is being reduced because of AI, please place that in the comments below. Because I would love to see how AI has been lessening your traffic, and I would love to see how you know that it is AI and not something else, okay? So, yes, while people are using search engines, it's going to be a thing, okay? Look, here's the other thing. Right now. There's a lot of. There's a lot of videos and there's a lot of articles right now, and they're like, oh, how AI is destroying your traffic, how AI is destroying your search. Blah, blah. Look, okay, look, I want you to pretend for a second that you're an article writer, okay? And you get paid based on how many views your article gets.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Of course you're gonna write articles that sound like that because then you get more visitors.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

There's a lot of clickbait, and then you click on it, right? And then the person you know receives money because they got a lot of views for the articles. So, like, whatever. Look, there's a lot of articles, a lot of videos right now that are talking about this. But I would ask you to question, are they actually sharing actionable advice or is it just making you anxious about what's gonna happen? Okay, so anyway, look, so there's a couple things that we need to talk about.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

First of all, nobody knows how AI actually works yet as it relates to search. Yes, there are people offering services to get listed in AI. Okay, There are companies offering services to get listed in AI, get your website in AI and get traffic. Okay, cool. But nobody really knows how it works yet. So those people are kind of just selling you on your feeling of feeling fear at AI. Right, because nobody actually knows how it works. And we're actually gonna talk a little bit about that. Cause you may have heard of something called LLMs Txt. We're gonna talk about that in a few minutes.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Okay, anyway, look, so the point is this. Yes, at some point, you are probably going to want to get your site listed in AI. Now let's talk about what that would look like. O somebody asks, you know, AI or ChatGPT or something, a question, and ChatGPT recommends your site, and then you get visitors. Okay, that's cool. I think that's the end goal. Okay, I think that's the end goal. But what's happening right now is people are posting things on the forums and they're saying like, AI stole 70% of my traffic. First of all, no, it didn't. Okay, no, it didn't. Second of all, how do you know? Because your Traffic is down 70%. Well, as you know, traffic is not an SEO metric. But wait a minute, because. Yes, I understand that you're concerned about traffic.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So if your Traffic is down 70%, is your position the same as it was? Because if you're ranking in the same place and your traffic is down, then you have a search volume problem. Okay, if searches are down 70%, then yeah, sure, maybe that's the reason.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

But if your position dropped, that is not an AI problem. That is an SEO problem. Okay, so anyway, look, anyway, there are some articles that you may have seen or some videos that you may have seen that explain how to get found in AI. Right? Let me restate. Nobody knows exactly how this is working. Nobody knows exactly what to do. So they're probably just trying to sell you something based on you being scared that you're going to get passed over by AI. Okay, that's really the only way that I can think to explain it right now. So let's talk like, let's talk a little bit now about what this is.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Because let me say there are, I just mentioned this, but yes, there are businesses will say we will have you added to AI. Right, but hold on. If you guys remember the beginning of SEO, there were businesses that would say we will get you listed in Google, which doesn't help. Being listed in a search engine is completely separate from ranking in the search engine. Most. What? Well, I don't want to say most. Many websites are listed in the search engine.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You're indexed but you're not appearing in search. Those are different things. So we will get you listed in AI isn't really even a useful service. Okay, just clarifying that. Anyway, so here's, here's another thing that I want to mention. I know this episode is kind of all over the place, but just. Anyways, okay, so look, I read an article and I cannot find it anymore. I read this like yesterday. Maybe you've seen it. It said AI is recommending lower ranking websites more than higher ranking websites. And I think it said something like websites in like on the bottom of page one are getting more mentions in AI than websites at the top of page one. Which is actually very interesting because you would think that they would just use like the top ranking websites, of course, but maybe they're not. I don't know. Anyway, so here's another thing about AI. So I kind of want to talk about two more problems with AI that let's be honest, they're probably going to be solved in the future. Okay, but whatever, we're talking about them and then we're going to talk about AI content and then we're going to talk about getting listed in AI or whatever. Okay, so look, here's the first problem with AI. AI is wrong a lot, right? And yes, this will be resolved in the future. I agree with you. But for example, I was using ChatGPT the other day and I was asking about like a, a specific supplement, right? And it was like, that product doesn't exist. And I'm like, I just saw it on their website and it was like, checking the web. And it was like, nope, that product doesn't exist. And I was like, oh, my gosh. But I just saw it and it was like, checking web. Okay, the product does exist. And then it told me the wrong information about it, and I'm like, okay, whatever. And then I asked about a different product, and it told me, like, totally wrong. The parts of the product that listed that, like, they were totally wrong. And I'm like, okay. So I don't even. I don't rely on AI for correct data because I understand that it's just compiling and, like, blending what it reads together. And often it is very wrong. Which brings me to sort of another point, and that is this. I just saw this article the other day too. There's something called AI fatigue. People are getting, like, frustrated with AI because it's tiring to use. Okay, yeah, it's fun when you chat with ChatGPT, it's cool. But it's. Look, and again, I'm agreeing with you that this problem will be fixed in the future. Okay? But it's kind of annoying to. At least when I'm using AI, when I. Whenever I read something, I'm like, okay, well, I'm just gonna have to go check this anyway. Cause who even knows if the data that it pulled is correct? Who knows if it's conclusions that it's drawing from the details it's giving you is correct? Oftentimes it's wrong. Have you ever been chatting with ChatGPT and it tells you something and you're like, no, that's not right. And it's like, oh, yeah, you're right. It's like, okay, thanks. What else are you telling me that's not right? So anyway, I know this isn't really related to SEO. I'm just kind of, you know, like, venting right now. Anyways. But look, let's talk about AI content for a minute, okay? Because this is actually a topic that comes up fairly often with people who schedule advisory calls with me and who email me questions. And I've seen this questions posted online and stuff too. So people often ask, when I'm making a pbn, can I use AI content? Can I have AI write my content? Would save a lot of time. Let's be honest. Writing content is kind of an ordeal, okay? But AI can churn out content very quickly, so can I just use that?

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Anecdotal stories suggest to me that maybe that's not the best idea.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I have heard reports of websites that are having difficulty Getting indexed that are PBN sites that are using AI content. In fact, on the previous episode, when we're talking about how to find good backlinks, one of the things that I said was check the site before you buy a backlink if possible. And if it's all AI content, don't get a backlink from it.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

There's something called AI slop. AI slop is basically just content that. That. That was written by AI just to be written and doesn't really help you with anything. It's kind of like low quality content. Or, you know, like if you read a blog that doesn't really make any sense and it's just a blog that's just there, it's kind of like what AI slop is. Not exactly, but like kind of. So if you have a whole website full of information about some topic, but it was all written by AI, that probably isn't benefiting people. Okay, now hold on, because I know that you're thinking, but grumpy SEO guy, you say that content quality is not a ranking factor, and it's not. However, I want you to think that you are a search engine, okay? I want you to visualize you are a search engine. And you know now that AI content can be written very quickly, okay? Do you think that you might write some program to detect AI content and not let it rank as high, or maybe not index those pages? Okay, why? Because it's low effort. Might not be low quality, but it's low effort. It's probably just generic. Most AI writing is generic.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So look, I'm not saying don't use AI content, but what I am saying is there's a good chance that it is being filtered for and you might not want to do it. Which is the reason I tell you, if you're building a pbn, have it look like a normal website.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Normal websites are not full of AI articles, okay? They're not. Say what you will, but they're not. You can use AI, but make sure that it doesn't look like AI, okay? And that's up to you. I'm not gonna. That's up to you to figure out.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

Anyways, it would make sense because remember, what does. What does search engines do?

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

They assign value to things, right? Like how they rank things, right? They assign value to things. And one of the metrics that search engines use, as far as I understand, is how easy is it to fake something.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And if something is easy to fake. We've had episodes about this before. If something is easy to fake, it probably is not going to benefit much in the search results. Okay, so let's. For example, for example, forum profile backlinks are easy to spam, so they don't help you very much. Right? What? Like, right, Social media profiles are easy to spam, so they don't help you very much. Can you think if social media, like if links from social media platforms helped you in SEO, everybody would have like thousands of them and everybody would rank really well because they would have. But. But they don't. It's easy to fake them, so they don't count. Right? Do you understand that concept? So if AI content is easy to fake or write, in this case, it's probably not going to help you and might actually hurt you. Now, I know a lot of people don't share the same opinion as me, but based on how I, how I realize search engines work, that makes sense to me that that would be the next logical step.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

They'd be like, all right, look, we want. Because what does a search engine claim? That it needs good quality content. And we all know that good quality content is determined to be good quality based on its popularity and not if it's actually good. Because we know that search engines can't tell good quality content from bad quality content. And we have episodes explaining the reason why. So we're not going to get into it here, but look, maybe we should just for a little bit because, like, maybe somebody doesn't know the reason, but we're probably not going to anyways anyway. So AI content is fine, but probably don't rely on it too much. Look, if people are saying, oh, my AI content site, my AI content is not ranking, right? And people are consistently saying this, maybe AI content is a bit of a struggle to rank. Maybe you shouldn't do it. Now, just to be complete here, I am going to share the opposite end of this argument.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

If search engines really care about good quality content, it doesn't matter where the content comes from, if it was written by a human or if it was written by a machine. As long as it's good quality, it doesn't matter where it comes from. Right? Right. I mean, you guys are all saying that good quality content matters, so it doesn't matter where it comes from, as long as it's good quality. Am I saying AI can't? Well, I don't even say that quality content is a, is a metric that is useful, so it does matter. But look, I just want to tell both sides of that argument, okay? I am telling you as far as AI goes, do not rely too much on AI content.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You want to use it for ideas, cool. You want to use it for like summaries, cool. Don't have an entire website that's only AI because it might not rank again. I understand this violates some of the rules that most people think exist. However, it doesn't violate the rule that if it's easy to fake, it's not going to help you very much. Okay, so let me just try to describe this one more time. I think that it is very possible that search engines are writing programs to check AI content. And if websites are seem to be having AI content, they might not appear as high in the search engines because it's AI content. Okay, I'm just, I'm just saying that sounds like a thing that, you know, may happen. I don't know. Anyways, let's get back, let's get back on topic now. So let's talk about how to get your website found in an AI because ultimately this is what you want. You want somebody to ask an AI a question and then AI says good question, blah, blah, blah, blah. Check out these websites and your website is one of them, right? Like ultimately, like that's the task, right, that you would like to do. Okay, Nobody knows how to do it yet. Don't listen to anybody. You may have heard of something called LLMs txt, okay? LLMs txt.

[Listener]

Okay.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

You know, like robots txt, right? You guys have heard of robots txt, right? It's a file on your website that, you know, provides instruction to different bots and search engines and stuff. Okay, Anyways, LLMs txt Anyway, LLMs txt is a file that is kind of close in purpose to robots txt, but it's supposed to provide a way for LLMs, large language models to navigate or consider your site. Okay, sounds great. And I'll be honest with you, sounds like a cool thing. Hey guys, all we have to do is add this LLMs txt to our website and AI will like us. Okay, hold on for a second. There is an article on ahrefs.com okay, I'm gonna give you the address. Ahrefs.com blog/what is LLMs? Text.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And then slash. Okay, basically this article explains what LLMs txt is. Okay, cool. It explains it. Yay. And then it basically says that it's a cool idea, but no one is using it yet.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

So what I'm telling you is do not pay attention to anybody who says you need, at least not right now. Who says you need LLMs TXT on your website? That's the way to do it. Because, I mean, you can do it, but the main companies, okay, that are creating the bots and stuff are not actually utilizing LLMs txt. So it's a cool idea, but it's not really doing anything right now. Okay, here's something else I wanted to share. So anyway, I've questioned some of our clients. It's like, have you had any decreases in traffic that you can like, precisely attribute to AI? And nobody has said yes. And I think, I think part of the. Look, I think part of the reason is like, let's, let's, let's discuss how people use AI.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

People. Well, people, people use it for all sorts of things. Let's be honest. But if you have, like, a question that can be answered very quickly, that's fine. I think that's fine for AI. I don't think a person needs to go to your website for that. And what's that person gonna do? Right? If they want to know how to, like, if they want to know how to, like, do something that, like, AI can answer that question, they should probably just ask AI. They're probably not gonna buy anything from you anyway. So, like, there's, there's no reason even, even if you. How do I say this? Even if you lose that traffic, it doesn't, it doesn't matter because they weren't gonna buy anything from you anyway, right? Now, this is different, of course, from AI recommending your website, for example, right? But, like, if somebody just has like a brief little question, right? If somebody has a question they just need, like, an answer to, yeah. They're not going to click on your website and navigate like, whatever. Like, AI just answered the question for them. Maybe it took that information from your website, maybe it didn't, who knows? But that's. I guess that's a loss of traffic, but it's not like a loss of, of sales or something because, like, they weren't gonna buy anything from you anyway, right? Like, I don't, I don't, I don't know how. I don't know how to explain this. I think it might be okay to say that, like, the Internet is changing. And I think that truly. Okay, this is like, this is honestly what I think. So it's fair to say that AI provides a different purpose than SEO, right? Or than search engines. Like, I use ChatGPT, for example. I use ChatGPT sometimes, but I don't ask it the same questions that I type into Google or whatever, right? Because if I'm asking ChatGPT something, I maybe want, like, a different perspective on a thing that you're probably not gonna get from a website anyway, right? Like, I don't. I don't know how to explain this, but, like, if I want to buy something, though, I Certainly don't ask ChatGPT what I should buy. I Google the thing and then, you know, I go on Reddit and I read reviews and then like, I. Maybe we'll look at reviews on YouTube or something. But I'm not like, so chatgpt, you know, like, that's. That's not. I don't. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'm just like a different case, right? But I don't use ChatGPT like that. I've never asked ChatGPT for a recommendation of a website to buy something from. If I learn about anything on ChatGPT, I go, oh, that's cool. And then I go Google it. And I find out, what are people saying about it? What are. Who. Who's selling it? How much does it cost, like, that kind of thing. And same thing, when I Google something, you got that AI summary at the top. I'll look through it really quick, and if it's a short question, like, yeah, okay, cool. I got my answer. Good. And now I'm happy because I don't even need to go to a website and scroll through and try and find it, even though I occasionally do that anyway. Because, look, the AI summary is literally a summary. Like, it might not even be right, you know? So I don't know. Whatever. But it's like if I have. If I have a quick question. Yeah, I don't care that I didn't go to a website, but that's not bad for SEO. That just means the Internet's becoming more efficient.

[Listener]

Okay? So.

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I don't. I don't. I don't see this as a problem that other people do. I think that search engines and AI are used for different reasons. I have conversations with ChatGPT. I look for things on search engines.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

I don't ask, maybe again, maybe this. Maybe other people do. But I don't ask for product recommendations on ChatGPT because I know that it was probably trained by biased information anyway. Right? It's a different topic, but it's not. I don't think. I don't think that. First, I don't think that AI is, like, destroying SEO. Like, I absolutely don't think that's the case. Now, the predictions are that, like, in A couple years, like, oh, it's going to have totally replaced it. I doubt, like, seriously, I really don't think that's going to be the case. Maybe there will probably, and nobody knows the answer, by the way. There will probably be some kind of combination of the two, right? AI will probably feature more heavily in search engines, right? And maybe AI will have a different manner of providing results. Maybe it will take on more of a search engine type functionality. But for at least right now, people are still using search engines to search for things and they're using AI to like find new ideas and, you know, have conversations and like that kind of stuff. So look, maybe I'm totally wrong. I don't really know, but I feel like search engines are still gonna be a thing for a long time. And if I learn how to get your website listed in an AI, I will tell you, because that's a useful piece of information. There will probably be something in the future where people are trying to get their website to show up higher in the recommendations from the different AIs.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And there's only going to listen, there's only going to be a few ways to do that anyway. Just like there's only a few ways that Google, for example, can determine how and where to rank content. There's only a few ways that the AI could be able to do this.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And so in the meantime, all right, this is just general advice. In the meantime, keep creating good content that you wrote that makes sense and that is useful, not because it's a ranking factor, but because you want it to be useful. And we all know that quality of content is unrelated to where you rank, but it is a factor of if people want to read your content. So write good content, get mentioned on different places, right? Because no, again, nobody knows what AI looks at. And probably if you're, you know, rep, there's probably some analog to backlinks, okay? That is, that is either in effect or is going to be in effect with AI.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

And I'm not. Look, I don't want to. I don't even want to like guess right now because people are going to like quote me as having said that. But look, there's probably some popularity metric, okay? Remember, ranking in Google, for example, is largely a popularity contest, right? We've had other episodes that describe how authority is representing popularity and you rank because you're popular, not because you're useful.

[Listener]

Okay?

[Grumpy SEO Guy]

There is probably something similar to that with AI. I don't know what it is yet and neither does anyone else. So probably don't pay people right now to do AI optimization for you, because it would be like paying a content writer to make you rank higher. It's not gonna work. And they don't know what they're talking about. Or maybe they do. Honestly, I have not seen any evidence that AI is taking anybody's traffic. I've seen a lot of people post about it online, but I kind of wonder if maybe they're just looking for an excuse that their traffic dropped or maybe they didn't have any traffic anyway. So I. I don't. I'm not. I'm not sure. I'm not sure what to tell you. And I know that normally on my podcast we're like, this is how this works. Do it this way. But, like, ultimately, nobody really knows what's happening with AI, so I would like to just. I just wanted to share my thoughts and tell you guys to just relax a little bit because SEO is probably going to be here for a very long time. Maybe it's going to change. Maybe it's going to be a little bit different. It keeps changing all the time anyway, so I don't know. Again, guys, I don't know. I don't know. Put an LLMs TXT file on your website. If you want, go look at that article I recommended. It'll tell you more about it. But I'm not really sure what else to share. Thanks for listening. Don't forget to subscribe, and if you enjoy this podcast, please leave a review. It would really help the show out. I hope this episode was helpful. If you have any questions or want to suggest a subject for a future episode, you can contact me on Reddit. My username is Grumpy SEO Guy. You can visit the Grumpy SEO Guy subreddit or you can email [e-mail] if you email me, please either whitelist my email address or check your junk folders, because I've been told that my replies are going into the junk folder. And it's probably because we're talking about things like SEO and backlinks, and I think those words will classify an email as spam. And if you want to support the podcast, because it's the best source of SEO information on the planet and it's free, you can do [e-mail] Grumpy Seoguy and I will talk to you later. You're listening to Grumpy SEO Guy, the SEO podcast that doesn't waste your time with nonsense that doesn't work. Join us next Wednesday for another episode.