SEO Dead? GPTs the New Wiki?

Samisa Abeysinghe
Aug 27
2 min read

No—SEO is not dead, and GPTs are not the new Wikipedia. What’s happening is more subtle and more transformative: the way people find and trust information is shifting. Search engines still matter. Optimization still matters. But the definition of visibility has expanded from ranking on a results page to being the trusted source AI systems choose to cite.

From Rankings to References

The old SEO race was about owning the #1 blue link. Now, success is measured by whether your content is included within an AI-generated answer. That requires more than keywords—it demands authority, clarity, and trust.

Why Fundamentals Still Matter

Technical SEO isn’t going away. Site speed, mobile-friendliness, schema markup, and E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) are more critical than ever. These are the signals AI uses to decide what content it can safely summarize and present.

Search Isn’t Dead—It’s Splintering

AI overviews take over some simple, informational queries. But for complex, commercial, or intent-driven searches, users still click through. The landscape is diversifying:

Quick answers → AI-generated summaries.
Deeper exploration → Traditional search results and human-created content.

It’s a hybrid experience, not a replacement.

LLMs: Competition and Catalyst

ChatGPT and other LLMs won’t fully dominate content discovery, but they’ve raised the bar. They synthesize fast, conversational answers—but they depend on high-quality, human-created content to feed their models. That creates both pressure and opportunity:

Use AI tools to enhance research and strategy.
Double down on unique, authoritative, human perspectives.
Structure content so it’s AI-citation ready.

The Future of Traffic

Traffic is not disappearing—it’s evolving.

Low-intent, broad searches may generate fewer clicks.
High-intent clicks will be more valuable, because they come from users who already consumed a summary and still want more.
New metrics are emerging: AI citation visibility, conversation share, and authority signals.

The raw volume of traffic may shrink, but the quality and intent behind each visit grows stronger.

GPTs vs. Wikipedia

LLMs are not the new Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is curated, human-edited, and built on verifiable citations.
LLMs are synthesizers: dynamic, fast, but prone to errors and hallucinations.

They coexist in the ecosystem. Wikipedia remains a foundational source, while LLMs serve as conversational guides pulling from it and many others.

The Takeaway

SEO isn’t dead—it’s maturing. The question is no longer “How do I rank?” but “How do I become the source AI trusts?”

Search, AI, and human content are now woven together. Those who adapt to this reality won’t just survive the shift—they’ll thrive in the conversations that shape the future of discovery.