SEO in 2027: How to get found when search is changing.
Does your SEO strategy still revolve around climbing Google’s rankings and watching organic traffic roll in? Bad news, friend: you’re probably not getting the results you need.
Right now, your customers are getting their answers from AI overviews. They’re asking ChatGPT which suppliers they should trust. And they’re using AI tools to do their research purchases before they even think about visiting a website. All this is changing how brands like yours get found in the first place. It changes how trust is built, and crucially, how you secure conversions online.
According to Google’s 2026 announcements, AI overviews now reach more than 2.5 billion people a month, while Google’s AI mode passed one billion monthly users in its first year. These are global figures, and they give us a pretty clear indication of where search is heading.
So, what should you be doing right now to prepare for SEO in 2027? Here’s what we’d focus on:
What are SEO and AEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, but you already knew that. It’s the process of improving your website’s visibility in search engines like Google and, we suppose, Bing. It’s what you do to help the right people find your business when they’re looking for what it is you offer.
AEO is Answer Engine Optimisation. It’s a far newer field than SEO, and it focuses on making your content easy for ‘answer engines’ – such as AI-powered search tools, to understand, use and reference when responding to questions.
Now, admittedly, there is quite a bit of overlap between the two. Doing SEO properly gives your content a solid foundation. Good AEO puts extra emphasis on how clearly you answer questions, and how quickly your brand can be understood and referenced by AI.
By 2027, AEO will deserve a place in your brand strategy in its own right. Website rankings are one thing; how well your business answers the kind of question your customers are asking their AI agents? That’s where the ROI will be this time next year.
Let’s talk about some of the fundamentals of AEO…
1. Getting found doesn't always mean getting clicked.
This is going to sound really annoying, so we’re sorry about that: your brand might be appearing in search results and AI-generated answers, but that doesn’t mean people are making it to your website. The AI overview might have already answered a potential customer’s question before they’ve even reached the traditional search results on the Google (or Bing, sure) results page. Even more infuriatingly, an AI assistant might recommend your businesses during the customer’s research process, and that citation will never even show up in your analytics.
All this means that, if you want to measure your website’s visibility, measuring it using organic sessions alone won't cut it anymore. On the bright side, a drop in traffic doesn't automatically mean your SEO has failed, it just might mean that customers are seeing your info elsewhere.
What can you do about that?
It’s time to start looking beyond rankings and website visits when you measure online visibility. Make sure to track relevant impressions, conversions, and enquiries alongside your organic traffic. And when you know the kind of questions your brand should be answering, make sure your website shows up in AI overviews when they get asked.
You can check Google Search Console for search performance, and use GA4 to understand what happens when visitors reach your website. You can also test AI tools manually, asking the questions that you want to be the first answer for.
2. Make your expertise impossible to miss.
AI can generate an answer on almost any subject. That doesn't mean it’s accurate, useful, or even worth trusting.
That means that now is the time to start showing off your expertise. If you’re repeating the same stuff as everyone else, or you’re relying on AI-generated articles to fill up your blog page, then there’s really no reason for your customers to seek you out. People are already craving real connection in this age of AI. By 2027, that will only have increased.
Google's E-E-A-T framework stands for experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness. These are what Google uses to decide if your website is worth reading, and there’s a lot you can do to improve your scores. So build content around the subjects you really know inside out. Answer the questions your customers tend to ask before they buy, and make sure everything is down in black and white, plain English.
What can you do about that?
It’s time to put credible people behind your content. Adding author bios, referencing reliable sources, and keeping all that info up to date is a great start. Where possible, reference your own work to big up your expertise. Build a connected content platform that draws in all your experience, so visitors can explore a subject in depth rather than finding one blog post without much context.
We've broken down the essentials in our guide on E-E-A-T made simple.
3. Optimise for AI overviews and answer engines.
AI tools need to make sense of your content before they can use it. The easier you make that job, the better your chances of being understood and potentially referenced in an answer.
That doesn't mean stuffing your pages with keywords or churning out hundreds of AI-written FAQs. You have to be clear about what you do, who you help, and what people need to know. It’s all about writing for real people; at the end of the day, an AI can’t buy your products or services.
If someone asks, “How much does commercial solar panel installation cost?”, a page that explains the factors that affect those prices is more useful than one that just promises competitive rates.
What can you do about that?
We keep banging on about this, but it’s time to review your most important pages and make sure they answer the questions customers genuinely ask. Use descriptive headings, clear explanations and a logical structure. Put the key information where people can find it easily, and make their onward journey one worth taking.
Structured data is worth checking, too. That’s the code that helps search engines interpret information on your website, and it includes your organisation's details, products and articles. Make sure relevant schema markup is accurate, tested, and consistent with the content visitors can actually see. It can help search engines understand your pages, although it doesn't guarantee AI citations.
4. Start thinking about agentic AI
The next development to watch is agentic AI: these are tools that can do more than answer questions. The idea is they help users to complete tasks or to make decisions. Yep, we’re living in the future.
Imagine a potential customer asking an AI assistant to compare three suppliers. They want to check their services and identify the best fit for whatever it is they’re ultimately after. To be cited, your brand needs to be represented accurately throughout that process. The information available on your website has to be on point, as do all the details about you that are available elsewhere online.
This is an emerging area, so nobody can honestly promise exactly how it will work across every platform by 2027. But it makes sense to prepare for AI tools taking a more active role in research and purchasing.
What can you do about that?
You need to be consistent. We’re talking website, socials, review sites. What are people saying about you online? Where are you mentioned by partners? Is it all positive? Make your services, locations, pricing information, and contact details easy to understand. Ensure important pages are crawlable, your site works properly on mobile, and there aren't any bugs stopping search engines accessing your content.
5. Build your reputation beyond your website
We kind of touched on this just now: your website matters, but it's only one part of your online story.
Where do your customers actually find out about you? It might be through an industry publication, or a YouTube video. Maybe they went to a networking event where your brand was cited in a presentation. As long as that information exists online, search engines and AI systems can find it.
That's where digital PR comes into play. Earning coverage because you’ve got something to say that’s worth hearing can strengthen your reputation, and create opportunities for people to discover your brand.
What can you do about that?
Look for opportunities to share original research, contribute expert opinions and appear in relevant industry publications. Keep an eye on how your brand is discussed online, and make sure the information people find is accurate. Avoid buying questionable links or publishing guest articles purely to manipulate rankings; neither is a sensible way to build long-term visibility.
What should you prioritise before 2027?
There's plenty to think about, but you don't need to rip up your SEO strategy and start again.
Start by reviewing the pages that matter most to your business. Update outdated information, strengthen the evidence of your expertise, and work out what questions your customers are asking. Then, make sure your website is optimised, and you have a way to track your visibility beyond traditional search rankings.
Keep an eye on how AI search develops, too. The platforms, reporting tools and user behaviours will keep evolving, so your strategy needs room to adapt. The brands that benefit from all these changes will be the ones that understand their audience the most. They’ll publish genuinely useful information, and they’ll make it easier for people – not just search engines – to understand what they offer.
The best news? Doing SEO (and AEO) well is still all about being true to your brand and the reasons you are in business in the first place. Being authentic and demonstrating your expertise is going to be more valuable than ever in 2027, and brands that embrace that will have a head start on the competition.