Why AI SEO is just SEO
AI SEO is the hot topic of the moment, but the honest truth is that it essentially coincides with classic SEO. When you ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or an AI Overview a question, those systems do what you used to do: they search the web and retrieve information from top-ranking pages. If you rank well for classics, you also rank well for AI. For the deeper how, read generative search optimization, but the fundamentals to rank more visible in Google remain the same.
The four pillars of SEO
| Pillar | What it means |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Choosing the right terms that bring in customers |
| On page | Structure, headings, content and internal links |
| Technically | Speed, indexing and machine readability |
| Off page | Authority and trust from outside |
Start with thorough keyword research, build strong on-page content, set the technique well (where Claude Code really shines), and strengthen your authority with off-page signals.
The two tactics that work
The entire strategy revolves around two complementary tactics. The first is blog posts at scale around informational keywords: that builds topical authority and tells Google that you are an expert. The second is targeted service pages for commercial keywords, where the visitor is already ready to buy and immediately becomes a lead.
Our view
The danger of building at scale is that your content will sound like AI slop: generic, interchangeable, forgotten. Use AI to create good content faster, not to create more bad content. You can read how to do this in our piece about non-commodity content.
Automate with a Claude Skill
Once your process is in place, record it in a repeatable workflow. If you want to have Claude work directly on your site, learn how to connect Claude Code to WordPress. You can automate broader processes with AI automations.
What can you actually do with this, and what not?
An AI development tool changes the execution, not the judgement. That distinction decides where the gain sits and where it goes wrong.
| Task | Faster with an AI development tool | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Site-wide technical checks | Yes | Repeatable work with a clear outcome |
| Adding internal links by a rule | Yes | The rule can be described and verified |
| Completing and checking metadata | Yes | Pattern work across many pages |
| Choosing which page comes first | No | Requires weighing commercial value |
| Writing your own case or figure | No | That material only exists in your own records |
The bottom two rows are why scale alone does not work. A tool that can produce a hundred pages a week produces a hundred interchangeable pages a week as long as no original material goes in.
Which agreements do you fix before starting?
- Always work on a staging environment with a backup, never straight on the live site.
- Record the rules in an instruction file, so every session follows the same agreements.
- Publish nothing without a human having read the content.
- Track which change happened when, otherwise you cannot attribute an effect later.