AI vs Traditional SEO: Which Delivers Better Results in 2025?

In 2025, AI SEO has begun to play a more prominent role, and it’s a game-changer for businesses. Traditional SEO will never be the same again. Before ChatGPT emerged, SEO more or less revolved around targeting keywords, and this was the big thing that businesses would target when they’d create a website. That still matters today, but a new form of SEO has emerged called AI SEO, also known as AEO, which has begun to play an increasing role in search.

For some business owners this is a relief because as AI began to take over traditional SEO, businesses worried that they were losing traffic to the AI Overview on Google without remedy. In fact, AI summaries caused up to 80% fewer clickthroughs, according to The Guardian. Luckily, the new way of referencing provides businesses with new ways of getting traffic.

 

AI vs Traditional SEO: What are the Differences?

 

Before you can understand which one will deliver better results in 2025, let’s take a look at the differences between AI SEO and traditional SEO. I’ll start by showing you a photo of what AI SEO optimization would target. In the image below, you can see that AEO targets the AI Overview on Google:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I highlighted the key points of interest in the red boxes. You want your website referenced in the red box on the right. You can also get your website referenced if the AI uses your image, which is why I put the image in the AI Overview in a red box. If you click on that image, it’s another way to have your website referenced.

Traditional SEO on the other hand looks like this in the image below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You have a “People also ask” section where if you click on the down arrow, it will show the websites referenced for those websites. Sometimes, it will show YouTube videos, depending on what it deems as most helpful. Besides the “People also ask” section, you have traditional index pages where the websites are referenced. I highlighted those in the red box to give an example of how it looks.

 

AI vs Traditional SEO: Which Delivers Better Results in 2025?

 

Taking a hybrid approach where you use AI and traditional SEO together will deliver the best results in 2025. Here’s why.

AI SEO is the latest evolution in SEO, and you would consider it as a new category within SEO, rather than a replacement. It serves as another way to serve search users. Both serve the same purpose for businesses, which is increasing visibility. You don’t want less of either because losing either one will lower your brand visibility.

Put it this way. Would you choose to only have one eye for seeing? Of course not, you would want both eyes, and in the same way, AI and traditional SEO complement each other. They give you full vision.

Doing one will get you more of the other as well. When you build your foundation on strong traditional SEO principles, you will be seen more in the AI search engines.

 

Won’t AI SEO Give Me Less Traffic?

 

Yes, it will give you less traffic because the AI search engines often give a direct answer, so fewer people will click on your website to see the answer on your website. Many informational searches now end without a click to a website.

That doesn’t mean that AEO is worse because not all traffic was created equal. Some traffic will convert at a much higher rate, and traffic that comes from AEO converts 23x better than traffic from traditional search engines, according to a study from Ahrefs.

This was particularly worth paying attention to because the AI traffic going to Ahrefs accounted for less than 0.5% of their total traffic. At the end of the day, you opened a business website to get conversions, so the conversion rate is more important than traffic alone.

 

Comparing AI SEO against Traditional SEO

 

I put together this comparison table so you can understand how each one will help you and how each one will not help you. Knowing this information will let you know when to choose AI SEO, and when to choose traditional SEO. Take a look at the table below:

 

What Should Local Businesses Focus On: AI or Traditional SEO?

 

Let’s say that you’re a Denver dentist, and you want to rank your pages for the local Denver region. Should you emphasize AI or traditional SEO? You want to focus on both because in the coming years, AEO will continue to play a greater and greater role.

Strong traditional SEO principles still matter, but many now say that you should answer queries in your FAQs pages that directly answer the local queries.

Most local AI SEO services will tell it to you this way:

• Local businesses should focus on traditional SEO for location-based searches.
• To rank well with AEO, you would answer quick questions about your services, your hours, and your address.

As a local business, you need to focus on consistency across all search engines to get the best results.

 

Search Quality for AI Search

 

Now, the artificial intelligence local SEO used in Google’s AI Mode still seems a bit “out of touch.” The technology is still new, and sadly, AI Mode doesn’t fully factor in the searcher’s location. Proximity isn’t super important to it. Many of the results of AI Mode would recommend sushi restaurants in Denver an average of 4.1 miles away.

When you compare this to Google Maps, they were only 0.3 miles away. The other issue was relevance. Searching for sushi with AI Mode brought up one ramen shop that had no sushi. This was a clear display of contextual mismatch.

As a business owner, you simply have to wait for Google to work out the kinks in its AI, but targeting AEO will set you up for being spotted by the AI. Things that you want to do to lay the groundwork for good AEO are things like:

• Implementing schema
• Claim your listings
• Managing reviews

Why the Hybrid Approach is Best Approach

 

Instead of relying on a single source of traffic, you can bring in traffic from AI and traditional SEO. If one source goes down, it won’t destroy your business. I put together this quick infographic to show you why the hybrid approach makes sense:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SEO in 2025 has now evolved to where going with traditional SEO practices like targeting keywords won’t necessarily yield the best results. AI search tools are the newest contribution to SEO.

You don’t want to completely ignore it at the least because so much of the internet has gone toward AI search. An estimated 80% of search users now depend on AI summaries to get their answers at least 40% of the time, according to Bain & Company.

 

Why Traditional SEO is Still Relevant

 

Still, traditional SEO will continue to play a role in the search engines for the foreseeable future. Some of the reasons why it won’t be going anywhere include:

• Traditional SEO offers greater transparency and more clarity about the direct sources.
• You get a more diverse number of formats in traditional SEO including videos, images, forums, and blog posts.
• Traditional search and AI work well together complementing each other.
• They’re often seen as more effective with fact-based queries.
• Some people still want to click links to navigate to websites.

Conclusion

 

Whether AI or traditional SEO will deliver better results will also depend on your goals. For example, if you’re looking for fast results, AI SEO will provide you with much faster results. If you’d prefer to lay a strong foundation over the long term, traditional SEO would make the most sense. Even better, going with a hybrid approach will provide you with the most visibility and give you the best brand presence on the internet. AI SEO Firestarter can deliver these results. You can check out our pricing plans on our packages and choose one that fits your needs.