Is SEO Still Worth It Now That Everyone's Using AI?
It’s a great question - and one I’m hearing more often from clients.
If people are typing their questions into ChatGPT or asking Siri instead of Googling, does SEO even matter anymore? Here’s the honest answer: yes. More than ever. And once you understand how AI tools actually work, it makes total sense.
First, what is an LLM?
LLM stands for Large Language Model. It’s the technology behind AI tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and others. These tools are trained on huge amounts of text from the internet - articles, product pages, blog posts, reviews - and they use that to answer your questions in a conversational way.
Think of it like this: an LLM is a very well-read assistant who has absorbed a huge chunk of the internet and can summarise it for you on the spot.
But here’s the thing - that assistant still learned everything it knows from websites. And it keeps learning from them.
AI tools still rely on Google
When you ask an AI tool a question today - especially one that needs a current or specific answer - it often searches the web in real time to find the best information. Tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews are pulling from live search results to give you their answer.
So if your website ranks well on Google, it’s more likely to be one of the sources an AI tool finds and references. Your content gets seen - not just by people searching, but by the AI summarising results for them.
Good SEO doesn’t just help you show up in search results. It helps you show up in AI-generated answers too.
What does this mean for your Shopify store?
If someone asks an AI tool “where can I buy [your product] in New Zealand”, the answer it gives will be based on what it finds online. If your product pages are well-optimised - clear titles, good descriptions, the right keywords - you’re in the mix. If they’re not, you’re invisible.
The stores that invest in solid on-page SEO now are going to be the ones showing up whether someone searches Google the traditional way or asks an AI to find it for them.
The basics still matter
You don’t need to do anything dramatically different to be found by AI tools. The fundamentals of good on-page SEO - descriptive page titles, clear product descriptions, clean URL structure, properly named images - are exactly what both Google and AI tools look for when deciding what’s relevant and trustworthy.
The question is: does your Shopify store actually have those basics in place?
A lot of stores don’t - not because the owners haven’t tried, but because Shopify has some quirks that make it easy to get things wrong without realising.
Find out where you stand
An on-page SEO audit is the fastest way to get a clear picture of what’s working on your store and what needs attention. You’ll get a plain-English report with prioritised recommendations - no jargon, no guesswork.
Because whether someone finds you through Google or an AI tool, your store needs to be ready.
Book your Shopify SEO Audit here