I’m back on the PhotoBizX podcast for the third time (with host Andrew Hellmich), and this round was all about the question I get asked more than any other right now: is SEO dead now that AI answers everyone’s searches before they reach your website?
Short version: no. But the game has shifted, and most of the panic I see online is aimed at the wrong thing.
Andrew pulled the questions straight from the PhotoBizX premium members’ Facebook group, so this one stays practical. We talked through what AI is actually doing to your traffic, what still works exactly like before, and the one mindset change that matters more than any single tactic. You’re no longer just trying to rank number one. You’re trying to be the photographer an AI tool picks when a client asks for three recommendations.
Andrew and I cover the whole picture of search, AI and photography websites in 2026:
- The mindset shift
- the old model (rank, get the click, win the lead) vs the new model (AI reads your site, then decides whether to recommend you)
- why your website is now both a destination and a source: it’s where AI learns who you are
- why “being picked” is replacing “being ranked”
- Is SEO dead? (the short answer is no)
- the real numbers behind the hype: all AI tools combined are still around 3% of desktop search, Google is still around 75%
- what zero-click search actually means for you
- AI Overviews and why organic clicks are dropping (from roughly 15% down to 8%, and barely 1% on the links inside an overview)
- what’s really shrinking: informational blog traffic, not local or booking-intent searches
- What still works, and what quietly changed
- the foundation hasn’t moved: clear structure, fast pages, real content
- backlinks lost some weight, plain brand mentions (with no link at all) now count
- local search and your Google Business Profile are still strong and less affected by AI
- entity consistency: same business name, phone, address and URL everywhere (7 of my last 10 audits were inconsistent)
- schema and FAQ sections, and what to actually do on WordPress vs Squarespace, Wix or Show It
- how to test it all with free tools (Google’s Rich Results Test, Search Console) instead of paying for Semrush or Ahrefs
- Content and AI
- fewer, better blog posts beat cranking out volume
- Google’s official line: helpful, original, people-first content
- how to use AI the right way (feed it real context, dictate your ideas, make it research and humanize) vs lazy one-line prompts
- AI website builders: great for scaffolding and seasonal landing pages, not yet for a full site that converts
- the AI “pathologies” that give a site away: generic hero copy, fluff, services buried under the blog
- How photographers should actually use AI
- research and strategy partner, not just a blog-post machine
- competitor research, content-gap analysis, pricing research
- what an AI agent is and how it differs from a normal ChatGPT chat
- how to keep it safe when you give it access to your files (the sandbox folder)
- Claude vs ChatGPT/Codex, and which fits a photographer’s work better
- The bigger picture
- test how AI sees you: search yourself like a client would, then ask what AI knows about you and fix what’s wrong or outdated
- why the real problem is usually positioning, not SEO
- AI as a flood: move to higher ground with premium offers, signature methods and real expertise
- why more client touchpoints are exactly what AI can’t replace
If you take one thing from this episode, make it this: stop optimizing only to rank, and start asking why an AI assistant would pick you out of everyone in your area. That answer is mostly about clarity, consistency and positioning, not tricks.
