I get asked some version of this question almost every week, usually by a business owner who’s read three conflicting LinkedIn posts and come away confused. So here’s the honest take.

The landscape has changed. Not collapsed.

Yes, Google’s AI Overviews now appear on a meaningful chunk of searches. Yes, ChatGPT is handling a growing share of research queries that used to start on Google. Yes, “zero-click” searches, where the user gets the answer without visiting a site, are up.

But “up” is not “everything”. Traditional organic search still drives the majority of online customer discovery in Australia. The ten blue links haven’t disappeared, they’ve moved down the page. The click-through rate on positions one through three has compressed, not collapsed.

What’s actually changed is this: informational queries that used to end with a click through to a blog post now often end inside the AI answer. Commercial queries, “plumber Brisbane”, “best CRM for small business”, “buy 1oz gold bullion Australia”, still overwhelmingly end with a click. Because people making a buying decision want to verify what they’re buying.

What SEO looks like in 2026

If you’re still doing SEO the 2020 way, chasing high-volume informational keywords, writing 3,000-word blog posts stuffed with semantic terms, building generic backlinks, you’re going to struggle. That playbook is losing ground fast.

What works now:

• Commercial and transactional keywords: the terms that represent actual buying intent. These still drive revenue and are less impacted by AI Overviews.
• Entity-focused content: content structured so AI models can extract and cite you as a source. Clear headings, direct answers, structured data.
• Brand authority building: getting mentioned on the sources LLMs trust. Wikipedia. Reddit. Niche industry forums. Legitimate PR placements.
• Local SEO, Google Business Profile, reviews, local landing pages. Still genuinely effective for service businesses, and AI Overviews actually reinforce GBP signals.
• Product and service page depth: pages that answer every realistic question a buyer has. These now have to satisfy both the human reader and the AI crawler.

When SEO isn’t worth it (for now)

I’ll be honest, there are cases where I’d tell a business owner to hold off on SEO:

• You run a one-off event or a time-limited promotion, SEO won’t rank fast enough. Use Google Ads.
• Your margins are razor-thin and you need customers this week. Organic takes months.
• Your product is so niche that total search volume is a few hundred per month nationally. Might not move the revenue needle no matter how well you rank.
• Your site is built on a platform that makes technical SEO nearly impossible (rare, but it happens).

The real question isn’t “is SEO worth it”

It’s “what’s the cheapest long-term source of customers for my business?”

For most Australian businesses with a 12-month or longer horizon, SEO is still that channel. The cost per acquisition on a mature organic programme is a fraction of what you’ll pay on Google Ads or Meta. The traffic compounds. Once you rank, you keep ranking unless you stop maintaining the site.

Paid channels are rentals. SEO is ownership. That calculus hasn’t changed in 15 years, and AI Overviews don’t really change it either. They just change the work.

My actual advice

If you’re a small or mid-sized Australian business thinking about SEO in 2026, here’s what I’d do:

1. Don’t cut SEO if you’re already doing it well. Double down on the commercial pages.
2. Add AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) as a second layer, schema, entity clarity, content restructuring, citation building in AI-trusted sources.
3. Stop obsessing over top-of-funnel informational blog posts with no commercial tie-in. They’re the category most affected by AI Overviews.
4. Spend more time on product, service and location pages. That’s where the compounding value still lives.
5. Keep your paid channels running in parallel. Diversified acquisition is always safer than betting on one.

SEO in 2026 rewards the same things it always has: patience, proper foundations, and not chasing whatever’s in the latest Twitter thread. Anyone telling you otherwise is probably selling something.

If you’re trying to decide whether to invest in SEO for your business, book a free 20 minute strategy call. I’ll look at your site, your current channels, and tell you honestly whether it’s worth the money for you.