Search engine positioning SEO used to mean one thing: how you optimized your website to rank higher on the Google SERPs.
If you were on page one, the job was done. If you held the top spot, you could expect a steady stream of traffic.
That definition made sense in a simpler era.
But 2025 is an entirely different era. Search has evolved into something more complex, with AI-powered engines reshaping how people discover information and how brands earn visibility.
The truth is that search engine positioning still matters, just not in the way most people think.
The Old Definition of Positioning
In the early years of SEO, search engine positioning was about achieving and maintaining rank for specific keywords.
Marketers built strategies around climbing the ladder from page two to page one, from position ten to position one.
Rank tracking software reflected this obsession.
Success was measured by whether your target phrases showed up in the coveted top three results.
Backlinks, keyword density, and on-page tweaks were all geared toward inching upward in placement.
That approach worked when search was dominated by the “ten blue links.”
If you weren’t in the top 3-4 slots, no one was consuming your content.
How Positioning Has Evolved Over Time
The definition of positioning has shifted with every major wave of search innovation.
In the early 2000s, keyword stuffing and exact-match domains could push domains to the top.
By the end of that decade, backlinks were the strongest driver of visibility.
The 2010s birthed a new concept we called semantic SEO, where context and intent mattered as much as individual keywords.
Now, in the 2020s, we’ve entered the era of AI-driven discovery.
Search is no longer about static lists of links. It’s about dynamic answers, generated summaries, and contextual relevance.
Positioning has evolved at every stage, and 2025 represents the most dramatic change yet.
Why Classic Positioning Isn’t Enough Anymore
Today’s search environment makes those old definitions incomplete.
Three big shifts explain why:
- AI Overviews compress the results. Instead of ten organic links, users may see just two or three sources embedded in Google’s generative summary.
- Answer engines bypass rankings entirely. Platforms like Perplexity and ChatGPT pull information into natural-language answers, often citing brands that never appear on page one.
- User journeys have fragmented. Many searches end before a user clicks a single link. Traffic is no longer guaranteed, even if you rank first for a query.
None of these changes make positioning completely irrelevant. It means the definition has expanded.
Ranking still drives value, but without AI visibility, it tells only part of the story.
Examples: Rankings vs Citations
Consider a hypothetical B2B SaaS company that ranks #1 on Google for “enterprise data security.”
By classic definitions, they own the position. But when customers ask Google’s AI Overview or Perplexity about “how to secure enterprise data,” the brand is absent.
Customers are seeing information about competitors with stronger entity signals instead.
Now flip the example. A consulting firm may rank #8 for “AI marketing framework.”
Not a stellar position by traditional standards.
Yet, when buyers ask ChatGPT with browsing or Perplexity about “AI frameworks for marketing,” this firm’s guide shows up consistently.
They can win trust and visibility even without top-three rankings.
These examples show the gap between ranking position and discovery position.
In 2025, both matter, but citations often tip the scale in influencing customer decisions.
Have you pivoted to target both? If not, what are you waiting for?
What Positioning Really Means in 2025
Search engine positioning SEO now includes more than just where you appear in Google.
It’s about how often your content gets surfaced, cited, and trusted across both search engines and generative engines.
The new dimensions of positioning include:
- Citation share: How frequently AI-generated answers cite your brand, as opposed to competitors. This is the generative equivalent of market share.
- Engine coverage: Whether your content appears across Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Bing Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and ChatGPT with browsing.
- Entity authority: The strength of your brand and topic entities in knowledge graphs and LLM training signals. Brands recognized as authoritative entities are far more likely to be surfaced.
- Structured visibility: Use of schema to provide machine-readable signals that make your content easier to identify and cite.
In other words, positioning is no longer just about “where do I rank?”
It’s “where do I appear, in what form, and how often am I trusted enough to be included?”
How to Rethink Positioning as a Strategy
If you want to stay visible, you need to adapt your approach to positioning.
The playbook for 2025 looks very different from 2015. For a broader view of what’s shaping the industry this year, see my take on the latest SEO trends and SEO best practices for 2025.
1. Focus on Entities Over Keywords
Keywords still matter, but entities carry more weight. Map the people, products, and concepts that define your brand.
Build hub-and-spoke content clusters that reinforce those entities. With consistent naming and schema markup, you can ensure that all types of engines are able to connect the dots.
2. Track Generative Engines, Not Just Google
Rank trackers still provide useful data, but you also need to know whether or not the generative engines are citing your content.
Build citation share tracking into your reporting. Even a simple spreadsheet that logs citations across engines can provide powerful insights.
And yes, this is rather manual at this point in time. I expect we will start seeing some more fleshed out AI analytics systems on the market next year.
3. Refresh and Expand Content Frequently
AI engines prefer up-to-date information. Refresh your core hubs quarterly with new stats, case studies, or examples.
Add spokes as new questions emerge. Treat hubs as living ecosystems, not static pages.
4. Measure Both Rankings and Citations
Positioning today is dual-layered: traditional rankings in Google and citation share in AI-driven platforms. Success means showing up across both.
Build dashboards that combine these metrics so leadership sees the full picture.
5. Align With N-E-E-A-T-T, Not Just EEAT
Google’s EEAT framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is still important.
But to maximize AI visibility, a broader framework like N-E-E-A-T-T (Notability, Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and Transparency) provides stronger signals.
These qualities make your brand easier to recognize and more likely to be surfaced.
Why This Broader View of Positioning Matters
If you think of search engine positioning as “just rankings,” you will be putting yourself at a disadvantage.
You might celebrate a top-three placement while your competitor earns multiple citations in AI Overviews and Perplexity answers.
In that scenario, they own more of the customer’s attention even if you technically “rank higher.”
Positioning in 2025 is about being present everywhere discovery happens.
That means rankings, yes, but also citations, entity strength, and structured visibility.
The Future of Positioning
Search will continue to evolve. Over the next few years, positioning will likely expand beyond text-based results.
- Voice answers will become more prominent, making conversational optimization important
- Video and image citations will grow as multimodal AI engines reference more formats
- Real-time AI outputs may surface brand content dynamically from APIs or structured feeds
The definition of positioning will continue to broaden.
What won’t change is the need to be recognized as a trusted, authoritative source.
Search Engine Positioning SEO Has Evolved, Not Disappeared
Search engine positioning SEO still matters. But it’s not the narrow game it once was.
Today, positioning means getting your content consistently surfaced, cited, and trusted by both search engines and generative engines.
Brands that update their definition of positioning will outperform those chasing outdated metrics.
The question is no longer “where do I rank?” It’s “am I part of the answers my customers see across every platform they use?”
Explore our AI-Driven Discoverability Services to learn how we help brands secure visibility in both traditional search and generative engines.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Search Engine Positioning SEO
Tommy Landry
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