How should businesses approach SEO when search behavior is changing, AI Overviews are reshaping search results, and traffic alone no longer tells the full story?
These questions are becoming increasingly important for businesses investing in digital growth.
Ani Sargsyan, Strategy & Partnerships Lead at DevelopWay, shares her perspective on the evolving role of SEO in the TechBehemoths SEO Expert Insights 2026 – Second Edition, alongside other industry professionals.
Her contribution highlights a central principle: effective SEO is not simply about achieving higher rankings. It is about understanding customers, building digital authority, improving conversion rates, and connecting search visibility to measurable business outcomes.
SEO should contribute to business growth, not just traffic
SEO remains a long-term investment rather than an instant client acquisition channel. The first 12 months should be approached as a structured growth process, with priorities evolving as the website and its performance develop.
The initial stage focuses on understanding the business, researching the target audience, assessing search intent, identifying technical issues, and establishing reliable conversion tracking. The next stage involves optimizing important pages, developing relevant content, strengthening internal links, and improving the website experience.
As the strategy matures, authority building, digital PR, and continuous optimization become increasingly important.
However, progress should not be measured by rankings alone. Businesses need to understand whether SEO attracts qualified prospects, generates leads, contributes to the sales pipeline, and delivers a return on investment.
The timeline depends on several factors, including the industry, competition, website history, existing authority, available resources, and the quality of execution.
Start with the customer, not just the keywords
One of the opportunities businesses often underestimate is the research required to understand their prospects.
Traditional keyword research remains valuable, but it does not always reveal the complete decision-making process. Businesses also need to understand their customers’ pain points, concerns, objections, alternatives, and selection criteria.
AI tools and large language models (LLMs) can support this research by helping teams analyze customer feedback, reviews, community discussions, competitor content, and recurring questions. Their findings should be validated against real customer evidence wherever possible.
Another useful approach is to simulate query fan-out: exploring the related questions, comparisons, risks, alternatives, and follow-up searches associated with a primary query.
For example, someone searching for a software development partner may also want to understand pricing, technical expertise, project timelines, security, communication, and previous results.
By mapping these related needs, businesses can identify gaps in their existing content and improve service pages to address the questions that influence purchasing decisions.
Build pages that help visitors make decisions
A page can rank well and still fail to generate business.
This is where conversion rate optimization (CRO) becomes an essential part of SEO. Once relevant visitors reach a website, the experience should help them understand the offer, evaluate its credibility, resolve their concerns, and take the next step.
Depending on the business, improvements may include:
Clearer messaging that communicates the value proposition.
Strong calls to action and simpler inquiry forms.
Case studies, testimonials, and other credible trust signals.
Detailed answers to questions about pricing, delivery, risks, and expected outcomes.
Better page structure, navigation, and internal linking.
Relevant structured data, including appropriate schema markup.
LLM-assisted research can help identify missing topics, while analytics and user behavior data can reveal where visitors encounter friction.
The objective is not to add as much information as possible. It is to provide the right information in a structure that supports both the visitor’s decision-making process and the page’s business purpose.
AI Overviews are changing the value of content
As Google introduces AI-generated answers through AI Overviews, businesses need to reconsider which content deserves their investment.
Straightforward informational content may satisfy users directly on the search results page, reducing the need for some visits. However, this does not mean that SEO or content marketing has lost its value.
Content can still attract clicks when people need something beyond a quick answer: original research, expert perspectives, real case studies, detailed comparisons, proprietary data, practical tools, or guidance for evaluating complex decisions.
For businesses, the opportunity is to move beyond generic information and demonstrate knowledge that comes from real experience.
Structured content and appropriate schema markup can help search engines interpret a page and its entities. However, markup alone does not guarantee rankings or inclusion in AI-generated answers. Content quality, accessibility, relevance, and credibility remain essential.
Digital PR and brand authority matter more than ever
SEO does not happen exclusively on a company’s website.
Digital PR, expert commentary, industry publications, relevant third-party mentions, and credible backlinks can help businesses strengthen their reputation and become more recognizable within their markets.
These activities are particularly relevant as customers increasingly discover and evaluate companies across multiple channels, including traditional search, social platforms, online communities, and AI-powered tools.
The goal is not simply to accumulate mentions or links. It is to establish a credible presence in the places where potential customers seek information and assess their options.
A strong digital PR strategy should therefore connect brand positioning, expert knowledge, relevant publications, and the questions customers are already asking.
When International Project Coordination Is Enough
A successful SEO strategy needs clear objectives and transparent reporting.
Rankings, impressions, clicks, and organic sessions are useful diagnostic indicators, but they should not be the final measure of success.
Businesses should also track qualified organic traffic, conversion rates, lead quality, assisted conversions, sales opportunities, and revenue where attribution data allows. CRO experiments can help identify which changes improve performance, while ongoing analysis helps determine where future investment is most likely to produce value.
This approach also makes it easier to evaluate an SEO provider. A good partner should explain what has been done, why it matters, what has changed, and how the work contributes to the business’s goals.
A more integrated approach to SEO
At DevelopWay, we view SEO as part of a broader digital growth strategy. Technical performance, customer research, content, conversion optimization, and authority building need to work together rather than operate as separate activities.
The changing search landscape makes this integration increasingly important. Businesses need to understand not only how to become visible, but also how to earn trust, address customer needs, and turn that visibility into meaningful opportunities.
Ani’s contribution to the TechBehemoths expert discussion reflects this approach: the future of SEO is not just about being found. It is about being relevant, credible, and capable of converting attention into business value.
Read the full expert interview: TechBehemoths SEO Expert Insights 2026 – Second Edition
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