SEO Is Not Dead. It’s Evolving, And PR + SEO Will Define What’s Next

Written by Leah Shaffran, SEO Director. 

Every few years, a headline declares that SEO is dead. Lately, the rise of Artificial Intelligence Overviews (AIOs), ChatGPT, and other generative search tools has fueled the latest round of obituaries. But let’s be clear, SEO isn’t dead—it’s evolving. The brands that recognize this shift early, especially in outdoor e-commerce, will find themselves with an enormous advantage.

Backbone has been leading PR and media strategy for outdoor brands for 30 years. In the last decade, we’ve expanded that foundation with new services, including affiliate, SEM, SEO, influencer, and more. The connective tissue has always been the same: helping brands earn visibility, credibility, and growth across every touchpoint where people discover, evaluate, and buy.

TLDR: Why SEO Isn’t Dead and Backbone is Ahead

• Google is still Google: 90%+ market share and 5 trillion searches a year keep SEO foundational
• Search is expanding, not shrinking: AI Overviews and LLMs add new layers of discovery
• Three layers now matter: The ecosystem includes SEO (search), AEO (AI in search), and GEO (standalone LLMs)
• PR is the new fuel: 95% of AI citations come from earned media, including niche outlets
• Outdoor & active lifestyle brands are advantaged: The industry touts high-intent, spec-heavy purchases, and a strong media ecosystem
• Backbone is meeting the moment: Integrated SEO, AEO, GEO services anchored in 30 years of PR expertise

Google Still Reigns Supreme

Despite the noise, Google remains the backbone of discovery. It still commands close to 90 percent of global search market share, processing an estimated five trillion queries a year. That’s 14 billion searches every day.

Yes, user behavior is changing. ChatGPT and other LLMs now handle billions of prompts daily, and Google’s share has dipped slightly year over year. But the reality is simple: search is not going away. It is expanding across more surfaces including classic search, AI summaries, voice, and chat interfaces.

And here is the most important point; Google’s AI Overviews use the same index and ranking systems as search. To show up in AI, you still need to get the basics right: crawlable, structured, authoritative content.

From SEO to AEO and GEO

So, what has really changed? The surface area.

Why PR Matters More Than Ever

For years, PR was measured in referral clicks and brand awareness. AI has rewritten the rules.

A July 2025 Muck Rack Generative Pulse study of over one million AI citations found that:

• 95% of links cited by AI are earned media.
• 27% are journalistic sources, and for time sensitive queries that number jumps to 49%.
• OpenAI models favor recency: 56% of journalism citations were from the past 12 months.
• Outlet authority matters: Reuters, AP, and the Financial Times are cited often. Niche, industry specific outlets also frequently appear in top results.

Old vs. New Model of PR × SEO

The takeaway: PR is no longer just about traffic. It is about shaping the inputs that AI engines depend on to describe your brand.

Why Active Lifestyle E-commerce Brands Are Uniquely Positioned

Active lifestyle brands have a structural advantage in this new landscape. Consumer interest is strong, the market is rebounding among casual recreationists, and the media ecosystem around outdoor recreation continues to influence both people and AI systems.

Market Signals at a Glance

• $28 billion in outdoor spending in 2024, driven by casual consumers (OIA press release).
• 57% of Americans participated in outdoor activities last year, underscoring sustained demand.
• Niche outdoor media (e.g., GearJunkie, Outside, Powder, Ski Mag) are frequently cited in AI outputs (Muck Rack).

Why This Matters

• Outdoor purchases are spec-heavy and high-intent. Shoppers want clarity on fit, durability, performance and use cases. This makes outdoor gear content naturally well-suited to AEO and GEO formats such as comparison charts and FAQs.
• Niche media coverage carries more weight than ever. Outdoor publications influence consumer trust and also feed directly into AI citations.
• Backbone’s 30-year PR foundation and decade-plus of digital expertise (affiliate, SEM, SEO and more) mean active lifestyle brands we partner with are positioned to win both in classic search and generative AI.

The New Playbook: PR × SEO Actions to Take Now

Here’s how brands can adapt in practical terms:

1. Earn coverage in both tier 1 and niche industry outlets. Both feed AI citations.
2. Refresh PR consistently. Recency bias means coverage older than a year quickly loses impact.
3. Pair PR with structured SEO-informed site content. Ladder campaigns into FAQs, schema markup, and quotable summaries. Revitalize or relaunch a brand newsroom, particularly for product launches.
4. Transition SEO blog activities to “expert-authored” owned content, still optimized for search engines, AIOs and LLMs, but leveraging PR media relationships to earn improved AI citation.
5. Create citable, data-driven pitches and stories. Gear tests, surveys, and field insights deliver media coverage and AI friendly “chunks.”
6. Optimize product feeds. Google’s Shopping Graph powers AI Mode, so clean structured product data is critical.
7. Monitor new KPIs. Track citations in AI Overviews and LLM outputs, not just referral clicks.

The Takeaway

SEO is not dead. It is evolving.

At Backbone, PR and SEO have always been two sides of the same coin. Today, they’re closer than ever. Our newly integrated SEO, AEO, and GEO services are designed to meet this moment, helping brands earn visibility in search, AI Overviews, and generative engines, all powered by the credibility of strategic media relations.

If you’re ready to ensure your brand shows up where people (and machines) look for answers, let’s talk Info@Backbone.Media.