Hi Reader,

As always I appreciate you being here! Here's what you'll find in today's email:

• Is SEO Actually Dead in 2026?
• My Real World AI SEO Results
• New & Trending Content

You read. I listen. Let me know what you think by replying to this email.

🤔 Is SEO Actually Dead in 2026?

Everyone keeps telling you SEO is dead. There's a ton of nuance to this claim, and most people saying this are either GEO grifters rage baiting you, or those who don't know what they're talking about.

Here's my take: SEO is officially dead for top-of-funnel content on sites with no authority.

Trying to rank on Google for "what is X" posts or other top of funnel queries on a zero-authority blog. AI Overviews and LLMs answer those without a click involved, so that traffic is gone and never coming back.

This week I interviewed two AI SEO experts:

• ​Charles Floate: One of my favorite SEO voices discussing what Google's AI Search guidelines get wrong.
• ​Kyle the Website Landlord: He's making over $100K/month with a 'Rank & Rent' local SEO model.

Here's what still wins:

• Local SEO. Completely different ballgame than national SEO. So much opportunity here especially in low competition, local service niches.
• Authority is everything. Post 1,000 blogs on a zero-authority site and none rank. Post those same posts on Medium or LinkedIn and they would. Borrow authority instead of fighting for it. Branding and Parasite SEO are huge.
• Extractability. Google says chunking and extractability don't matter. They 100% do. AI Overviews lift exact chunks of your content and cite you as the source.
• Real media over AI images. Swap AI-generated art for actual screenshots of posts, reviews, and testimonials. That uniqueness is a ranking signal AI slop can't fake.

📈 My Real World AI SEO Results

This isn't theory for me. I run an AI SEO playbook for real clients paying me thousands of dollars, and it's working right now as they are getting results.

Here's the shift most people miss: clicks will likely drop as blue links disappear, but impressions are climbing through AI visibility.

I'm watching it happen on several client accounts, rising impressions as AI Overviews, Google's AI Mode, and Bing start surfacing the content. That's not a dying brand. That's a brand getting cited.

One of my 7-figure clients is dominating AI search results in his niche and now 'controlling the narrative' that they are the best company in their industry. This has translated to a surplus of inbound leads.

The reason it holds up is simple. When ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity answer a query, they often retrieve front-page Google and Bing search results first.

So traditional SEO fundamentals aren't dead, they're a huge prerequisite for showing up in AI search at all. Skip the SEO fundamentals and no GEO tricks will move the needle in the big picture.

My personal brand website (ryandoser.com) has also been crushing it SEO wise. This traffic and AI visibility alone has generated over $10K in 3 months through passive revenue streams.

Where do you land on this? Is SEO dead, or just evolving? Hit reply, I read every response.

Until Next Time 🫡
Ryan

P.S. If you want the SEO skills I use to help rank in AI search, grab my Claude Code Skills Stack. This includes my SEO blog post writer, SEO content strategy, keyword research, and 25+ other Skills.

One of my recent customers said "I used your SEO skill and what Claude did with it was remarkable. Thanks for the edge. One example of a $99 skill potentially turning into a $20K contract."

You can also join my AI Community with 1,200+ members using AI to level up their work.

📈 New & Trending Content

Check out the latest on my website:

• ​Claude Fable Banned by the US Gov (What This Means)​
• ​SEOMaxxing Boring Businesses With AI​
• ​How to Build Websites With Claude Code​