Why more businesses are turning to SEO agencies in the age of AI

Search volume for SEO services has surpassed one million monthly queries globally, which is more than 3x growth year-over-year, according to metrics gathered by DataForSEO.com. This surge reflects a massive shift: businesses are entering a deep research phase, not just looking to improve their rankings but to understand how AI will shape the future of visibility online.

As an SEO agency, we believe this shift demands a new mindset. Technical SEO is no longer just a ranking mechanism. It’s how AI models interpret, understand, and surface your website. From Google’s AI Overviews to ChatGPT product recommendations, SEO has become the link between brands and discovery across every channel.

Why search demand for SEO services is exploding

We’re in the middle of a SEO renaissance.

Google’s AI Overviews are fundamentally changing the structure of the search engine results page (SERP). Instead of a simple list of links, users now get detailed, AI-generated answers, often directly citing websites with clean architecture and structured data.

Meanwhile, AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity are indexing and surfacing real-time content from the open web. And they’re doing it differently than traditional search engines.

The result? Brands are racing to understand how to get cited, shown, and discovered; not just on Google, but across this new AI landscape. That’s why SEO optimization agencies are more essential than ever before.

How AI is changing the way brands get found

AI-generated answers thrive on structure.

To appear in AI Overviews or be cited by large language models (LLMs), websites need to demonstrate clarity, context, and authority. It’s no longer enough to just publish content and optimize meta tags.

Instead, successful visibility in AI requires:

• Schema markup that clearly defines entities, relationships, and product details
• Semantically structured site architecture that reflects intent and hierarchy
• Fast-loading, mobile-optimized pages that AI can quickly interpret and serve
• Content modeling that aligns with how users (and machines) search

Visibility isn’t just rankings. It’s a broader, richer presence across:

• Google AI Overviews
• Mentions in LLM interfaces like ChatGPT
• Product discovery in conversational shopping tools and chat assistants

In this new reality, your SEO services company needs to speak the language of both humans and machines.

Clients are in research mode, and this is the visibility window

Decision-makers are researching more than ever — and they’re not using just Google.

They’re asking ChatGPT for recommendations. They’re browsing with Perplexity. They’re discovering brands through conversational product suggestions.

If your business isn’t appearing in AI results and on traditional SERPs right now, you’re more than likely not visible when buying decisions are made. That’s why SEO services are in such high demand.

This visibility window won’t last forever, though. Brands that invest in their SEO foundations today will reap long-term benefits across both organic search and AI-assisted interfaces.

What modern clients want from a SEO partner

The expectations for an SEO partner have evolved. Brands are no longer looking for keyword stuffing or monthly reports. They want strategic, integrated partnerships.

Here’s what modern clients demand from an SEO agency:

• Technical fluency to optimize site structure, performance, and indexation
• Strategic insight aligned with marketing, brand, and growth goals
• Cross-functional collaboration between SEO, development, design, and content
• Platform-specific expertise in Shopify, BigCommerce, WordPress, and headless CMS solutions, like Sanity, Contentful, and Contentstack
• eCommerce SEO specialization that addresses product feeds, schema, and AI readiness

The bottom line is this: SEO needs to be connected to every digital function, not siloed.

Our frameworks are built for SEO and AI visibility

At Codal, we don’t treat SEO as a checklist. We treat it as a foundation for digital visibility across AI and search. Our SEO agency frameworks are built to support marketing goals, enable machine readability, and drive discoverability where it matters most.

Our core SEO framework

Technical SEO audit

We start with a deep technical review tailored to your platform, whether you’re on Shopify, BigCommerce, WordPress, or a headless solution. We assess:

• Crawlability and indexation
• Metadata consistency
• Internal linking structure
• Schema coverage
• Google Merchant Center readiness
• AI visibility signals

Site architecture and content modeling

We build scalable, logical architectures based on:

• Semantic keyword intent
• Category-product relationships
• Internal linking opportunities
• User and AI interpretability

Schema and structured data systems

We go beyond out-of-the-box implementations by crafting structured data systems that:

• Reflect real-world user searches
• Define clear relationships between content types
• Support both rich results and AI-generated citations

Performance optimization

We optimize for Google’s Core Web Vitals (Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift), minimize unused JavaScript, and enhance mobile rendering. All of which are essential for SEO and AI readability.

Technical SEO doesn’t just support rankings, it expands AI surface area

Here’s what most brands haven’t realized yet:“AI is only as smart as the data it can read. Technical SEO makes that data readable.”Strong SEO frameworks don’t just improve rankings, they open the door to new discovery channels:

• Your products being cited in ChatGPT
• Your services appearing in AI summaries
• Your content being pulled into voice assistants and shopping bots

With the right SEO foundation, your brand shows up where people are actually looking.

The future of SEO is structured, strategic, and AI ready

The era of AI-assisted discovery has arrived. No matter which industry you operate in or the size of your business, partnering with the right SEO agency is how you ensure your website is built not just for Google, but for every AI system that reads the web.

If you’re looking for an SEO services company that understands the intersection of search, structure, and AI, we’re ready to help.

Need help with SEO?

We’ll help you build a future-proof search strategy together. Contact us today to get started.