I had a conversation with a founder last month who told me his agency had told him to "stop wasting money on SEO" because "Google is being taken over by AI and organic traffic is dying." He'd cancelled his SEO retainer, redirected the budget to more Meta ads, and was asking me whether he'd made the right call.
The honest answer was: some of what his agency said is true. A lot of it was overstated. And his specific business — a professional services firm in Hyderabad with almost no local GMB presence — was exactly the type of business that benefits most from SEO done correctly in 2026. He'd cancelled the wrong part of his marketing based on a half-truth.
Here's the full picture.
What has genuinely changed about SEO in 2026
The change is real and worth being specific about. AI Overviews — Google's generated answer boxes that appear above organic results for many informational queries — are now showing on a significant and growing percentage of searches. When someone Googles "how to register a company in India," an AI-generated summary of the steps appears before any organic result. The websites that used to rank positions 1–3 for that query still get some traffic. They get less than they used to. Studies from early 2026 are showing click-through rate drops of 20–60% for queries where AI Overviews appear.
For content that answers informational "how" and "what" questions — SEO guides, DIY tutorials, definitional content — AI Overviews are a genuine traffic headwind. That type of content produced less organic ROI in 2026 than it did in 2022. That part of the "SEO is changing" story is true.
The second real change: Google's scaled content abuse policies have ended the model of publishing 50 keyword-stuffed articles a month. Indian digital agencies that sold SEO packages built around content volume rather than content quality have had their results collapse. If your SEO strategy was "publish a lot," that approach is genuinely broken now.
What has not changed — and is still generating real business
Local commercial intent searches. When someone searches "web designer Chandigarh" or "accountant HITEC City Hyderabad" or "interior designer Baner Pune" — they see Google Maps local results, organic results, and sometimes ads. There is zero AI Overview for these searches. They represent someone ready to hire, looking for a local provider. The businesses that rank here get enquiries from them. This has not changed. The GMB Local Pack and organic positions for city + service keyword combinations are as valuable today as they were three years ago.
High-trust, specific, original content. Content that demonstrates genuine first-hand expertise — not generic advice but actual opinion, specific examples, original research, named cases — still ranks well and receives traffic even when AI Overviews are present. Google consistently prioritises EEAT: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust. An AI Overview might answer what the steps are, but a genuinely expert article that goes deeper, takes positions, and references real experience earns the click from the reader who wants to go beyond the summary.
Product and service pages. Your core commercial pages — services pages, product pages, location pages — are not competing with AI Overviews in any meaningful way. They compete with other businesses for the same customer. SEO for these pages is exactly what it always was: clear keyword targeting, good conversion copywriting, site speed, proper schema markup, internal linking, and relevant backlink authority. None of this is threatened by AI Overviews.
The specific SEO activities that are worth your investment in 2026
GMB and local SEO. This is the highest ROI SEO activity for Indian local businesses. Google Business Profile optimisation, review acquisition strategy, local citation consistency, and localised page content. A well-optimised GMB for a Pune dentist generates appointment enquiries every day from people who searched "dentist near me." This doesn't require blog content. It requires a properly configured and actively maintained Google Business Profile.
Commercial page SEO. Getting your service pages and location pages to rank for city + service combinations. City-specific landing pages — not generic ones, but pages with genuine locally relevant content — rank for "professional service + city" searches and generate qualified leads. I've built these for clients in Hyderabad, Chandigarh, and Bangalore and the pattern is consistent: the pages rank within 3–5 months, they receive a steady stream of visitors with clear buying intent, and they convert into enquiries at a meaningful rate.
Original, opinionated content on competitive topics. Not keyword-stuffed articles. Pieces that actually say something — that offer a specific POV, reference real experience, and go deeper than the AI Overview. Content that someone would share with a colleague or save to read again. This content builds domain authority, earns backlinks naturally, and positions you as an expert in your market. It also ranks. The bar to rank on content quality grounds in 2026 is higher than 2021. But the businesses that clear that bar get more durable positioning, not less.
What the "SEO is dead" crowd actually means (and gets wrong)
When agencies or founders say "SEO is dead," they usually mean one of two things — both of which are more limited claims than they state.
They mean: "the specific SEO tactics we used to sell — high volume, keyword-stuffed blog content on generic informational topics — have stopped working." That's true. But that was never great SEO. It was a volume play that worked when Google's quality filters were less sophisticated. The filters are better now. The tactic is dead. SEO as a discipline — getting your business found by people actively searching for what you provide — is very much alive.
Or they mean: "AI search tools are reducing Google's share of informational queries." Also partially true — and worth watching as Perplexity, ChatGPT Search, and others grow. But Google's market share for commercial intent queries in India remains above 92%. The SME whose customer searches "plumber Koregaon Park" before calling is not yet doing that search on Perplexity. That transition, if it comes, is at minimum 3–5 years away at meaningful scale in India. Running your 2026 strategy based on a 2031 scenario is bad strategy.
My advice to a new Indian business right now
Do SEO. Specifically, do local SEO and commercial page SEO. Get your GMB properly set up and actively managed. Build city-specific service pages that rank for your service + city combinations in the cities you operate. Write one piece of genuinely high-quality content per month, not ten mediocre ones. Measure the leads it generates, not just the traffic.
Don't do: high-volume generic content chasing informational keywords. Keyword-stuffed thin pages. "SEO packages" from agencies whose deliverable is a monthly blog post that reads like it was summarised from Wikipedia. Link building from irrelevant directories.
SEO is alive. The sloppy version of SEO is dead. Good news for anyone willing to do it properly.
Want a free audit of your current SEO presence? Get in touch. Also see: SEO services for Indian businesses and Why Indian businesses ignore Google Ads and miss a lot of business.