>Why is SEO needed still needed here when AI / LLMs can just conjure up answers with references to valid links, bypassing search engines.
In short: money. LLMs will no doubt change the implementation, but the commercial dynamics are fundamentally the same. It's expensive to build and run a search engine, whether conventional or LLM-based. Someone has to pay for that - and it's not search users. Advertising and its derivatives have become that revenue source, with all the good and bad that brings with it. As long as that commercial dynamic remains, there'll be SEO or some derivative thereof.
In short: money. LLMs will no doubt change the implementation, but the commercial dynamics are fundamentally the same. It's expensive to build and run a search engine, whether conventional or LLM-based. Someone has to pay for that - and it's not search users. Advertising and its derivatives have become that revenue source, with all the good and bad that brings with it. As long as that commercial dynamic remains, there'll be SEO or some derivative thereof.
--
Other than Kagi - but that's a tiny niche.