Expert Insights on AI in SEO: Interview With Senior SEO Consultant Jana Fiedler
SEO isn’t being made irrelevant by AI, but it is being reshaped. As AI Overviews and LLM-driven discovery become part of everyday search behaviour, the work is shifting from “just ranking” to earning visibility, credibility, and citations across a broader set of search experiences. That’s exactly why Peak Ace sat down with Jana Fiedler, Senior SEO Consultant, to get a clear view on what’s genuinely changed: where AI in SEO is already improving performance today, where it’s mostly hype, and how the team is using AI SEO tools with real data to find the highest-impact opportunities.
In this interview, Jana breaks down what an AI-assisted SEO audit looks like in the first 30–60 days, how Peak Ace keeps quality and trust high with firm guardrails, and what marketing teams should prioritise over the next 6-12 months.
Spoiler: SEO fundamentals still matter, but now they need to work harder, faster, and in more places than ever.
AI in SEO – Reality vs. Hype
Q: Where is AI genuinely improving SEO performance right now (not just speeding up writing), and where is it mostly hype?
For me, the real value of AI in SEO lies in an area that is often underestimated: data analysis. SEO has always been a data-driven discipline – whether it’s identifying visibility and traffic trends, optimizing snippets for better CTR, or running A/B tests on landing pages to improve on-page engagement. What has fundamentally changed is the speed and depth at which this is now possible. Correlations that used to take hours or even days to surface can be uncovered in minutes with the right AI-powered tools – and that directly impacts the quality of decisions we make for our clients.
When it comes to hype, however, a sober look at the data is warranted. The fear that traditional search channels are being displaced by LLM tools like ChatGPT or Perplexity is currently far greater than the actual reality. According to a SparkToro study (August 2025), approximately 95% of users still regularly use traditional search engines – with the year-over-year shift being statistically negligible at less than 1%.
Q: If you take over a new client account, what does your first 30–60 days of an “AI-assisted SEO audit” look like, and what outputs can clients expect?
The first 30–60 days are about building a solid, data-driven foundation – and this is precisely where our proprietary AI-assisted tooling makes a measurable difference.
Keyword Strategy & Content Cluster Analysis
One of the earliest and most impactful steps is understanding the topical landscape the client operates in. Our proprietary tools are particularly strong here, rapidly identifying which topics share a significant SERP overlap and where multiple pieces of content compete for the same queries, whether within the client’s own site (cannibalisation) or against competitors. By significantly simplifying the analysis of complex data sets, these tools enable our team to draw faster and more accurate conclusions, ultimately delivering sharper, more actionable recommendations from day one.
Technical Audit & Actionable Roadmap
On the technical side, we leverage the integration of AI tools with crawlers like Screaming Frog – which now natively supports AI provider integrations (OpenAI, Gemini, Anthropic) directly within the crawl workflow. So we move far beyond simple issue detection. Rather than handing a client a raw list of crawl errors, we use AI to merge and contextualise data from multiple sources: crawl data, Google Search Console, Analytics, and PageSpeed Insights.
By the end of the first 30-60 days, clients receive:
- A comprehensive keyword & topic cluster map with SERP overlap analysis
- A content audit with clear performance categorisation (optimise, consolidate, create, retire)
- A technical SEO audit report with a prioritised, AI-enhanced action plan
- A content gap report benchmarked against key competitors
- A set of quick wins – such as metadata improvements, missing ALT texts, and internal linking opportunities – that can be implemented immediately
The key differentiator is not that AI replaces strategic thinking – it’s that it removes the manual bottlenecks that traditionally slowed down the audit phase, allowing our team to spend more time on interpretation, recommendations, and client impact.
How Peak Ace Uses AI in SEO
Q: How do you use AI with real data (e.g., Google Search Console, analytics, crawl data, log files) to find the highest-impact opportunities and avoid false conclusions?
We primarily use AI to bring these data sources together and to analyze large volumes of data efficiently, enabling us to solve tasks such as CTR opportunity analysis and keyword clustering much faster and at scale, supported by our own tools and workflows. Beyond pure analysis, we are continuously working on leveraging AI to generate strategic recommendations directly – an area where we have already seen promising results.
At the same time, expert judgment remains essential. Our team carefully reviews and validates every AI-generated output to ensure the conclusions are accurate, well-founded and truly actionable. Thanks to our many years of experience across different business models and website types, we can reliably identify the highest-impact opportunities while minimizing the risk of drawing false conclusions.
Q: How do you ensure AI-supported content still demonstrates E-E-A-T, matches search intent, and is meaningfully different from competitors?
To ensure AI-supported content remains unique, meets SEO quality standards (EEAT), and aligns with search intent, we start with a robust keyword and intent strategy. This step is essential: it defines which topics we cover, for whom, and with what purpose, so content is created to satisfy a clear user need rather than simply generating text at scale.
From there, every AI-supported piece is produced within a structured workflow:
- Strategic keyword + intent mapping: We cluster keywords and translate them into a content plan that clearly separates intents (informational, commercial, transactional) and avoids overlap/cannibalisation.
- Detailed content brief before writing: Each text receives an in-depth briefing that specifies:
- The primary intent and user questions to answer
- The angle and differentiators versus existing SERP competitors
- Required evidence elements (examples, definitions, step-by-step guidance, FAQs)
- Brand-specific expertise to include (processes, frameworks, real-world learnings)
- Uniqueness and “helpfulness” focus: The brief is explicitly designed to ensure the content adds something new—i.e., it is complementary to what already exists online, rather than a rephrasing of competitors. This reduces duplication risk and supports helpful, original content
- Human review for EEAT signals: After drafting, we refine the content to strengthen EEAT—e.g., clear authorship/ownership, accurate claims, credible references where appropriate, and a tone that reflects real expertise and experience
This combination of strategy-first planning, strong briefs, and expert review ensures that AI increases efficiency, while the final output remains intent-matched, differentiated, and aligned with EEAT expectations.
How marketers should manage AI in SEO
Q: With AI Overviews changing SERPs, what should businesses optimise for now: rankings, clicks, visibility, brand demand, and how do you measure success?
AI Overviews often reduce clicks, especially for informational queries, because users get answers directly on the SERP. That doesn’t mean these queries are no longer valuable. The goal shifts from “winning the click” to being part of the answer. Businesses should optimise to be cited as a source, to appear prominently, and to have their brand mentioned in AI-generated responses.
In practice, we recommend optimising across multiple layers:
- Visibility and presence in AI results (being referenced/cited, mentioned, and surfaced for relevant prompts)
- Brand demand and trust (so users actively seek the brand even when clicks on generic informational queries drop)
- Clicks and rankings where they still matter (especially for commercial queries and high-intent stages)
How we measure success
Because traditional click-based KPIs can become less reliable for informational topics, we expand measurement to include:
- Impressions and overall visibility trends (e.g., from Google Search Console)
- Brand mentions in AI answers and frequency of appearance
- Source usage / citations (how often the brand’s content is used or referenced as the basis for an AI answer)
- LLM visibility and Share of Voice across a defined, relevant prompt set (i.e., the percentage of AI answers in which the brand appears versus key competitors)
- Sentiment of AI mentions (whether the brand is described positively, neutrally, or negatively)
After the analysis, we implement targeted measures to improve exactly these dimensions: Visibility, source usage, share of voice, and sentiment. The impact is then evaluated by tracking uplifts and improvements in these KPIs over time, rather than relying on clicks alone.
Q: What are the biggest risks when companies use AI for SEO (quality, duplication, brand trust, compliance), and what guardrails do you put in place?
The biggest risks of using AI in SEO typically sit in content production. Especially when it comes to quality control and, as a consequence, in brand communication and trust. Without strong processes, AI-generated content can become generic, inconsistent with the brand voice, factually unreliable, or too similar to existing pages, which increases the risk of duplication issues and weak user value. There are also compliance considerations (e.g., handling sensitive data, ensuring claims are accurate, and meeting internal/legal standards).
Our guardrails
To make AI both scalable and safe, we apply a clear set of safeguards:
- Well-designed templates and briefing frameworks: AI performs best when prompts, content structures, and source inputs are thoughtfully defined upfront
- Mandatory human editing and proofreading: Every AI-generated text goes through an editorial review to validate facts and claims, improve clarity, and align language with the corporate tone of voice
- Strategic “common sense” review: Beyond copyediting, we evaluate whether the content is genuinely useful, correctly prioritised, and aligned with search intent and business goals
With this workflow, AI-supported content can be produced efficiently and at scale while protecting quality and brand trust. Without these guardrails, the risk of quality loss (and therefore negative SEO and brand impact) becomes significantly higher.
Q: What SEO strategy changes do you predict over the next 6–12 months, and what should companies start doing now to stay ahead?
The SEO landscape is shifting rapidly, but our core advice is clear: don’t chase every LLM trend at the expense of your existing SEO strategy. The fundamentals still matter, and neglecting them in favour of the latest hype will cost you more in the long run.
That said, the rise of AI-driven search experiences means companies need to think beyond traditional SEO and optimise holistically for GEO, AEO, LLMO and SEO in parallel. This requires treating the entire web presence as relevant, not just individual landing pages. A single high-ranking page is no longer enough if your broader site lacks authority, structure and topical depth.
Our recommendation for the next 6 to 12 months is to stay consistently informed about where search is heading, but to make deliberate, well-considered decisions rather than reactive ones. Avoid quick fixes. Instead, build a sustainable optimisation strategy that positions your brand as a trusted, authoritative source across all channels and touchpoints – because that is what both traditional search engines and AI-powered systems increasingly reward.
Expert Profile: Senior SEO Consultant Jana Fiedler
Jana Fiedler is a Senior SEO Consultant at Peak Ace. With 15+ years in online marketing, she started out in PR and has specialised in SEO for the past decade.
In this time, Jana has worked in-house and agency-side, supporting e-commerce and affiliate businesses alike. She has also led countless international campaigns across e-commerce, SSAS, and the travel sector.
