For years, SEO was a numbers game. Success meant climbing Google’s rankings, driving traffic, and hoping those clicks turned into revenue. That was the era of old SEO.
Today, things have changed. With AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini shaping how people discover information, SEO has evolved into something more powerful and more demanding. This is the age of new SEO. And for scale-ups, it’s especially urgent: the rules of new SEO for scale-up tech companies are very different from the old playbook. Let’s take a look at how…
From old SEO to new SEO
Old SEO was built around tactics designed to beat algorithms. Marketers targeted keywords, built backlink networks, and scaled content to dominate page one. It worked, until it didn’t. A single Google update could wipe out rankings, and high traffic often failed to convert because there was little trust or authority behind the clicks.
New SEO, by contrast, isn’t about visibility alone. It’s about credibility. Instead of just being seen, brands must be retrieved, cited, and trusted. That means creating content designed for both human readers and AI-driven platforms.
As Tom Salvat, content intelligence pioneer, explained in our recent Original Thinkers interview:
“These models, like ChatGPT, function similarly to Google in that they crawl, scrape, and index the web ahead of time so they can quickly provide answers to queries. But unlike traditional search engines … ChatGPT aims to directly give you the answer.”
In other words, people no longer want a list of links, they want the answer itself.
How new SEO for scale-up tech companies works
New SEO rests on four interconnected layers:
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO): ensuring your content is cited by AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini.
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO): appearing in AI-powered summaries and featured results.
- AI Integration Optimisation (AIO): structuring your content and data so that AI tools can use it effectively.
- Search Experience Optimisation (SXO): aligning content with trust, conversions, and user intent.
This means focusing on durable authority, creating expertise-rich, question-based content that earns citations and trust.
Tom Salvat points out why this matters:
“With traditional search, users typically input keywords … However, the emergence of LLMs like ChatGPT means people now more naturally pose questions. This shift significantly changes content strategy, requiring businesses to create content explicitly structured around answering complete questions rather than targeting fragmented keywords.”
For marketers in the tech sector, this is crucial. Your buyers are sophisticated and expect clarity, evidence, and proof points. Content that anticipates their full questions and delivers comprehensive answers will outperform fragmented keyword strategies every time.
Old vs new SEO: The core differences
The real difference between old SEO and new SEO lies in the metric of success.
- Old SEO measured traffic and rankings. The goal was simply to appear on page one.
- New SEO measures credibility and trust. The goal is to be chosen as the best answer — whether by Google, an AI assistant, or the customer themselves.
Tom Salvat summarises this shift:
“High-quality, human-written content should become even more valuable because it builds trust. While AI-generated content can be commoditised, genuinely insightful and original pieces will cut through the noise more effectively.”
So, while old SEO could deliver quick wins, it was fragile and transactional. New SEO compounds over time, building trust, credibility, and durable brand authority.
Practical SEO tips for scale-up tech marketers
To move from Old SEO tactics to New SEO authority, here are five practical steps your scale-up can start today:
1. Audit for “answer readiness.”
Review your top-performing pages. Do they answer complete questions, or just target keywords? Rewrite for clarity and completeness.
2. Surface in-house expertise.
Interview your product and engineering leaders. Turn their knowledge into authoritative blogs, guides, or white papers that AI tools and journalists can cite.
3. Use your customers’ stories.
Case studies, testimonials, and customer success stories build credibility and are highly reusable across sales, marketing, and PR.
4. Layer content for AI retrieval.
Use structured headings (H2s/H3s), FAQs, and schema markup to make it easy for AI tools to parse and pull your content.
5. Focus on trust signals.
Original research, data points, and quotes from experts (like Tom Salvat) increase your chances of being selected as the best answer.
FAQs: Old SEO vs New SEO
What is old SEO?
Old SEO focused on ranking pages with keywords, backlinks, and technical tweaks. Success was measured by traffic and page-one visibility rather than trust or authority.
What is new SEO?
New SEO prioritises credibility over clicks. The goal is to be retrieved, cited, and trusted by Google and AI tools, using evidence-led content that answers full questions.
Why isn’t old SEO enough anymore?
Discovery now includes AI assistants that deliver direct answers, not just lists of links. As Tom Salvat puts it: “ChatGPT aims to directly give you the answer.” That means your content must be the best answer, not just well-ranked.
How should tech marketers adapt to new SEO?
You should create expertise-driven content that is structured around users’ real questions, embed evidence and examples, and format content for both people and AI systems. Tom Salvat advises: “Businesses need to create content explicitly structured around answering complete questions rather than targeting fragmented keywords.”
What are the four layers of modern SEO?
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO): ensuring your content is cited by AI tools.
- Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO): appearing in summaries and featured answers.
- AI Integration Optimisation (AIO): structuring content so AI tools can use it.
- Search Experience Optimisation (SXO): aligning content with user intent, trust, and conversions.
How do I make my content AI-ready?
Use clear headings, concise definitions, and Q&A sections. Make sure your content provides precise, evidence-based answers that AI tools can easily retrieve and cite.
What should we measure under new SEO?
Move from traffic to trust. Track citations in AI summaries, brand mentions, assisted conversions, and engagement with authority-building content. As Salvat notes: “High-quality, human-written content … builds trust.”
Why this matters for scale-up tech brands
Tech buyers don’t just browse, they interrogate. They want to know not just what something does, but why it matters and why they should trust it.
For scale-up tech companies, this shift is especially significant. You’re competing with enterprise players who can outspend you on ad campaigns and content volume but new SEO rewards authority over budget. By surfacing your team’s expertise and your customers’ stories, you can build durable credibility that lets you punch above your weight in both search and AI discovery.
New SEO is the framework that ensures your content gets discovered, cited, and preferred. By focusing on credibility, originality, and authority, your brand doesn’t just appear in search — it becomes the answer that Google, ChatGPT, or Gemini selects.
Where tech scale-Ups Go from here
SEO has shifted from traffic to trust. Old SEO could get you seen, but new SEO ensures you are cited, chosen, and remembered. For tech marketers, this is the moment to evolve from page-one tactics to AI-ready authority building.
At Bright Star Content Marketing, our team of media experts will work with you to adapt your strategy for the age of AI-driven discovery. As journalists, we know how to create credible, authoritative content that earns trust and citations.
We’ll collaborate with your subject matter experts to uncover their insights, and with your customers to tell stories that build authority and resonance.
The result?
Content that doesn’t just attract attention — it becomes the answer chosen by Google, ChatGPT, and your audience.
Talk to Bright Star Content Marketing today about making your brand AI-ready.
