Google's John Mueller cast doubt on short-term AI SEO tactics and explained that traditional technical SEO remains relevant.

In a recent interview conducted by David Iwanow, Google’s John Mueller discussed the future of SEO in AI Search, explaining which traditional practices will continue to matter and that the rise of AI Search doesn’t necessarily change what makes a successful SEO strategy.

The interviewer asked John Mueller about listicles. Listicles are like lists of “top companies” that have been used by companies as a way to influence AI chatbots to rank the company creating the listicle as the top choice in their industry. The interviewer acknowledged their usefulness in general but also pointed out that they’ve also been abused and turned into slop content.

Mueller responded that building a solid foundation for a website is preferable to relying on short-term tactics because those always have an expiration date, whereas a site that focuses on quality, what Mueller terms a solid foundation, doesn’t face that kind of expiration date where traffic disappears.

“I think, when I take a step back, like this happens all the time, right? It’s like something comes out and people realize, oh, this actually works particularly well. And then everyone goes off and does it and half the people go off and do it in a particularly bad way.

And then at some point the systems catch up and they’re like, oh, anything that has a listicle is a sign that it’s spam. And it’s like the circle closes and you find something else.

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