SEO in the Age of AI: Andrea Motta’s Talk at WordPress MeetUp Catania 2025
Thursday, 23 October 2025 – just over a year on – SEO Consultant Andrea Motta returned centre stage at WordPress MeetUp Catania with a timely talk: “SEO in the Age of AI.”
As usual, the event was hosted at LocalHost Coworking Space by Angelo Venturelli (also founder of the agency Specialisti Digitali) and brought together dozens of professionals and enthusiasts from across the digital world.
The evening was introduced by Francesco Grasso, DevOps & WordPress Developer, and sponsored by YITH, one of Italy’s best-known developers of WooCommerce plugins.
Alongside swag and a closing aperitivo, attendees had the chance to dive into a topic reshaping the present and future of digital marketing: the impact of artificial intelligence on SEO.
Table of Contents
How AI is changing online search
Andrea opened with a tour through how search has evolved in recent years.
From an ecosystem once dominated by Google, we’re now seeing fragmentation, with new players rapidly gaining ground: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Claude, DeepSeek, and other AI systems able to deliver direct, conversational, and contextual answers.
It’s not just who provides answers that’s changing, but how people look for them. Gen Z increasingly turns to TikTok or Instagram for advice and information, while those relying on AI tend to ask longer, more conversational queries. What’s more, users now make more queries per person: chatbots remember prior exchanges, creating a continuous, personalised search experience.
Google’s moves and the rise of zero-click results
To avoid losing ground, Google has rolled out innovations such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, now available in Italy following their initial US launch.
However, these features are fuelling a rise in zero-click results — cases where users get what they need directly on the SERP, without visiting any site.
This trend hits publishers, news portals, and comparison platforms hardest, as they see organic traffic decline. By contrast, sectors like e-commerce, betting, and local services remain more resilient, because they still require a direct interaction with a site or app.
From information to action: buying straight from chatbots
Another trend discussed was the growing integration of AI into purchasing journeys.
In the US, services like “Buy with Pro” or “Buy for Me” — already being tested by Google and ChatGPT — let users complete a purchase directly within the chatbot.
A single tap on “Buy” can add a product to the merchant’s basket and complete the transaction using saved payment details (e.g., Google Pay).
It’s a radical shift in the customer journey, pushing SEO beyond traditional search engines and into every touchpoint where a user might interact with an AI assistant.
Where LLMs get their data
A core part of the talk examined LLM data sources. Andrea explained that models are trained on vast datasets up to a cut-off date, after which content is no longer included in training.
To fetch more recent information, these models rely on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), which blends pre-trained knowledge with real-time retrieval.
SEO & AI: can we measure LLMs visibility?
One of the most hotly debated topics was measurement: how to assess visibility inside AI chatbots.
The SEO community is split between those who see prompt tracking as futile — given personalised answers and chat memory — and those who believe such data can offer valuable strategic insights.
Tools such as Profound and Peec.AI were cited for analysing brand presence in AI responses. These solutions are still experimental and costly (plans often starting around $499/month), but they show the industry is already moving towards AI visibility tracking.
Best practices to be discoverable by LLMs
Andrea shared a set of practical tips to boost a site’s presence in LLMs — many of which still hold true for classic SEO. In brief:
Ensure pages are indexable and accessible.
Structure content clearly with strong information architecture.
Implement structured data (Schema Markup) to aid understanding.
Analyse server logs to see how LLMs and bots read your pages.
Monitor citations in AI answers and, via reverse-engineering, work to be included.
Participate in UGC platforms (e.g., Quora, Reddit), which models frequently use as sources.
Experiment with an LLMS.txt file — still non-standard, but potentially helpful for AI bots to interpret site structure.
SEO or AIO? Picking the right acronym
Andrea also poked fun at the alphabet soup of new acronyms in the AI era — AIO, AEO, LLMO, GEO, EIEIO, and so on.
As Rand Fishkin argues, the most useful acronym remains SEO: Search Everywhere Optimisation — now meaning optimising your presence wherever your audience searches: on Google, in an app, on social platforms, or inside a chatbot.
A live demo: Rank Math and the LLMS.txt file
Closing the event, Stefano Presti, Engineering Manager at Muza Studio, demonstrated how to use Rank Math to generate and embed structured data, and how to create and add an LLMS.txt file to a WordPress site. It was a hands-on session that neatly tied theory to practice.
Andrea Motta: “SEO isn’t dead - it’s evolving”
To wrap up, Andrea shared a personal reflection:
“I’m really happy to be back at LocalHost. After so many years abroad, it’s great to see such a vibrant digital scene here in Catania. The talk was well received, the room was full, and I saw lots of people taking notes and asking questions.
The AI boom has transformed countless sectors in no time — SEO included. But despite what many think, SEO isn’t dead. As long as there’s something to rank in a search engine — whether that’s a website on Google or an AI search engine, an app on Google Play or a product on Amazon — this craft will continue. It’s simply evolving.
And that’s exciting. The key is to stay curious, keep learning, and embrace change. That’s how we’ll keep doing this job successfully.”
In short, Andrea Motta’s talk at WordPress MeetUp Catania offered both a snapshot of where SEO stands in the AI era and a message of optimism and adaptability: in a world where AI changes everything, those who keep up — and innovate — will continue to find space and opportunity.
If you’d like to learn how to position your site not just on Google but also across new AI ecosystems like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini, get in touch.
Email [email protected] or submit the contact form to book a tailored SEO consultation designed to strengthen your online presence and adapt your strategy to the pace of AI.
