Executive Summary: The Death of SEO
- The Reality: By 2028, 70% of web traffic will not result in a click.
- The Shift: From Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Neural Search Optimization (NSO).
- The Goal: Become the “cited source” in the Large Language Model’s answer.
The era of “ten blue links” is effectively over. In the US and UK markets, users are querying Answer Engines, not Search Engines. If your digital strategy relies on organic click-through rates (CTR), you are optimizing for a ghost town.
Optimizing for the Machine Mind
Neural Search Optimization (NSO) focuses on influencing the training data and the retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) layers of major AI models. It is not about keywords; it is about Entity Authority.
The Zero-Click Future
When an AI answers a user’s question directly, your website is no longer the destination—it is the raw material. The strategy for 2028 involves creating content so structurally dense and authoritative that models must ingest it to remain accurate, thereby forcing a citation.