Launching devFokus.com: Our Experimental Grounds for AI-Powered SEO

I’ve been doing SEO for over a decade, and I’m here to tell you: everything you thought you knew about search optimization is about to change dramatically.

This week, we launched devfokus.com — not just as another project, but as our laboratory for exploring what happens when traditional SEO meets AI-powered search engines. What we’re learning is reshaping how we think about promoting businesses online.

The Problem: Traditional SEO Doesn’t Work for AI Search

Let’s be honest about what traditional SEO became:

The Old Way (Traditional SEO):

• Stuff keywords into your content
• Build as many backlinks as possible
• Optimize meta tags and descriptions
• Hope Google’s algorithm favors you

It worked for a while. But then AI search engines arrived, and suddenly the game changed completely.

The New Reality (AI Search Engines):

• AI doesn’t care about keyword density
• Backlinks matter less than actual answers
• Meta tags are becoming irrelevant
• AI systems want to solve problems, not rank pages

I noticed this shift when clients started asking: “How do we show up in ChatGPT responses?” or “Why isn’t Claude recommending our content?” The traditional SEO playbook had no answers.

Our Hypothesis: Answers Over Keywords

Here’s what we realized: AI search engines fundamentally work differently than traditional search.

Traditional search matches patterns. It looks for keywords, links, and signals that historically correlated with quality content.

AI search engines understand context. They analyze your content to determine if it actually answers users’ questions and solves their problems.

This led us to our core hypothesis: The future of SEO isn’t about optimizing for algorithms — it’s about becoming the best possible answer to your audience’s questions.

Introducing devfokus.com: Our AI SEO Laboratory

That’s why we built devfokus.com. It’s not just another website — it’s our experimental platform for testing AI SEO strategies in real-time.

Here’s what we’re testing:

1. Topic-Based Content Architecture

Instead of focusing on individual keywords, we organize content around topic categories. Each category represents a set of related questions our audience is asking. You can see how we’ve organized these categories on our topics listing page.

For example, instead of targeting “best web development tools” as a keyword, we create a “Web Development Tools” category that answers:

• What tools do professional developers actually use?
• How do you choose the right tool for your project?
• What are the common pitfalls when adopting new tools?
• How do these tools integrate with existing workflows?

2. Problem-Solution Content Structure

Every article follows a simple pattern:

1. Identify a specific problem our audience faces
2. Provide a clear solution with actionable steps
3. Answer follow-up questions they might have
4. Connect to related problems they might encounter next

For a real-world example, check out our article on designing human-in-the-loop systems for AI, which demonstrates this problem-solution approach in action.

3. Structured Data for AI Understanding

We’re experimenting with how to structure content so AI systems can easily understand:

• What problem we’re solving
• Who this content helps
• What steps they should take
• What results they can expect

What We’re Learning So Far

After just one week of experimentation, here are our early insights:

AI Systems Favor Comprehensive Answers

We noticed that when we provide thorough, well-structured answers to specific questions, our content starts appearing in AI search responses. The key is depth over breadth.

Context Matters More Than Keywords

AI systems understand the relationships between ideas. Articles that connect concepts and provide context perform better than those that simply repeat keywords.

Questions Drive Discovery

The most successful content pieces are those that directly answer specific questions. “How do I…” and “What’s the best way to…” formats are working particularly well.

Practical Takeaways for Business Owners

If you’re wondering how to promote your business in this new AI-driven landscape, here’s what we’re learning works:

1. Think in Questions, Not Keywords

Instead of asking “What keywords should I target?”, ask “What questions does my ideal customer have?“

2. Create Topic Hubs

Organize your content around categories of problems you solve. Each category should contain multiple articles addressing different aspects of the same core problem.

3. Focus on Problem-Solution Content

Structure your content to clearly identify problems and provide step-by-step solutions. AI systems love content that helps people accomplish specific tasks.

4. Connect Related Concepts

Show how different ideas relate to each other. AI systems excel at understanding contextual relationships.

The Technical Side: Making It Work

Of course, content strategy is only part of the equation. We’re also experimenting with:

• Proper page structure with clear headings and semantic HTML
• Schema markup that helps AI systems understand content purpose
• Internal linking that creates logical topic relationships
• Performance optimization to ensure fast loading times
• Mobile-first design since many AI searches happen on mobile devices

These technical elements aren’t as exciting as the content strategy, but they’re still crucial for success.

Why We’re Sharing This

You might wonder why we’re sharing our experimental results instead of keeping them as a competitive advantage.

Here’s the truth: the shift to AI search is too big for any single company to figure out alone. By sharing what we’re learning, we hope to:

1. Help other businesses navigate this transition
2. Get feedback on our approaches
3. Collaborate on better solutions for the entire community

Plus, we believe that the agencies that will thrive in the AI era are those that focus on providing genuine value rather than guarding secrets.

What’s Next for devfokus.com

We’re just getting started. Over the coming months, we’ll be:

• Expanding our topic categories based on what’s working
• Testing different content formats (videos, interactive tools, case studies)
• Measuring AI search performance with new metrics
• Sharing our results openly with the community

If you’re interested in following our experiments, you can check out devfokus.com and see our latest tests in action.

The Big Picture: SEO Isn’t Dead, It’s Evolving

Traditional SEO as we knew it may be dying, but the need to help people discover your business isn’t going anywhere.

The difference is that instead of optimizing for algorithms, we now need to optimize for understanding. Instead of targeting keywords, we need to target questions. Instead of building links, we need to build authority by genuinely helping people solve problems.

It’s actually a pretty exciting development. The businesses that will win in this new era are those that focus on providing real value to their audience. And isn’t that how it should have been all along?

Want to see these principles in action? Check out devfokus.com to see our experiments in progress. And if you’re interested in applying these AI SEO strategies to your own business, let’s talk — we’d love to help you navigate this new landscape.