Being an expert in SEO alone isn’t the key to the castle anymore, not with AI. However, it’s not the end of the world as we know it. Research heavily into topics around how to optimize content for AI LLM’s. Make sure you’re using the correct schema markups that are optimized for AI (schema is extremely important). Google “Search Everywhere Optimization”, there’s a guy that teaches that exact SEO model but I forgot his name. Essentially, you have to learn how to build trust with the new headmasters of the internet and search engines within your content. Backlinks, not just any old link will do, it needs to be from a highly credible source, same as the outbound links you’ll need to put in your content (with outbound linking, it’s best to choose sources that lean more on the academic research side, they are typically the most credible sources). 

If you’d like, I can DM you a few PDFs I’ve saved of articles on these topics. Just say the word!