GEO. AEO. LLMO. AI SEO. AIO. Every month there’s a new acronym, and someone selling a brand-new service to go with it.
I offer GEO and AI SEO myself, so you might be surprised to hear me say this: AI SEO is mostly just SEO, done properly.
Let me explain.
How AI tools decide what to recommend
When you ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews a question, they don’t make up the answer from thin air (well, not when they’re working properly). A lot of the time they search the web, read the top results and summarise them.
And where do they look? Mostly at pages that already rank well and come from sites they trust. Google’s AI Overviews are built on Google’s own search index. Other tools use search engines too.
So if your website doesn’t show up in normal search, your chances of being mentioned by AI are slim. Good SEO gets you in the room.
What AI looks for is what Google always wanted
Look at what helps you get cited by AI tools:
- Clear, direct answers to real questions
- Expertise and experience that’s obvious from the content
- A trustworthy reputation: reviews, mentions on other sites, consistent business details
- A site that’s easy to read and crawl: fast, well-structured, with proper headings
- Structured data that spells out who you are and what you do
That’s the same list Google has been pushing for years. The AI tools just made it more obvious who’d been cutting corners.
So what’s actually different?
There are a few things that matter a little more with AI search. I’m not going to pretend there’s nothing new.
- Answer-first writing. Get to the point. If someone asks “how much does a bathroom renovation cost in Perth,” answer it in the first couple of sentences, then explain. AI tools love content they can quote cleanly.
- Being mentioned, not just linked. AI tools pay attention to what’s said about you across the web: reviews, directories, news, forums and industry sites. Brand mentions matter, even without a link.
- Very specific details. Services, prices, suburbs, opening hours, who you’re for. The more concrete the facts, the easier you are to recommend for specific questions.
- Different ways to measure it. You can’t check an AI ranking like a Google position, so tracking takes a bit more effort.
But notice something? None of those would hurt your Google rankings either. They’re just good SEO with the volume turned up.
Why this matters to you
Some agencies are selling “AI SEO” as a separate, premium service on top of your SEO, sometimes without having fixed the basics. Paying extra for AI optimisation when your website loads slowly, your service pages are thin and your Google Business Profile is half-empty is putting the cart before the horse.
Get the fundamentals right, and you’re already most of the way there for AI search.
My approach
When I do GEO or AI SEO for a client, here’s what it looks like in practice:
- Fix the SEO foundations: technical health, speed, structure and indexing.
- Make your key pages answer-first, with clear facts and FAQs built from real customer questions.
- Add schema markup so machines understand your business.
- Build your reputation across reviews, directories and relevant industry sites.
- Track visibility in both Google and the main AI tools.
Same SEO skills, applied with AI search in mind.
The takeaway
Don’t let the acronyms scare you. If someone pitches you an “AI SEO” service, ask them what they’d do differently from good SEO. If the answer is “nothing much, but it’s got AI in the name,” you have your answer.
Want your business found on Google and recommended by AI? Have a look at my AI SEO & GEO services and SEO services, or get in touch and I’ll put together a quote.
