- Google says optimizing for AI Overviews and AI Mode is still part of SEO, not a separate AEO or GEO playbook.
- That may be true inside Google Search, but visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and other AI systems raises broader questions around brand mentions, source coverage and how companies are described online.
Google’s new guidance on AI search optimization has sparked a familiar debate in the SEO industry: is AI search optimization really just SEO, or is it becoming something different?
In its official guide to optimizing for generative AI search, Google says traditional SEO best practices still apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode because these features rely on Google’s existing Search systems, index and quality signals.
Google’s message is clear: do not chase hacks. Do not create special AI files. Do not mass-produce pages for every possible query variation. Do not treat AEO or GEO as a completely separate discipline from SEO.
That advice is useful. It is also limited. Google can explain how visibility works inside Google Search. It cannot fully speak for ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or the broader AI discovery market.
Google’s position: AI optimization is still SEO
Google’s guidance says generative AI features in Search are grounded in the same core systems that power regular search results. The company points to retrieval-augmented generation, query fan-out, crawling, indexing, content quality and technical accessibility as foundations for visibility in AI Overviews and AI Mode.
That means site owners still need the basics: useful content, crawlable pages, indexable URLs, clear structure, accessible pages, accurate business information and content that offers something beyond a generic summary.
Google also pushes back against many tactics being sold under labels like AEO, answer engine optimization, and GEO, generative engine optimization. Its guide says site owners do not need special markup, LLMs.txt files or a new writing style just to appear in Google’s generative AI search experiences.
For Google Search, that is a reasonable message. If a site cannot perform in classic Search, it is unlikely to perform well in Google’s AI search features just because it adds a new file or rewrites a few paragraphs.
The counterargument: AI discovery is bigger than Google
The disagreement starts when the conversation moves beyond Google.
Many SEOs are no longer only asking whether their pages appear in AI Overviews. They are asking how ChatGPT describes their company, whether Perplexity cites their content, whether Claude understands their product correctly and whether AI systems recommend competitors more often.
That is not always the same problem as classic SEO.
Traditional SEO is mostly about visibility for queries. AI discovery also includes narrative, brand perception, source coverage and how consistently a company is represented across the web.
A business may rank well in Google and still be described poorly by an AI assistant. A product may have strong backlinks and still be missing from AI-generated recommendation lists. A company may have good organic visibility but weak presence across the third-party sources that AI systems use to form answers.
Brand mentions are becoming part of the AI visibility debate
This is why brand mentions have become a major part of the AI search conversation.
In a study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found that branded web mentions showed the strongest correlation with AI Overview brand visibility, with a Spearman correlation of 0.664. That was much stronger than the correlation for backlinks, which Ahrefs reported at 0.218.
Ahrefs also found that the top three correlations were all off-site factors: branded web mentions, branded anchors and branded search volume.
That does not prove causation. Ahrefs is clear that correlation does not mean one factor directly causes AI Overview visibility. But the finding supports what many marketers are starting to see: AI visibility is not only about what is published on a company’s own website. It is also about how widely, consistently and credibly the brand appears across the web.
Classic SEO still matters, but it may not be enough
The practical answer is not that Google is wrong. It is more nuanced than that.
For Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google’s advice is hard to ignore. Crawlability, indexability, content quality and search visibility remain central. A weak site is unlikely to win in AI search through a new acronym or a technical shortcut.
But for the wider AI ecosystem, SEO alone may be too narrow. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and other AI systems may use different retrieval methods, different source sets, different freshness signals and different ways of summarizing brands.
That makes AI visibility partly an SEO problem, partly a digital PR problem and partly a brand information problem.
The work may include:
- Improving content so it can be retrieved, cited and understood.
- Building stronger third-party mentions in trusted sources.
- Making product and company descriptions consistent across the web.
- Publishing original data, comparisons and expert explanations.
- Monitoring how AI systems describe the brand and its competitors.
- Correcting weak, outdated or misleading brand narratives where possible.
AI search systems do not all behave the same
Research also suggests that generative search systems do not simply mirror traditional Google rankings.
A recent academic study on Google Search, Gemini and AI Overviews found that generative systems can retrieve and present sources differently from traditional search results. Another study measuring Google AI Overviews found that nearly 30% of cited domains did not appear in the co-displayed first-page results, suggesting that source selection can differ from classic ranking alone.
That does not mean rankings no longer matter. It means rankings are only one part of the AI visibility picture.
For marketers, this is where the “just SEO” argument becomes too narrow. SEO is still the foundation, but AI search introduces new surfaces where brand visibility, factual consistency and third-party credibility can influence how a company appears.
Google’s incentives matter too
There is also a strategic reason to read Google’s guidance carefully.
Google’s job is to protect the quality of Google Search. It does not want marketers poisoning AI answers, mass-producing prompt-targeted pages or manipulating recommendations with artificial mentions.
That is why Google’s advice leans toward fundamentals and away from new tactics. In Google Search, that makes sense.
But marketers do not only operate inside Google’s ecosystem. If customers are using ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or other AI assistants to compare vendors, summarize products or ask for recommendations, businesses need to understand how they appear there too.
That work may overlap with SEO. But it is not always identical to SEO.
The Query Post view
Google is right, but only inside part of the AI search landscape.
For Google’s own generative AI search features, AI optimization is still built on SEO fundamentals. If a site is not crawlable, indexable, useful and trusted, there is no separate GEO trick that will save it.
But the broader AI search market is more complicated. Visibility in AI assistants is not only about being cited for non-branded queries. It is also about how a brand is described, which sources shape that description and whether AI systems understand the company accurately.
That means marketers should not throw away SEO. They should widen the frame.
The strongest strategy is likely to combine classic SEO with better source coverage, clearer brand messaging, stronger third-party mentions, original content and active monitoring of how AI systems describe the business.
Google’s guide is a useful warning against fake AI optimization hacks. But it should not be read as proof that nothing has changed.
Search is still search. But AI discovery is becoming bigger than search alone.
