Every time search changes, the marketing world invents a new acronym and acts like the old rulebook has been tossed into a dumpster behind the office.
Now we have GEO, AEO, AI SEO and LLM SEO. Google’s message is basically: calm down. Brands do not need a completely separate strategy for generative engines, answer engines or large language models. The same solid SEO practices that worked before are still the best foundation for showing up in AI-powered search results.
Brendon Kraham, Google’s vice president of Search and Commerce Global Ads Solutions, laid out five recommendations for marketers adjusting to features such as AI Mode and AI Overviews. He said brands should not chase every new acronym, write content for bots, publish generic material, ignore their websites or rely on measurements that have little connection to actual business results.
That is not especially glamorous advice, but useful advice rarely comes with fireworks.
Kraham said Google’s generative AI features rely on the company’s existing search index, ranking systems and quality systems. In practical terms, brands with strong SEO fundamentals should already be in a reasonable position to appear in both traditional search results and AI-generated responses.
Google also says people are using Search more than ever. According to Kraham, the company recorded an all-time high in search queries during its most recent quarter. He did not give a specific total, so “a very large number” is about as precise as we can get.
Google rejects separate GEO tactics
Kraham said marketers should treat GEO, AEO, AI SEO and LLM SEO as different names for the same basic discipline.
That may disappoint anyone preparing to sell a 60-page GEO transformation roadmap, but it makes life simpler for everybody else.
Google’s AI Search products are built on the company’s core ranking infrastructure, he said. Techniques such as query fan-out may help Google retrieve information from a broader and more varied set of sources, but brands do not need to throw out established SEO practices because of it.
The machinery may be getting more advanced. The basic job is still the same: create useful content, make it understandable and give Google a good reason to trust it.
Google also said websites do not need special AI-focused text files, including LLMs.txt, to appear in Google Search.
So there is no magic file you can add to the server that makes the robots salute and send traffic your way. It would be convenient, but apparently we still have to do the actual work.
Content should serve people, not bots
Google advised publishers to avoid keyword stuffing, awkward wording and content broken into artificial fragments for machines.
You know the kind of page. Every sentence sounds like it was written to satisfy a checklist rather than help a human being.
Kraham said Google’s systems are designed to understand natural language and evaluate content according to how useful it is to people. Brands should publish material based on firsthand experience, specialist knowledge and perspectives that competitors cannot easily copy.
That last part is important because generic content is everywhere. The internet is not exactly suffering from a shortage of broad advice written by people who may or may not have touched the product they are discussing.
Kraham used the example of a local running store. Instead of publishing another general list of shoe-buying tips, the store could create an analysis explaining why a specific customer’s shoe collapsed.
That kind of article or video solves a real problem and demonstrates actual expertise. It also gives the business something distinctive to say, which is a lot more useful than repeating the same five shoe tips already sitting on 200 other websites.
Google also recommended keeping information accurate in products such as Merchant Center and Google Business Profile. Those services can help product details and local-business information appear in AI responses and other search results.
This is the unexciting maintenance work that nobody brags about. Still, customers tend to appreciate accurate prices, correct opening hours and a business address that does not send them to an empty parking lot.
Website performance remains important
Technical performance and user experience still affect whether search visibility turns into actual business.
Websites should work properly on mobile and desktop devices, load quickly and make their main content easy to find. Relevant images and videos may also improve visibility when Google shows rich media in its results.
None of this is new, but that does not make it less important.
Getting someone to click is only half the job. If the page takes forever to load, the menu disappears on mobile or a pop-up blocks the entire screen, that visitor may leave before the business gets a chance to make its case.
Kraham said people arriving through AI-powered search features may already be well informed. They could be closer to buying something, submitting an inquiry or completing another conversion.
That means a poor website can waste a valuable opportunity. The brand may do enough to appear in search, answer the customer’s questions and earn the click, only to lose the sale because the checkout page behaves like it was built during a lunch break in 2009.
Google urges focus on business results
Google also advised marketers to focus on leads, sales, registrations and other concrete outcomes instead of relying too heavily on new third-party AI visibility measurements.
That does not mean those measurements have no value. It means they should not become the whole point.
Kraham said third-party SEO platforms do not have access to Google’s internal metrics. Google also does not directly evaluate or endorse those measurements.
So when a dashboard says your AI visibility score rose seven points, the sensible follow-up question is: did anything useful happen?
Did sales increase? Did more qualified customers get in touch? Did registrations improve? Or did the chart simply move in a direction everyone agreed looked encouraging?
Google Search Console has started introducing performance reporting that includes impressions from AI features in Search. Merchant Center also gives retailers information about how product listings appear across generative AI experiences.
Google said these reports can provide a baseline for measuring the effect of content improvements and technical SEO work. The company is also considering additional metrics based on feedback from website owners.
Kraham’s conclusion was straightforward. Brands are most likely to succeed in AI Search by following established marketing principles: understand the audience, publish useful expert content, maintain a high-quality website and measure performance against real business goals.
So yes, AI Search may change how information is displayed and how Google gathers answers. But the foundation is still familiar.
Be useful. Know what you are talking about. Make the website work. Then check whether any of it helped the business.
Apparently, good SEO is good GEO. The acronyms changed. The job did not.