SEO vs. AI Search? Wrong Question!

AKA: SEO is dead?

By Nicc Lewis, Expozive

The headlines say SEO is dead! Long live GEO/AE/LLMEO! Is it true?

Is SEO Dead? Or Has It Just Changed?

Every few years, someone declares “SEO is dead.” Usually, they’re wrong. SEO hasn’t died; it has mutated. What’s changed is the environment in which it operates. The rise of voice search, AI-powered engines, and conversational interfaces has shifted the ground under our feet. Traditional SEO still matters, but to stop at optimizing for Google’s blue links is to miss the bigger picture.

SEO is not dead — it’s evolving. And if you don’t evolve with it, your brand’s discoverability will.

What SEO Is (and Isn’t)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of making your content findable and valuable to users via search engines. That means:

• Technical website health (site speed, structure, mobile responsiveness, clean code).

• On-page optimization (meta tags, headers, keyword strategy).

• Content quality (depth, relevance, authority).

• Off-page signals (links, social mentions, trust indicators).

At its heart, SEO is about aligning what people are looking for with how they find it. It’s the bridge between intent and information.

What GEO Is (And Why You’ve Heard Other Names)

Enter GEO — Generative Engine Optimization. Sometimes referred to as AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization), it’s the art of optimizing not for a search index, but for generative AI systems that answer queries directly.

Instead of chasing clicks to your site from a results page, you’re ensuring your content is discoverable, cited, and recommended inside AI platforms — from ChatGPT to Perplexity to Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).

Where SEO was about ranking, GEO is about surfacing.

Where SEO and GEO Overlap

Despite the shiny new acronyms, the fundamentals haven’t disappeared. In fact, the crossover between SEO and GEO is massive:

• Technical website health → Generative models pull from crawlable, well-structured sites. If your site is slow, broken, or unstructured, both Google and GPTs will overlook you.

• Webpage construction & tags → Schema, metadata, alt text, and structured markup help both search engines and AI systems understand context.

• Content quality → Thin content gets ignored everywhere. Deep, authoritative, well-written material feeds both Google’s algorithm and generative AI models.

• Targeted keywords & intent → Keywords still matter, but intent matters more. Both SEO and GEO are about matching how people ask questions with how you provide answers.

The truth is, if you’ve been doing SEO properly, you’re already halfway to GEO.

The Big Shift: From Search Engines to AI & Chat

Here’s the disruptive wave: users are turning away from traditional search engines and toward conversational AI.

• Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly starting queries in ChatGPT or TikTok instead of Google.

• AI assistants like Perplexity and Claude are becoming trusted research companions.

• Even Google itself is pushing its AI-powered SGE (Search Generative Experience).

Why type “best Italian restaurant near me” into Google, then click through 10 blue links, when ChatGPT can summarize reviews and give you an answer in one shot?

What’s Holding Back AI Search?

The biggest friction point is non-intuitive links. Traditional search gives you sources to click. AI gives you an answer — but not always the pathway to validate that answer. Trust issues arise when the user can’t see where the information truly came from.

If AI systems evolve to show more natural, intuitive, and reliable links — surfacing citations like footnotes you can trust — adoption will accelerate rapidly. That’s the tipping point: when AI search feels both smarter and safer.

Google’s Dilemma: Savior or Disruptor?

Google is both the incumbent and the disruptor. Its AI-powered search (SGE) could either save its dominance or cannibalize its own ad revenue. The challenge? Accuracy.

Take one publicized SGE hallucination: when asked how to treat a bee sting, Google’s AI confidently suggested applying “a thin layer of petroleum jelly and covering it with a Band-Aid” — advice it appeared to have lifted from a joke post on Reddit. Safe? Not really. Or the time SGE suggested adding “non-toxic glue” to pizza so cheese would stick better. These are not isolated slip-ups; they expose the risks of wrong answers delivered with confidence.

Until Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, and others crack the accuracy problem — not just relevance — trust will remain an issue.

Trust Issues With AI Information

People don’t yet trust AI like they trust (or distrust) Google. With Google, you know there’s a web of content behind the results. With AI, you get a neatly packaged answer but little transparency.

That’s why GEO must focus not just on discoverability, but on credibility. Brands need to create content that AI can confidently cite, attribute, and reference — otherwise you’ll be invisible in this new ecosystem.

One Discipline, Not Two

Here’s the mistake I see: companies silo SEO and GEO. But we don’t treat voice search optimization as a separate discipline. It’s just another expression of the same thing: helping people discover your content.

SEO and GEO should be treated as a single practice with multiple outputs. Whether someone is typing into Google, asking Alexa, or chatting with GPT-5, your job is the same: meet their intent with authoritative content.

Maybe it’s Time for a New Name?

Maybe it’s time we stop playing acronym bingo. Instead of SEO vs. GEO vs. AEO, we need a more holistic term. Some contenders:

• Holistic Engine Optimization (HEO): Optimizing for any engine, human or machine.

• Searcher Intent Optimization (SIO): Focused on the intent, not the platform.

• Discoverability Optimization (DO): Making sure your content can be found anywhere.

• Answerability Optimization (AnO): Preparing your content to be the answer.

• Information Experience Optimization (IXO): Shaping not just what’s found, but how it’s consumed.

SEO is dead?

So, is SEO dead? No. It’s bigger than ever. But it’s also morphing into something broader, richer, and more complex. GEO isn’t a replacement; it’s the next stage of the same evolution.

Brands that cling to old-school SEO tactics will fade into invisibility. Brands that embrace holistic discoverability — across search, AI, voice, and chat — will own the future.

And just as we don’t treat voice search optimization as a standalone discipline, we shouldn’t split SEO and GEO into competing silos. This is one ecosystem, one discipline. Call it Holistic Engine Optimization, Searcher Intent Optimization, Discoverability Optimization, or something else entirely. The name matters less than the mindset.

Because in the end, the mission hasn’t changed: make your content discoverable, credible, and valuable to the people who need it most.