Search engine optimization (SEO) is the work that gets your business found and surfaced when people search. That covers three places now: Google’s search results, Google’s AI answers, and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude. The name stayed the same while the work grew to cover all three. Some also refer to it as AI SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It is the work that gets your business found and surfaced when people search.
When your customers search now, the answer can come from three places, and SEO covers all of them:
- Google’s search results. The list of websites under a search.
- Google’s AI answers. AI Overviews and AI Mode, written at the top of the results.
- AI assistants. ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others, where you ask and get an answer.
Google’s own definition is about search engines and visits to your website. Google describes SEO as “helping search engines understand your content, and helping users find your site and make a decision about whether they should visit your site through a search engine.” An AI answer can name your business without anyone visiting your website.
What Google’s AI answer says about SEO
Google’s AI answer for this search cites two sources at the top. One is a Reddit discussion about what is changing in SEO in 2026. The post asks readers which strategies they focus on and does not answer the question itself. The other is Adobe’s guide to SEO. Adobe makes software. Neither one is an SEO source.
The search: what is SEO in 2026
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“SEO in 2026 relies on Adobe’s SEO Fundamentals shifting from traditional keyword rankings to AI extractability and multi-channel brand validation.”
MisleadingRanking did not stop counting. To appear as a link in Google’s AI answers, a page has to be indexed and eligible to show in search, and the sources cited in AI Overviews matched a top 10 result 99.5% of the time. What changed is where the answer shows up. The answer also names one software company’s guide as what SEO relies on.
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“Generative Engine Optimization and Answer Engine Optimization focus on getting brands cited inside direct AI answers from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot.”
HoldsThat is what the terms describe. Getting cited in AI answers is part of the same work as SEO, and GEO and AEO are other names for it, not separate work.
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“Discovery happens across TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, and Amazon, requiring a visible presence across multiple independent platforms.”
DependsWhere your buyers look depends on your business. A law firm and a skincare brand are found in different places. What holds is that credibility does not come only from your website. “Search Everywhere Optimization” is one more new name.
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“First-hand Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are critical core ranking signals that resist algorithmic shifts.”
PartlyE-E-A-T is important. Who wrote a page, and whether they know the subject, counts. Google says E-E-A-T itself isn’t a specific ranking factor. Its systems use a mix of factors to identify content with good E-E-A-T, and many other things go into ranking.
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“Works: Building comprehensive entity hubs, clear question-answer content formats, high user experience (UX), and earning authentic third-party brand mentions.”
HoldsIn plain words: a website that says clearly what your business is, pages that answer the questions people ask, a website that is easy to use, and other websites that mention your business.
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“Fails: Scaled mass link building, low-quality AI-generated spam, and treating SEO as an isolated technical afterthought.”
HoldsGoogle’s spam policies name scaled content abuse and link spam. SEO also fails when it is added after the website is built instead of built into it.
AI answers change from person to person and from one search to the next.
How SEO works
Google gets a page into its results in three steps:
- Crawling. Google finds your pages and downloads what is on them.
- Indexing. Google analyzes each page and stores it in the Google index, a large database.
- Serving search results. When someone searches, Google returns the information that is relevant to the search.
To appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page “must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.” Google says there are no additional technical requirements.
AI assistants that search the web while you wait run searches too, through their own index or a search engine’s. Should you optimize your website for AI? covers what it takes to appear in them.
What SEO work includes
The work covers your whole website and how your business is described outside it:
- Your website can be found. Search engines can crawl and index the pages that count. Pages load fast and work on a phone.
- Your pages answer what people ask. Each page covers one topic fully. It answers at the top, then gives the detail.
- Your pages are clear and structured. Headings say what each section covers. Pages link to each other. Structured data describes your business where it applies.
- Your business is credible. Each page shows who wrote it. Your business is described the same way everywhere, and what other websites, reviews, and directories say about it holds up.
Credibility does not come only from your website.
This is one body of work, and it is what gets your business into AI answers too.
How SEO work has changed
The work under the name has changed many times. Google changed what ranks, one update at a time:
- 2009. Google said it does not use the keywords meta tag in ranking. Keywords hidden in a page’s code stopped counting.
- 2011. Google’s Panda update was designed to reduce rankings for sites that “copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful.” It affected 11.8% of searches. Short articles written only to rank were the target.
- 2012. Google’s Penguin update went after “keyword stuffing” and “link schemes that attempt to propel sites higher in rankings.” Links built only to rank became a risk.
- 2015. Google expanded its use of mobile-friendliness as a ranking signal. A website had to work on a phone.
- 2019. Google said its BERT models consider the full context of a word by looking at the words that come before and after it. Search began to understand the question, not only the words in it.
- 2022. Google’s helpful content update set out to show more “original, helpful content written by people, for people.”
- 2024. Google added scaled content abuse to its spam policies: many pages generated to manipulate rankings, “no matter how it’s created.”
- 2025. Google’s results included AI Overviews and a new AI Mode.
Some of it has not changed. What Google rewards is still a page written for people, that answers what they came for, from a source they can trust. For its AI features, Google says “the underpinnings of what Google has long advised carries across to these new experiences.”
SEO in 2010 was not SEO in 2018, and neither is SEO now.
Why SEO is still important
SEO is still important because it gives your website its bones, and the good bones of SEO are the good bones of AI SEO. Google’s AI answers are built from Google’s search index, and they cite the pages that rank. In 2024, seoClarity found that the sources cited in AI Overviews matched a top 10 result 99.5% of the time.
AI answers add new ingredients to the work: more structure, answers to the questions around the main one, and credibility beyond your own website. It is the same work with more in it, not a new layer on top.
A sample of my clients’ data shows what that work brings. Organic search, the result of SEO, brings most of the traffic. All three websites also show up in Google’s AI Overviews and in AI assistants. AI assistants are tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
| Website | Organic search | AI assistants |
|---|---|---|
| Website 1 | 68.7% | 1.62% |
| Website 2 | 62.58% | 1.47% |
| Website 3 | 61.17% | 0.98% |
Note.
Visits from Google’s AI answers are counted as organic search.
SEO vs AEO vs GEO
AEO, answer engine optimization, and GEO, generative engine optimization, are names for the work that gets your business into AI answers. They are part of the same work as SEO, not separate services.
SEO vs AEO vs GEO compares every abbreviation.
Note.
When I say SEO, I mean what I would call AI SEO right now: the work that gets your business found and surfaced in Google’s results, in Google’s AI answers, and in AI assistants. The work may still get a better name.
Frequently asked questions
What does SEO stand for?
Search engine optimization. It is the work that gets your business found and surfaced when people search, in Google’s results, in Google’s AI answers, and in AI assistants.
Is SEO dead?
No. The question comes up again because of AI. Google’s AI answers are built from Google’s search index and use pages that already rank in search.
Does SEO still work with AI search?
Yes. Google says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and there are no additional requirements to appear in them.
Is SEO the same as AEO or GEO?
They are part of the same work. AEO and GEO are names for getting your business into AI answers, and AI answers draw on pages that rank in search.
Sources
- SEO Starter Guide: The Basics developers.google.com
- In-Depth Guide to How Google Search Works developers.google.com
- AI Features and Your Website developers.google.com
- Google does not use the keywords meta tag in web ranking developers.google.com
- Official Google Blog: Finding more high-quality sites in search googleblog.blogspot.com
- Another step to reward high-quality sites developers.google.com
- Finding more mobile-friendly search results developers.google.com
- Understanding searches better than ever before blog.google
- What creators should know about Google's August 2022 helpful content update developers.google.com
- What web creators should know about our March 2024 core update and new spam policies developers.google.com
- Top ways to ensure your content performs well in Google's AI experiences on Search developers.google.com
- Google AI overviews organic results overlap 99 searchengineland.com
When you want to rank on top of Google and show up in AI answers, this is the work.
SEO + AI Search Optimization
