You've probably started hearing about a new service. Some agencies call it AI optimisation, some call it GEO, some call it “getting your brand found by ChatGPT”. It tends to come with new jargon, a bit of urgency, and a new line on the invoice.
Yes, getting found by AI genuinely matters. But it isn't a new discipline you need to go out and buy. It's SEO, the same work we've always done, with the order of priorities shuffled around. If someone pitches it as a brand new service, they've renamed SEO and are charging you for the name.
The work hasn't changed, the priorities have
SEO is all about making your site easy to find online. The skill has always been knowing which practices matter most at any given moment. AI hasn't replaced the list of practices but it has changed that order.
Take the humble FAQ section, the list of common questions and answers you see near the bottom of a lot of product and category pages. For years, Google rewarded having one by showing your page more prominently in its results, so everyone added them. Then Google changed its mind and stopped giving you that boost, and a lot of brands dropped them.
Now they're worth doing again, for a completely different reason: the AI tools people increasingly ask instead of Google read those questions and answers to work out how to respond. SEO used to be almost entirely about how Google ranked you. Now just as much of it is about giving Large Language Models (LLMs) what they need to find you and put you forward.
We've been here before
None of this is as new as it sounds. Google spent twenty years changing the rules of SEO. There was a time the whole game was basically how often you repeated a keyword. Then it became how many other sites linked to you, until people started buying links to fake that authority, and Google clamped down on it. Then a slow-loading site on a phone started dragging your rankings down. Each shift felt like a big deal at the time. Each time, the brands that came out ahead were the ones who adjusted what they focused on, not the ones who went hunting for a shortcut. AI is the latest version of the same story. The name is new. The pattern is very old.
What this means when you're choosing an SEO agency
So when someone pitches you AI optimisation as a separate, premium product, it's worth a second look. The work behind it is real but if it's being sold as a brand new discipline that only they understand, you're probably paying a premium for the same SEO under a shinier label. Worse, the more you spend on the label, the less is left for the work that actually gets you found.
A good sign you're talking to the right agency is that they'll tell you plainly what has changed and what hasn't, instead of dressing it up as something only they can do.
Where to start
Keep an eye on what's shifting because it's moving quickly and the picture keeps changing. But build on the part that doesn't move: make content for people, not for search engines and not for AI. Be genuinely useful, know your subject, and be the kind of brand worth trusting. Do that well, stay alert to which priorities are rising, and you don't need to buy a new discipline. You just need SEO done properly and honestly.
If you've been pitched AI optimisation and you're not sure what you're actually buying, we're happy to give you the straight version.
I’m hands-on with our client’s SEO from inception, to strategy, right the way to implementation. It’s my job to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s new in SEO industry and make sure we stay on the cutting edge.
