Google has made it clear in both documentation and public statements: There is no secret AI optimisation. Their advice for visibility in generative AI features is the same as for search in general: Create good content, keep a technically healthy website, build credibility. In other words: AEO and GEO are still SEO.
That deserves to be taken seriously. It also deserves a critical reading. Here is our interpretation, based on what we measure across the AI platforms every day.
Where Google is right
The foundation is shared. We see it in the numbers: Businesses with a solid technical base, good content and real authority do better in AI answers than those chasing shortcuts. Everything you have invested in serious SEO keeps paying off in the AI channels. There is also no magic "llms.txt file" or secret markup that buys you a place in the answers. When someone sells you a quick AI visibility trick, hold on to your wallet.
Google's statement is also a useful corrective to panicked advice about throwing out your whole strategy. You should not stop doing anything that works. See our guide on SEO vs. AEO vs. GEO for the full picture of what carries over.
Where the statement becomes an oversimplification
But "it is still SEO" hides three uncomfortable realities:
1. Google is no longer the only referee. ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude and Perplexity fetch and weigh sources in their own ways. Following Google's advice optimises for Google's ecosystem. That is necessary, but not sufficient, when a growing share of your customers ask other platforms.
2. Ranking and recommendation are different competitions. In search, ten pages can "win" on page one. In an AI answer, three names get mentioned. We regularly measure businesses that rank well in Google but barely exist in AI answers within their own field. The gap between SEO strength and AI visibility is real and measurable.
3. The measurement does not exist in Google's tools. Search Console tells you nothing about how often you get recommended in ChatGPT. Without your own measurement you simply do not know where you stand, and it is hard to manage a channel you cannot see.
What you should do about it
Our recommendation is pragmatic: Take Google's advice as the foundation, and build the GEO layer on top. Keep the SEO work. Add answerable content, consistency across sources and structured data. And most importantly: Start measuring your AI visibility, because that is where you see whether any of this is actually working. That measurement is what we built Synlig.ai around.
Google is right that there is no shortcut. But similar rules do not mean the same results table. It is a new competition on familiar ground, and it is won by those who actually show up.