Sometimes we feel that this is an AI world, and we are just living in it.
Well, how else could you explain the swarms of GenAI tech flooding around us? From assisting us in content generation to managing our social media presence, creating graphics, animations, podcasts, and now even helping us code—today it is hard to find a field that isn’t affected by AI. Given AI’s all-pervasive influence, TCS Chairperson N. Chandrasekaran has quipped, “GenAI is not just another tech cycle—it is a civilizational shift.”
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Shifting Search Landscape
While we can go on discussing the ways AI is altering human civilization, for this blog, let’s limit ourselves to the way AI has influenced or shifted the way we search for information, raising questions about the continued relevance of investing in SEO or hiring an SEO specialist. For example, imagine you are in 2021. You are planning for a dinner outing with your family in Seattle. But you are new to the place and unsure about the best restaurants around.
What would you do?
Simple, Google it. Then, on average, visit around four to five sites that appeared in the search results to find the answer. For example, consider this simple question: “What is the best restaurant to have a fine dining experience in Seattle?” If you were looking for the answer in 2021, you would have to put this query into Google and then visit the different websites that appeared in the SERP (as the following picture shows) to find your answer.
Figure 1 Google search result to “what is the best restaurant to have a fine dining experience in Seattle?”
However, the arrival of GenAI tools and AI overviews means this is no longer required. With Google Overviews and GenAI tools, you directly get your answer with no need to visit different websites anymore. Consider the examples below, with Figure 2 showing the response through AI overview on Google and Figure 3 showing the result through search mode on ChatGPT.
Figure 2 Google AI overview to the question: “what is the best restaurant to have a fine dining experience in Seattle?”
Figure 3 ChatGPT’s response to “what is the best restaurant to have a fine dining experience in Seattle?”
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Is SEO Still Relevant?
Since GenAI tools and AI overviews by Google directly give you the answers you are looking for, the question arises: is Google Search dead? Also, if people start directly finding their answers on Google’s home page (as Google demonstrated in I/O 2025 through Google Search AI Mode), is there any relevance of SERPs? Finally, given these developments, should you continue investing in search engine optimization services or continue hiring SEO specialists?
If you are also wondering about these questions, here is what you need to know. First of all, the rise of AI and other modes of search has not meant the end of Google Search. The US Google site still processes 16.4 billion searches per day or 11.4 million searches per minute. But there is a shift underway. If people using Google find answers to their queries on Google’s homepage, the traffic to your website will drop.
This means the way you can no longer relax by solely focusing on SEO. You need to also focus on AEO, and GEO. Let us explain these further in the following sections.
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SEO Vs AEO Vs GEO
3.1 SEO
Let’s start our discussion with SEO, or search engine optimization. SEO techniques help your site rank on Google when someone searches for relevant topics (keywords). SEO works by building backlinks, targeting keywords, improving on-page content, fixing technical issues (loading speed, URL structure, etc.), content optimization, and more.
For example, good SEO practices helped the sites rank in figure 1 above when the user searched for: “What is the best restaurant to have a fine dining experience in Seattle?”
3.2. AEO
Answer engine optimization, or AEO, involves crafting content to be featured in AI overviews or snippets. By optimizing your content for AEO, you can also appear in voice search results. To optimize for answer engines, you need to structure your content in a way that bots can easily scan it. Moreover, you should also offer direct and concise answers to common questions in the first paragraph.
The agency offering search engine optimization services will also follow other good practices like including FAQs, using how-to schema, targeting zero-click results, incorporating structured data, optimizing for voice search, etc. For example, consider this overview section that directly answers the question: What is SEO?
Figure 4 Google AI overview to the question “What is SEO?”
As you can see, there is a knowledge panel on the right-hand side (figure 4) that has links to the sites from which the information has been gathered and are considered authoritative on the topic. To know more, users can click on these sites.
Figure 5 The knowledge panel
If you scroll down, you can find the first result in this knowledge panel. Search Engine Land also ranks in the first spot in the SERP. Therefore, we can conclude that the SEO specialist at Search Engine Land has optimized its content for both SEO and AEO.
Figure 6 SERP on the question What is SEO?
3.3 GEO
Generative Engine Optimization or GEO is all about optimizing your content so that GenAI tools cite, summarize, or recommend it in real time. To optimize your content for generative AI, write in a structured way with clear and distinguishable headings. You should also write in a conversational and natural way that resembles how people ask questions.
Moreover, the SEO specialist will ensure that your content reflects experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT signals), and includes schema (Pros and Cons, Entity tags, FAQs) to improve the chances of being cited by GenAI. For example, when you key in the question “What is SEO?” into ChatGPT, it reads from various websites and then distills the answer you are looking for, as shown in figure 7.
Figure 7 ChatGPT’s answer to What is SEO?
Now, if we click on the sources at the bottom of the answer, it opens a side panel with links to all the sites ChatGPT referenced for the answer. Among the sites, there is also Search Engine Land. We have already seen in section 3.2 that SEO specialists at Search Engine Land have optimized their content for SEO and AEO. Now we can say that the content on the Search Engine Land website is optimized for SEO, AEO, and GEO.
Figure 8 ChatGPT answer showing Search Engine Land under sources
Final Words
With the arrival of AI GPTs, voice search, and AI overviews, it is no longer enough to simply stick to search engine optimization. Instead, in 2025 you must focus on answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization as well. In the above sections, we have talked in detail about the points of difference between SEO, AEO, and GEO and how to implement these optimization techniques to make your website rank.
If you still have questions or want to know more, contact us or drop us a line. You can also choose to simply act by hiring SEO specialists from us with proven experience in making the optimizations work. So, what are you waiting for? Start now with a one-week free trial and get started.