GEO myths, in Google’s own words.

Generative engine optimization is real. The tricks sold around it aren’t.

1. 01

   “You can get cited by AI without ranking in Search.”

   Google states the requirement plainly: “To be eligible to be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.” No index, no AI citation. Google Search Central, “AI features and your website”. Get indexed, then earn the mention. There is no side door: why publishing is the whole strategy.

2. 02

   “AI answers eat the click, so a citation is worth nothing.”

   Google reports the opposite. Sites shown in AI features are “included in the overall search traffic in Search Console,” and “when people click from search results pages with AI Overviews, these clicks are higher quality.” Google Search Central, “AI features and your website”. The reader who arrives was already told you’re the answer.

3. 03

   “A GEO dashboard gets you cited.”

   Monitoring tells you whether AI mentions you. It can’t make you worth mentioning: the input is published expertise, and no dashboard supplies it. Different jobs. Run both if you like: one to measure the answer, one to become it.

4. 04

   “Opt out of AI, keep your Search traffic.”

   There is no separate switch. “AI is built into Search and integral to how Search functions,” so the robots.txt directive that shuts AI out is the one that drops you from Search. Google Search Central, “AI features and your website”. The choice was never AI or Google. It’s visible or invisible.

The next time a GEO pitch lands in your inbox, reply with this page.

GEO vs SEO: one motion, two names for the prize.

1. 01

   What is GEO in SEO?

   Generative engine optimization is the work of earning your company’s name inside the answer AI gives. It is not a second discipline bolted onto SEO. Google’s instruction for its own AI features is to apply “the same foundational SEO best practices for AI features as you do for Google Search overall.” Google Search Central, “AI features and your website”

2. 02

   GEO vs SEO: what actually differs?

   Not the work. The prize. SEO asks where you sit on a page of links; GEO asks whether the answer names you at all. Both are decided by the same index, which is why a page has to be indexed before it can be quoted at all. One motion, two scoreboards.

3. 03

   AI SEO vs traditional SEO.

   Same answer, third phrasing. There is no separate AI ranking system to buy your way into, and no file to submit. What changed is the bar for the content itself: fluent prose is free now, so AI skips it and cites the firsthand expertise it can attribute to a person.

You don’t need a new discipline. You need something worth citing.

Shopping for GEO services? The market, priced →