If you have been paying attention to the conversation around digital marketing over the past couple of years, you will have noticed a new set of terms entering the discussion. AI Overviews. Generative Engine Optimisation. AIO. GEO. Search Generative Experience. The terminology is evolving quickly, the implications are being debated constantly, and a growing number of agencies are beginning to position these things as a specialist service that requires a separate budget.
Let us be straightforward about this. For most businesses, optimising for AI search is not a separate discipline. It is a natural extension of doing SEO properly. Any agency suggesting otherwise is either misinformed or looking for an additional revenue stream at your expense.
What AI Overviews actually are
When you search on Google today, you will increasingly notice that the top of the results page is occupied not by a list of links but by a generated summary that attempts to answer your query directly. This is Google’s AI Overview, previously referred to as the Search Generative Experience during its testing phase.
The AI Overview pulls together information from multiple sources and presents a synthesised answer, sometimes with citations and links to the pages it has drawn from. For the person searching, it can be genuinely useful. For businesses that have relied on organic traffic from people clicking through to their websites, it introduces a new dynamic worth understanding.
What GEO means
Generative Engine Optimisation, or GEO, refers to the practice of optimising your content and online presence so that AI systems, including Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, and other AI-powered search tools, are likely to reference and cite your business when relevant queries are asked.
It is, in essence, about being a credible and authoritative source that AI systems trust enough to draw from. And here is the critical point: the signals that make a website credible to an AI system are almost entirely the same signals that make a website rank well in traditional search. Quality content that demonstrates genuine expertise. A trustworthy, well-structured website. A strong and consistent presence across the web. Clear, accurate information about who you are and what you do.
If your SEO is being done properly, the foundations for GEO are already being built. They are the same foundations.
Why some agencies are treating this as a separate service
The emergence of AI search has created an opportunity for agencies to repackage existing work under a new name and charge for it separately. Clients who don’t fully understand the technical landscape hear unfamiliar terminology, assume it requires unfamiliar expertise, and agree to pay for something that their existing retainer should already be covering.
To be clear: there are genuinely new considerations in the AI search landscape. Understanding how AI systems select and cite sources, how featured placements in AI Overviews work, and how to structure content so that it is more likely to be referenced are all things worth understanding. But they are not so removed from established SEO practice that they justify a separate service line or an additional monthly charge.
Any agency telling you that your existing SEO retainer does not cover AI search optimisation, and that you need to pay more to be considered for it, is drawing a distinction that does not hold up to scrutiny.
What has actually changed
It would be dishonest to suggest that AI search changes nothing. It does change some things, and business owners deserve a straight account of what those things are.
The way search results are presented is shifting. AI Overviews occupy significant space at the top of the results page for a growing range of queries, and that can reduce the number of clicks that flow through to individual websites, even for businesses that rank well organically. This is a real dynamic and it is worth taking seriously.
It also means that being cited within an AI Overview, rather than just ranking below one, is becoming a meaningful goal. Pages that are well-structured, authoritative, and genuinely useful are more likely to be drawn from by AI systems. This reinforces, rather than replaces, the principles of good SEO.
The search landscape is also broader than it was. A growing number of people are using AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity as their first port of call for information rather than going directly to Google. Being present and credible in those environments matters. Again, the way to achieve that is through the same combination of quality content, genuine expertise, and consistent online presence that has always underpinned good search performance.
What this means in practice
A good SEO campaign in 2024 and beyond should already be considering how content is structured for AI systems, whether your business is being cited as a source in AI-generated answers for relevant queries, and whether your content demonstrates the kind of first-hand expertise and authority that both Google and AI systems look for.
These are not optional extras. They are part of what modern SEO looks like. If your current provider is not thinking about them as part of your standard engagement, that is worth raising. If they are thinking about them but billing them separately, that is worth challenging.
Search engines are search engines. The fundamental goal of every major search platform, whether it returns a list of links or a generated summary, is to connect people with the most credible and useful answer to their question. The businesses that position themselves as the most credible and useful answer, through honest and consistent effort, will be the ones that benefit most from search in any form it takes.
That has always been the principle. It remains the principle now. And it should be included in what you pay for.
