Google Just Killed GEO and AEO: Here’s What That Means for Your Marketing Budget

Google really takes its sweet time letting sensationalism and commentary circulate through forums and message boards. When self-proclaimed “experts” begin flooding forums and feeds with hot takes, Google has a habit of waiting for the noise to reach a fever pitch before stepping in to make everyone look foolish, and we have watched this happen for 15 years. From algorithm updates to link building to Mobileocalypse, and everything in between, they all followed the same script.

On May 15, 2026, Google did exactly that. They published official documentation on their Search Central site that explicitly rejected GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) as separate disciplines from SEO. This was not informal commentary from a Google employee at a conference. This was documentation on the main site that every SEO professional checks daily.

If your agency is currently charging you a separate line item for GEO or AEO services, that is not innovation. That is a tell. For the past 18 months, marketing agencies have been selling these as distinct service packages, often at $2,500 per month or more on top of existing SEO retainers. Google just confirmed what we have known all along: optimizing for generative AI search experiences is optimizing for search, period.

What Google Actually Said About GEO and AEO

According to Google’s AI Optimization Guide, the company addressed the terminology directly:

AEO stands for ‘answer engine optimization’ and GEO for ‘generative engine optimization.’ These are both terms you may see used to describe work specifically focused on improving visibility in AI search experiences. From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.

The document goes further, calling out specific tactics that agencies have been selling as GEO or AEO best practices:

While terms like Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) or Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are common online, many suggested ‘hacks’ aren’t effective or supported by how Google Search actually works. Prioritize effective SEO strategies over ‘AEO/GEO hacks’: For Google Search, you can ignore tactics like ‘chunking’ content, creating unnecessary AI text files (like llms.txt), or pursuing inauthentic mentions.

This is where it gets interesting. Google did not just say it is all SEO. They specifically debunked tactics that marketing agencies have been packaging and selling as specialized GEO services. The hilarity of llms.txt to even begin with is that people actually thought OpenAI and Anthropic, who have a completely contentious relationship, would get together to standardize some random document that circulated on LinkedIn. The premise is comedic.

People want to be trendsetters when it comes to advancements, and they think trendsetting is as simple as putting together a bogus text file and dropping it into the root of your domain. It is bizarre. But that is what happens when people latch onto something with no logical, substantiated, or proven basis.

The Chunking Myth and What Actually Works

Chunking content is an interesting concept that has a very real and applicable meaning in certain contexts. We use chunking and active embedding of content in our own company’s database to make transcripts, emails, and other materials easy to traverse at scale. It has genuinely great use cases for data management and AI system design.

But how that translates to SEO and potentially gaming the system with your website is a whole different story. We have written about how Google and LLMs read content beyond keywords; the vectorization of content is not exactly the same concept as chunking, but it exists in the same realm. On one side, you could ask whether this is how LLMs or Google look for content from a systematic or scientific standpoint. We do not want these things to be about being intentional or gaming the system.

On the other hand, the vectorization of content and the premise behind chunking already have best practices tied to them. How quickly are we answering people’s questions? What kind of topical coverage do we provide? The idea of chunking makes it more technical, but the underlying concept is simply a solid approach to the readability and flow of content in general. This connects directly to how content structure serves readers and AI models; the goal is the same whether you call it chunking or not.

Google’s guidance reinforces this point explicitly:

Creating content that people find unique, compelling, and useful will likely influence your website’s presence in generative AI search in the long run more than any of the other suggestions in this guide.

The fundamentals have not changed. The agencies selling you chunking strategies as a distinct GEO tactic are repackaging what has always been true about good content organization.

Why Agencies Started Selling GEO and AEO as Separate Services

There are three scenarios that explain why marketing agencies started charging separately for GEO and AEO packages over the past 18 months.

Scenario One: They Genuinely Believed It Was a New Discipline

Some agencies saw the rise of AI Overviews, ChatGPT search features, and Perplexity gaining traction. They assumed this represented a fundamental shift requiring new optimization approaches. They built separate service lines in good faith, even if they were ultimately wrong about the need for specialization.

Scenario Two: They Saw an Opportunity to Increase Retainer Values

When you can add a $2,500 monthly GEO package on top of an existing $5,000 SEO retainer, that is a 50% revenue increase from the same client. The terminology was new enough, and the AI hype cycle was loud enough, that prospects did not question whether this was truly distinct work or just SEO with a new label.

Scenario Three: They Were Behind on the Fundamentals and Needed a New Angle

If your SEO work has not evolved to include E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) as a core component, if you are still churning out commodity content, or if you have not adapted to helpful content updates, then you need something to sell. GEO and AEO became convenient packages to distract from the fact that the foundational SEO work was not being done properly.

Most agencies fall into scenarios two or three. We have never had anyone start a conversation with us about GEO or AEO because we do not even always lead with the word SEO, even though we are SEO experts. This is a comprehensive approach to building up people’s presence online. It covers SEO, content marketing, on-site best practices, website UX and UI, Google Business Profile optimization, and many other approaches you can categorize as organic. Organic is simply anything that is not a pay-to-play approach to online marketing.

What Non-Commodity Content Actually Looks Like

Google’s documentation included a specific example contrasting commodity content with non-commodity content. The commodity version was titled 7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers. The non-commodity version was Why We Waived the Inspection and Saved Money: A Look Inside the Sewer Line.

The second example includes specific, firsthand detail. It is not a generic listicle that 50 other real estate sites have published. It is a real story with real decisions, real outcomes, and the kind of expertise that only comes from direct experience.

For the professionals we work with (doctors, lawyers, veterinarians, financial advisors), this means capturing their unique stories and perspectives. Instead of generic content like “5 Signs You Need a Root Canal,” the goal is to create specific case studies written by the doctor about a failed previous root canal from another office. What did they have to do differently? What materials did they use? What were the timelines and cost ranges? Include real photos with patient consent. That is non-commodity content. We have written in more depth about what actually makes content fresh in an AI-saturated world and what makes content conversion-ready if you want to go further.

Here is how we actually capture this level of specificity:

Transcribing and Storing Every Client Conversation

All calls are transcribed, not just for accountability and tracking work done, but for capturing unique stories, anecdotes, and client experiences. What are they saying? What are they focusing on? What do they see firsthand every single day, operating as a professional expert in their field? We capture that and build upon it.

Conducting Structured Interview Series

We hop on a call and talk face-to-face, hearing the client’s perspective on their services or their unique approach to what they offer. What makes them different from competitors down the street that the average consumer might not know? What are their unique value propositions? This is the same reason we interview before we write.

Analyzing Trends in Client Questions

What are the commonly asked questions? What are the pain points? What concerns do people have, from mundane things like insurance coverage to situations where they feel like their life or health is at stake? How do our clients assuage those concerns and direct attention to what really affects outcomes and quality of life?

Using Our Expert Talk AI Platform

This proprietary system has traversed and indexed hundreds of thousands of Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube posts and comments. It allows us to understand the unique perspectives, needs, queries, and inquisitive discussions of individuals looking for professionals to answer their questions. We can differentiate these by geography (Houston versus New York City) and see what kinds of questions people ask every single day that we cannot surface just by clicking through search results.

No one has time to manually listen to thousands of hours of calls. That is where chunking and embeddings come into play on the back end. Using AI to process this data is faster than anything we have been able to use at any point in history, but it would still require an immense number of tokens and computational resources without a proper structure. That is what allows us to put things into buckets, identify concepts and trends, and then advise our content team and SEOs. It allows us to be highly consultative for clients, using an immense amount of data that is not conjecture from SEO message boards or inferred from stale keyword research. It comes from people asking questions, allowing us to get ahead of those questions with answers in a manner that Google consistently finds adequate.

What This Means for E-E-A-T and Expertise

If there are any considerations beyond what we are currently doing for best practices, it has always been E-E-A-T. The underlying premise is that if we are going to create content and form blogs and pages, we have to offer a unique perspective. We have to use the expertise of our doctors, lawyers, and other professionals to introduce something novel or unique into Google’s index. We have put together dedicated resources on this for both law firms and dental practices, and our content team documented the specific ways we actually execute on E-E-A-T signals across both verticals if you want to see what that looks like in practice.

We augment that with additional research and tools related to NLP, secondary and tertiary keyword research, and platforms that have indexed hundreds of thousands of social media posts and comments. This allows us to understand the unique needs and questions of individuals seeking professionals who can truly answer them.

The emphasis on expertise is not new. What has changed is that Google has made it even more explicit in the context of AI search experiences. The same principles that made content valuable for traditional search make it valuable for AI Overviews and generative experiences. You cannot game your way into AI results with technical tricks. You earn your way in by being the most authoritative, experienced voice on a topic.

How to Audit Your Current Marketing Retainer

If your agency is currently charging you separately for GEO or AEO services, ask them three specific questions.

Question One: What Specific Tactics Are You Using for GEO or AEO That Differ From Your SEO Work?

If they mention chunking content, creating llms.txt files, or other technical approaches that Google has explicitly debunked, you have your answer. If they cannot articulate clear differences, you are paying twice for the same work.

Question Two: How Are You Measuring Success for GEO or AEO Separately From SEO Metrics?

AI visibility and coverage are tangible and visible metrics. There are tools available for reporting and analysis, and it is reasonable to report on the types of AI coverage you get alongside keyword rankings and Google Business Profile metrics. But the means by which those results are achieved are not separate disciplines. If your agency is reporting on AI Overview appearances but calling it a separate service, they are repackaging standard SEO reporting with new labels.

There is also more emphasis now on answering very human questions as the breadth of curiosity and cycles of trust with LLMs become commonplace. That shift does not require a new service line. It requires better content, which is what good SEO has always required.

Question Three: Can You Show Me Google’s Official Documentation Supporting GEO or AEO as Distinct From SEO?

This is the killer question. Google’s Search Central documentation explicitly states the opposite. If your agency cites blog posts from other agencies or from LinkedIn thought leaders, that is not official documentation. That is marketing.

Google did not bury this information. They published it on their main Search Central documentation site, the same place every SEO in the world checks daily. The fact that most of the industry has not acknowledged it tells you everything you need to know about who is reading primary sources and who is repeating LinkedIn talking points.

Where the Industry Still Gets It Wrong

Even after Google’s explicit documentation, agencies are doubling down rather than recalibrating. What is telling is not just that they are continuing to sell these services; it is how they are repackaging them. GEO and AEO are quietly being rebranded as “AI visibility strategy” or “LLM citation management,” new labels on the same debunked tactics. The terminology shifts, but the invoice line items remain.

Scaled Content Generation Specifically for AI

The most common version of this is agencies spinning up massive volumes of question-and-answer content under the premise that AI systems prefer structured, digestible formats. The logic sounds plausible until you read Google’s own guidance, which explicitly flags scaled content as a spam signal regardless of whether a human or an AI produced it. Volume has never been the answer, and dressing it up as an AI strategy does not change that.

Inauthentic Mention Building

This one is worth watching closely because it is the hardest to spot on an invoice. Agencies are selling “AI citation building” as a legitimate service, which in practice often means paying for brand mentions on sites that LLMs are likely to reference, seeding promotional answers on Reddit and Quora, or manufacturing fake expert profiles to build perceived authority. Beyond violating Google’s spam policies, this approach is fragile. AI systems are getting better at evaluating source quality, not just source quantity. Authority that cannot withstand scrutiny will not hold.

What You Should Be Paying For

Your retainer should cover the following, and none of it is new.

Content That Demonstrates Real Expertise

Your retainer should pay for content that demonstrates real expertise, not commodity content already published by 50 other sites or AI-generated question-and-answer spam. That means real stories, real case studies, and real insights that only someone with direct experience could provide. Getting there requires interviewing your subject-matter experts, capturing their unique perspectives, and translating them into content that serves readers.

Technical SEO That Makes Content Accessible

Your retainer should also cover the technical fundamentals: site speed, mobile optimization, structured data, internal linking, and proper heading hierarchy. These matter for both traditional search and AI systems. There is no separate “technical GEO” component. It is just technical SEO done properly.

Authority Building Through Legitimate Means

Authority building means real mentions from real sources, citations from authoritative sites in your industry, guest contributions to reputable publications, speaking engagements, and published research. If you are a dental practice, that might mean contributing to dental association publications. If you are a law firm, that might mean being quoted in news articles about legal developments in your practice area. This is how you build authority that both humans and AI systems can verify.

Analytics and Reporting That Track What Matters

Track AI Overview appearances and monitor how often your content is referenced in AI responses, but report those metrics alongside traditional SEO metrics, as they are all part of the same effort. Do not pay separately for an “AI visibility report” when it is just a different view of the same underlying content performance.

The Budget Conversation You Need to Have

If you are currently paying for separate GEO or AEO services, you have a decision to make. You can bring Google’s documentation to your agency and ask them to justify the separate line item. If they cannot (and based on Google’s explicit guidance, they cannot), you should either eliminate the separate charge or find an agency that does not play those games.

The money you are spending on GEO packages should be redirected to the fundamentals. Invest in better content that demonstrates real expertise. Invest in technical improvements that make your site faster and more accessible. Invest in legitimate authority-building that establishes you as a credible source. These things have always driven results in search, and they will continue to drive results in AI search experiences.

Google’s position is clear. The tactics work, or they do not. The expertise shows, or it does not. The content serves users, or it does not. There is no secret GEO playbook that requires a separate budget. There is just good SEO, executed properly, with a focus on demonstrating real expertise and serving real user needs.

If your agency is still selling you separate GEO or AEO packages after Google’s explicit documentation, they are either uninformed or dishonest. Either way, that is not who you want managing your marketing budget.

See What Market My Market Can Do for Your Practice

Market My Market has built its practice around the premise that organic search success comes from one place: doing the work that actually matters. We serve law firms, dental practices, and veterinary clinics across the country, and for every one of those clients, the strategy has always been the same. Capture real expertise from the professionals we represent, translate that expertise into content that answers the questions their prospective clients are actually asking, and build the kind of authority that Google and AI systems alike can verify. We have never had a GEO or AEO line item on a client invoice because we never needed one. We have been doing the underlying work all along.

If you are evaluating what your current retainer is actually buying you, or if you are a law firm, dental practice, or professional services business that wants a straight answer about what search optimization looks like in 2026, we welcome that conversation. Our legal marketing and dental marketing resources are a good starting point for understanding how we approach organic growth in your vertical. When you are ready to talk specifics, contact us today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Google’s documentation answered most of the big ones on May 15, 2026, but we still hear these regularly from prospects evaluating their current agency relationships.

What are GEO and AEO in SEO?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization, and AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization. These terms emerged in the marketing industry to describe the optimization of AI search experiences such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. However, according to Google’s official documentation, optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO, not a separate discipline requiring distinct tactics or budget allocation.

Should I Pay for Separate GEO or AEO Services?

No. Google has explicitly stated that optimizing for AI search experiences is part of optimizing search overall. If your agency is charging you a separate line item for GEO or AEO services, you are paying twice for the same work. The fundamentals that make content valuable for traditional search (expertise, authority, trustworthiness, unique perspectives) are the same fundamentals that make content valuable for AI search results.

What Tactics Should I Avoid for AI Search Optimization?

According to Google’s documentation, you should ignore tactics like chunking content specifically for AI, creating llms.txt files, or pursuing inauthentic mentions. These approaches are either ineffective or violate Google’s spam policies. Focus instead on creating content that demonstrates real expertise, answers questions comprehensively, and provides unique value that only someone with direct experience could offer.

How Do I Measure Success in AI Search Results?

Track AI Overview appearances, citations in AI responses, and visibility across platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude alongside your traditional SEO metrics. These should be reported as part of your overall content performance, not as a separate service or metric category. The efforts that drive AI visibility are the same efforts that drive traditional search visibility: authoritative content, technical excellence, and demonstrated expertise.

What Is the Difference Between Commodity and Non-Commodity Content?

Commodity content is generic information that dozens of other sites have published. Non-commodity content includes specific, firsthand detail that only someone with direct experience could provide, such as a real case study with real outcomes, materials used, timelines, costs, and photos. Non-commodity content demonstrates E-E-A-T and is prioritized by both traditional search and AI systems.