Google’s Gary Illyes reassured SEOs that you don’t need specialized “AI SEO,” AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) to appear in AI-powered search results. According to Illyes, traditional SEO tactics are exactly what’s needed for success in both AI Overviews and AI Mode.
1. AI Search = SEO
AI features in Google Search—from crawling to indexing and ranking—build upon your standard SEO foundation. These new tools don’t function independently; they leverage the same infrastructure like Googlebot, the core index, RankBrain, and MUM. In other words, the fundamentals of SEO are sufficient for AI Search.
2. Quality Counts, Not Creation Source
Google doesn’t care whether content is human-written or AI-generated. Their algorithms evaluate content purely on helpfulness and reliability. Illyes emphasized: the goal is to reward high‑quality content, no matter how it’s produced. Search Engine Journal
3. AI is Woven Throughout
AI isn’t just tacked on — it’s embedded at every stage of Google Search. RankBrain helps understand complex query intent, and MUM (Multitask Unified Model) analyzes information across formats and languages. This AI integration is longstanding; Google has used ML since RankBrain first launched.
4. How AI Summary Generation Works
When Google generates an AI Overview, it uses two key techniques:
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Query fan‑out: breaking the original search into sub-queries to cover the topic deeply.
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Grounding: verifying each generated statement against indexed sources to minimize hallucinations and enhance factual accuracy.
✅ What This Means for You
| Focus Area | Key Insight |
|---|---|
| SEO Strategy | Stick with core SEO: quality content, solid structure, and backlinks. |
| Content Creation | You don’t need to build separate AEO or GEO plans — your existing SEO work is enough. |
| Content Source | Prioritize helpfulness and authority, regardless of whether AI helped write it. |
| AI Visibility | Optimize your core content well—broad SEO covers it, even for AI Overviews and AI Mode. |
Bottom Line
You don’t need to chase new acronyms like AEO or GEO. According to Google, optimizing for traditional SEO—producing high‑quality, well-structured, authoritative content—is sufficient to rank in both standard search results and AI-powered summaries.Reddit