Google's John Mueller has pushed back on the idea that every website suddenly needs a separate GEO strategy just because AI search is growing.

His argument is refreshingly practical: look at how your audience actually discovers your business and prioritize accordingly. If AI platforms represent only a small part of your users or referred traffic, traditional SEO may still deserve most of your attention. If that behavior changes, your strategy should change with it.

That doesn't mean AI visibility can be ignored. Mueller explicitly says AI isn't going away and that businesses should think about how their value translates into a world where AI-assisted discovery is increasingly common. But that's different from treating GEO as a mandatory replacement for SEO.

Google has made a similar distinction in its broader guidance. The company continues to frame optimization for AI experiences largely around established SEO foundations rather than an entirely separate set of ranking tricks.

For us, that's probably the most useful takeaway: SEO and GEO don't necessarily deserve the same weight for every website.

The right balance depends on where the audience is, how discovery is changing and what the actual data says.

That's also why testing AI visibility matters more than blindly following a universal GEO checklist.

Source: Search Engine Journal — Google Answers If Some Sites Can Ignore GEO And Just Focus On SEO

Tags: SEO, GEO, AI Search, Google, John Mueller, AI Visibility, Search Strategy, Generative AI