AI SEO vs SEO: what changes and what stays
Search engines rank pages. AI assistants write answers and name companies in them. Most of the work overlaps; the measure and the off site work do not.
The short answer
SEO earns your page a position among the links. AI SEO earns your company a mention in the answer an assistant writes. The technical base is the same; how you measure it, which sources matter and the work on other sites differ.
B2B buyers use both, often in that order: an assistant for the shortlist, then a search to check the names on it. Treat AI SEO as an extension of SEO, not a replacement.
Side by side
| SEO | AI SEO | |
|---|---|---|
| What you win | A position in a list of links | A mention inside a written answer |
| Where it looks | Google, mostly | Bing, Brave, Google and own indexes, one per assistant |
| What counts most | Relevance and links to your page | Mentions on the pages the assistant reads, and plain facts on yours |
| Result for the same query | Fairly stable | Changes from run to run |
| How to measure | Rank tracking | Share of answers over repeated runs |
| Shared base | Crawlable, fast, indexed pages | The same, plus AI crawlers allowed |
What stays the same
- Pages must be crawlable, indexed and readable without JavaScript.
- Keyword research still tells you what buyers ask. The questions people type into assistants are longer, but the topics match.
- Good pages answer the question early, in plain words, and back it with facts.
- Gemini answers from Google's index, so Google rankings feed straight into one assistant.
What changes
- More indexes. ChatGPT leans on Bing, Claude on Brave and Perplexity on its own. Page one on Google does not mean ChatGPT reads you.
- Mentions beat links. Assistants name the companies the pages they read keep mentioning. A roundup that lists you can matter more than a link.
- No fixed rank. The same question gives different lists. You measure a share across many runs, not a position.
- Description matters. The assistant says what you do in its own words. Consistent facts across your site and profiles decide whether those words are right.
How to split the work
- Fix the shared base first: crawling, indexing in Google and Bing, text in the HTML.
- Build the pages both reward: comparisons, alternatives, use cases, pricing.
- Then the AI specific work: find the sources each assistant cites for your questions and get onto them.
- Report both every month: rankings for the searches, share of answers for the questions.
That's what every Nod plan covers. To see where you stand today, run the free check.
Questions
Isn't this just SEO?
It overlaps. Google rankings help with Gemini, which uses Google. But ChatGPT leans on Bing and Claude on Brave, and being named depends more on what other sites say about you than on your own rankings. I work on both.
Does AI search replace Google?
Not for most B2B buyers yet. They use both: an assistant to build a shortlist, then Google to check the companies on it. That's why I work on both.
What are AEO and GEO?
Answer engine optimization and generative engine optimization. Both mean the same thing as AI SEO: getting named and cited in AI answers.