SEO is not dead now with AI: Google's generative search features rely on its core Search ranking and quality systems, so SEO remains relevant (Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search). You can keep SEO as your foundation while adapting your content work to direct answers and usefulness within generated responses. You can also measure performance in Google's generative features through Search Console's Generative AI performance report.
Is SEO dead now with AI, including in 2026?
SEO remains relevant in Google's generative search because those features highlight content from its Search index. Google's guidance published on 10 July 2026 treats optimization for generative AI search as SEO.
AEO means answer engine optimization, while GEO means generative engine optimization (Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search). Google describes both as terms for work focused on improving visibility in AI search experiences.
At Recala, we combine SEO, AEO and GEO within our content service. We use AEO for making content capable of supplying a direct, citable answer. We use GEO for making a company's content and presence useful within generated answers. These are overlapping editorial and measurement concerns, so you can adapt the assignment without discarding ordinary search visibility.
What should I change in my SEO strategy now that people use AI to search?
Prioritize content your audience finds unique, compelling and useful (Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search). Google says that creating this content will likely influence your long-term presence in generative AI search more than the other suggestions in its optimization guide.
Producing many pages primarily to manipulate rankings rather than help users is scaled content abuse under Google's spam policies (Spam policies for Google web search). That policy covers large amounts of unoriginal content offering little or no user value, regardless of how it is created.
Begin your brief with the decision the reader needs to make. Our method checks intent, existing coverage, company knowledge and available evidence before choosing the assignment. State the argument, supported examples, exclusions, format, relevant links and next action in the brief.
Collect documented company facts, relevant primary research and author input before writing. Preserve source and measurement dates when collecting that material. Keep what your company experienced distinct from public research it has read. A claim about your company's experience needs company documentation, rather than an external publisher's account rewritten in your voice. Our briefing and writing practices guide editorial work; they are not proven multipliers of search rankings or AI citations.
Give a compact opening answer that makes its subject and response clear without requiring a long introduction. Retain the supporting context needed to interpret the claim, including who produced a figure, when it was measured and what it describes. Attribute company facts so readers can distinguish your observations from another publisher's findings.
Add a comparison table, scorecard or checklist that helps the reader carry out the task. Fill it with meaningful rows rather than leaving only blank cells. Judge that component by its usefulness to the reader; Recala's method does not treat its presence as a proven citation lever. We keep internal quality scores separate from observed search, reader and commercial outcomes. Our content service explicitly excludes guaranteed rankings and guaranteed AI citations.
How can my website appear in Google's AI search answers, and which SEO practices still matter?
Your page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet to qualify for its generative AI features. Google's July 2026 guide also requires your site to be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console.
Keep crawling allowed through robots.txt and through your CDN or hosting infrastructure (AI features and your website). Make content easy to find through internal links on your website. Keep important content available in textual form, so the information you want discovered is present as text. Provide a good page experience, and support text with high-quality images and videos where applicable.
Keep structured data consistent with the text visitors can see on the page (AI features and your website). Maintain current Merchant Center and Business Profile information where those services apply to your business.
You do not need LLMS.txt, special AI text files, new machine-readable files or Markdown to appear in Google Search's generative capabilities. Google says Search does not use those special files or formats for that purpose. No special schema.org markup is required for generative AI search. You can continue using structured data within your broader SEO strategy because it helps with eligibility for rich results.
Google's eligibility and markup rules here apply to its Search generative features, rather than automatically to ChatGPT or Gemini. Meeting Google's requirements and best practices does not guarantee that it will crawl, index or serve your content.
Checks to carry into your SEO strategy
- Start the brief with the reader's decision, intent, existing coverage and available evidence.
- Make the opening answer understandable on its own and preserve the evidence needed to interpret its claims.
- Check that the page is indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet.
- Check that the site is included in Search generative AI features in Search Console.
- Allow crawling through robots.txt and hosting infrastructure, make content findable through internal links, and provide important content in text.
- Keep structured data consistent with the visible page content.
- Measure performance in Google's generative features with the Generative AI performance report in Search Console.
- Report company mentions, explicit citations, consulted sources and internal editorial quality as distinct observations.
How should I measure visibility in AI search without confusing it with traffic or business results?
Use Search Console's Generative AI performance report to measure performance in Google's generative features on Search and Discover. Track conversions and time spent on your site separately, using a tool such as Google Analytics.
Keep company mentions, retrieved pages and explicit citations as distinct observations. A company can appear in answer text without its page being cited. A retrieved page can also be absent from the answer's citations. Keep internal editorial quality separate from external visibility when reporting your results.
Our AI search visibility baseline, measured on 2 October 2026, covered 81 buyer questions about B2B SEO, AEO and GEO services. We used anonymous DataForSEO captures in English for Spain before our first article aimed at those questions. The capture window ran from 15:48 to 16:02 UTC, with ChatGPT web search forced. ChatGPT and Gemini each had three captures per question.
Our domain appeared in none of the 81 Google organic top-10 results pages in that baseline. It appeared in none of the 76 returned Google AI Overviews. Neither the 243 ChatGPT answers nor the 243 Gemini answers cited recala.co. No captured answer named Recala in its text.
The baseline counted a domain when it appeared among an answer's cited sources or in Google's organic top ten. Failed or empty captures were recorded as unknown, rather than as an absence of citation. This baseline measures visibility on specified buyer questions during one capture window, not traffic, customer results or improvement caused by publishing.
Sources
Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central, 10 July 2026developers.google.com
Spam policies for Google web search, Google, 28 August 2026developers.google.com
AI features and your website, Google Search Central, 10 December 2025developers.google.com
