GEO is just a Buzz Word Marketers Selling to a Fools

[Sololeveling1]

Yeah, you heard it right. GEO is just over hyped word made by marketers to sell you so called their "SEO Services".

No hate to them. But, GEO is 80% SEO. These so called titles "SEO is dead GEO is the future" are also the buzz words because you can never learn GEO without understanding the SEO.

All the LLM's on internet use RAG (Retrieval Argumental Method) for expanding their knowledge while doing query fan out and the only brand getting more mention in SERP'S is likely to be pulled by most of the LLM's.

Perplexity takes around 60% it's from SERP's rest of the 40% come from it's database.

AI overview, Google AI mode do that same. Checking the SERP's and finding which one product has the most brand mention after that they simply present to users.

 

[SERHub]

I agree with this 100%.. that’s the nature of marketing though. It’s always been that way, SEO it seems is too bland.. it needs dressed up in a fancy new buzzword every so often.

 

[Anirban Nag]

Couldn't agree more. All of this is marketing BS. Only 3 things matter. Answer to the point, Decent on-page and backlinks.
Everything else are just drops in the ocean

 

[roydan]

Yep. That's pretty much is. 80% SEO with some nuances that even I could figure out.

 

[ookimyia]

Yep. That's pretty much is. 80% SEO with some nuances that even I could figure out.

So what about the remaining 20 percent?

 

[Anos_King]

Yeah, you heard it right. GEO is just over hyped word made by marketers to sell you so called their "SEO Services".

No hate to them. But, GEO is 80% SEO. These so called titles "SEO is dead GEO is the future" are also the buzz words because you can never learn GEO without understanding the SEO.

All the LLM's on internet use RAG (Retrieval Argumental Method) for expanding their knowledge while doing query fan out and the only brand getting more mention in SERP'S is likely to be pulled by most of the LLM's.

Perplexity takes around 60% it's from SERP's rest of the 40% come from it's database.

AI overview, Google AI mode do that same. Checking the SERP's and finding which one product has the most brand mention after that they simply present to users.

Imo, I would treat GEO as extension of SEO rather than replacement for it.terminology is newer but fundamental aren't. If site has strong topical relevance, crawlability, authority and genuine brand signals it has solid ai visibility foundation.

 

[Ezra elias]

Exactly. GEO isn’t replacing SEO; it’s more like SEO adapting to AI search.
Rankings, authority, mentions, and good content still matter because AI needs trusted sources.The whole “SEO is dead, GEO is the future” thing is mostly marketing hype.If your SEO is strong, you’re already halfway there with GEO.

 

[AdTech Maketing Agency]

geo is mostly just regular seo with a new name. same ranking factors still matters

 

[ayufun]

There's nothing wrong with a new name being coined.

Search engines have evolved, so SEO should.

In 2026, Google recommends a webpage ranking in page 2 of SERP in AI overview, that tells something new.

 

[HOTICEBABYBOO]

I agree that theres a lot of marketing hype around GEO but the fundamentals still overlap heavily with SEO Strong content relevance authority and being discoverable in search remain important for visibility across AI systems too.

 

[roydan]

So what about the remaining 20 percent?

Super niche use cases that can come up in a conversation but not in a search query.

 

[Olaf Meta Agency]

I agree there's a lot of hype around GEO. lot of the fundamentals still come back to good SEO so I don't see them as completely separate things.

 

[netbloid]

I think the branding is definitely getting overhyped, but the underlying idea isn’t completely new. A lot of it still comes down to solid SEO and being visible in the right places.

 

[SEOGami]

I kinda disagree with you on this.

While the underlying methodology remains similar, the end goal changes. And it's very important to be mindful of it.

SEO is about getting a URL to the top of Google so a human clicks it. GEO is about structuring information into clear, dense entities so a RAG pipeline can vectorize and cite it directly in a generated answer. No clicks needed

GEO is about being understood, retrieved, cited, and represented correctly by AI systems. There’s definitely overlap (content quality, authority, crawlability, structured data, entities, etc.) but the optimization targets are totally different.

Also, assuiming that LLMs simply look at SERPs and pick the brand with the most mentions is too simplistic. Different AI systems use different retrieval pipelines, proprietary indexes, knowledge bases, search providers, citations, entity signals, and model knowledge. RAG is also not synonymous with "checking Google SERPs."

SEO relies heavily on backlink authority and anchor text. GEO relies on entity mapping, schema markup, consensus across independent sources, and formatting text so an AI model can parse it cleanly.

You can't call it a buzz-word because the basic tenets are changing. It's like saying ReactJS is the same as any other PHP based CMS. Yes they can both be used to build websites but they're wildly different.

 

[Andrew Scherer]

Bullshit lol.

You literally said its 80% SEO.

The remaining 20% is what you're trying to lambast: something new

 

[hreyhrey]

GEO barely makes sense, the models were all trained months n months ago with cutoffs approaching 6months +.

 

[Andrew Scherer]

GEO barely makes sense, the models were all trained months n months ago with cutoffs approaching 6months +.

nobody waits for models to retrain. they are trying to replicate what happens when real users use the platform. these answers, by and large, are using live web search coupled w/ the model to deliver the best answers they can

 

[BlogPro]

GEO barely makes sense, the models were all trained months n months ago with cutoffs approaching 6months +.

Modern AI systems don’t rely exclusively on what the base model learned during training. You now have search, retrieval, browsing, RAG, citations, tool calls, knowledge bases, and other external sources that can inject fresh information during inference.

The question with GEO is - When it needs information today, which sources does it retrieve, trust, cite, and surface?

Here's a little thought experiment for you. Head on over to Chatgpt.com (you don't need an account) and in the prompt area type - "What are the biggest news stories of the past 24 hours?"

What do you see?

 

[hreyhrey]

nobody waits for models to retrain. they are trying to replicate what happens when real users use the platform. these answers, by and large, are using live web search coupled w/ the model to deliver the best answers they can

Obviously, which shows GEO is basically SEO

 

[Andrew Scherer]

Obviously, which shows GEO is basically SEO

that's an oversimplification

AEO/GEO is more like if ORM and SEO had a crack baby

there is a greater emphasis in controlling narratives which has NO relation to SEO whatsoever