Is AI SEO Really Necessary or Good SEO Still Enough?

Linkzo

Linkzo

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I've worked on two different scenarios with my clients recently.

Client 1: We followed a standard SEO strategy (content, backlinks, technical SEO), and the site started getting cited in AI Overviews naturally.

Client 2: The same approach wasn't enough. We had to implement a more customized strategy that focused on topical authority, entity building, and content structure before we finally secured the citation in AI Overviews.

One putting a lot of effort into AEO / AI SEO / GEO strategy(whatever we're calling it these days) like building entity signals, optimizing for AI citations, and creating FAQ focused content.

Other doing nothing than solid, consistent SEO, good content, quality backlinks, proper on-page optimization and getting cited in AI Overviews without any dedicated AI strategy like other.

So I'm wondering what you guys thinking

Is AI SEO is must-have strategy?
Or simply strong SEO naturally leads to AI citations over time?

Are you getting cited in AI Overviews without changing your SEO strategy?

I'm curious to hear real experiences from others rather than just reading another "AI SEO is the future" post.
 
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2 sites are not enough for this bias.

Normal SEO is good enough to be cited in AI overview, and optimizing for it can also ice the cake.
 
before your site can lead to AI citation it will require you to conduct thorough study that AI doesnt have response to so from there it can now be added to the AI citations
 
I think good SEO is still the foundation. AI is a useful tool that can speed up research, content planning, and drafting, but it cannot replace understanding search intent, creating helpful content, and building authority.
 
We’ve had clients get AI citations without changing their SEO strategy at all. The common factors were high-quality content, solid internal linking, and strong topical coverage. Dedicated AI optimization only became necessary in more competitive niches.
 
From what I've seen, strong SEO is still the foundation. Sites with helpful content, clear topical coverage, and a good reputation seem to have a better chance of being cited, even without a separate "AI SEO" strategy.

That said, improving content structure, using clear headings, and covering entities naturally can make your content easier for both search engines and AI systems to understand. I see those as good SEO practices rather than something completely separate.
 
Linkzo said:
I've worked on two different scenarios with my clients recently.

Client 1: We followed a standard SEO strategy (content, backlinks, technical SEO), and the site started getting cited in AI Overviews naturally.

Client 2: The same approach wasn't enough. We had to implement a more customized strategy that focused on topical authority, entity building, and content structure before we finally secured the citation in AI Overviews.

One putting a lot of effort into AEO / AI SEO / GEO strategy(whatever we're calling it these days) like building entity signals, optimizing for AI citations, and creating FAQ focused content.

Other doing nothing than solid, consistent SEO, good content, quality backlinks, proper on-page optimization and getting cited in AI Overviews without any dedicated AI strategy like other.

So I'm wondering what you guys thinking

Is AI SEO is must-have strategy?
Or simply strong SEO naturally leads to AI citations over time?

Are you getting cited in AI Overviews without changing your SEO strategy?

I'm curious to hear real experiences from others rather than just reading another "AI SEO is the future" post.
Click to expand...
I still think good SEO is the main thing If your content is helpful your site is well organized and you build quality backlinks AI seems to pick it up naturally AI focused optimization can help in some competitive niches but I dont think every website needs it
 
Google and SEOs strictly advise against content chunking. It's ok to do brand mentions and citations as a part of off page SEO but it's not necessary to modify pages for AI tools. We should write content for humans and optimize it for search engines and AI tools. People (GEO experts) started writing content for AI tools in 2026 and messed up many sites. So, stick to the basics regardless of the strategy.
 
SEO is strong foundation for trust and business occurs and AI results are booming we have to adopt the steps like 80-20
 
I Think it depends on the niche. In competitive spaces, adding entity focused optimization can help, but for many sites, Consistent SEO and genuinely useful content still seem to do most of the heavy lifting.
 
i’d treat ai citations as an outcome to measure, not a separate seo discipline. compare cited and uncited pages by query intent, source consensus, passage clarity, and update frequency.
strong seo stays the base, while entity clarity and concise evidence-backed answers are worth testing.
the real test is whether those citations bring qualified traffic, not whether the brand appears once.
 
Seo is enough. Ai overview pulls all its citations from top 10. U can see that for littrely every single keyword.

For ai- just get ur brand mentioned on reddit along with text written around your keyword. Promote urself heavily on LinkedIn (for some reasons linkedin increases ai citations by a lot). Do quora and trustpilot too.
 
I think strong SEO is still the foundation. If your content is genuinely useful and your site has authority, AI citations often follow naturally.

AI-focused optimization can help in competitive niches, but I wouldn't treat it as a replacement for good SEO fundamentals.
 
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