Is AI SEO actually a scam or people just selling it the wrong way?

I've seen quite a few people calling AI SEO/AEO/GEO a scam lately. To be fair, I get why some people feel that way. Everyone seems to be selling AI SEO services in marketplace these days, but not everyone can show actual results.

Search behaviour is changing, and brands are trying to get visibility in AI-generated answers. I think the real problem is understanding what's actually worth investing in and what's just a marketing hype.

Do you think it's mostly hype or have you seen real results? share your experience.

ur website must be fully readable and understand to ai agents

I don’t think AI SEO is a scam, but a lot of people are just repackaging traditional SEO with a new name.

There’s real potential in getting mentioned in AI answers, but if someone can’t show actual results or explain what they’re doing differently, I’d be careful.

I don’t think it's a scam. You can work on brand mentions, relevant listicle placements, content quality, and getting your brand covered by sources that AI platforms may use.

The results need to be measured through actual brand mentions and citations in AI answers. There are a lot of opportunities, but nobody can guarantee that an AI platform will cite your website.

Definitely NOT a scam.

To optimize for ChatGPT, Gemini, etc. is probably the smartest thing you can do in 2026+. Lets be honest here: Google Search (search engine) is a dying platform. Why would you search something manually, if Gemini, ChatGPT, etc. can give you an precise answer, tailored directly for you?

I have seen amazing results with GEO / LLM. If you can get ChatGPT to recommend your website or product, your traffic will skyrocket, your sales will skyrocket.

The thing is: You can easily optimize for it, you just need to know what your targeted audience is searching/asking for and then you create content specifically for this question.

What works the best right now:

- Comparisons (vs.)
- Top 10 XYZ
- Best XYZ for XYZ
- How to XYZ

I think there is some hype around the terminology but improving content structure and making information easier for AI systems to understand can be useful the key is measuring actual visibility and traffic rather than relying on big promises has anyone tracked results over time?

It is about 90% agency marketing hype and 10% actual search evolution.

The scam part comes from how it is currently sold. People are charging high fees for "AEO/GEO optimization packages" that are nothing more than basic FAQ schema markup and generic prompt-generated articles, usually with zero measurable attribution or conversion data.

The reality is that AI engines like Perplexity, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overviews heavily pull their citations from sources that already have strong traditional authority, top 5 organic rankings, or genuine community discussions on platforms like Reddit. There is no hidden secret code to "rank inside an LLM." If your site has clear entity recognition, solid backlinks, and concise answers to specific questions, AI summaries cite you naturally.

Selling it as a standalone, guaranteed service is mostly modern snake oil, but keeping your brand entity clean and answers direct is genuinely useful.

I think AI SEO, AEO, and GEO have real potential, but like traditional SEO, results depend on the strategy and execution. We’re also seeing a shift in how people search for information, so building brand authority, publishing helpful content, and earning relevant mentions are becoming increasingly important. The key is to focus on strategies that deliver measurable improvements rather than chasing every new trend.

Linkzo said:

I've seen quite a few people calling AI SEO/AEO/GEO a scam lately. To be fair, I get why some people feel that way. Everyone seems to be selling AI SEO services in marketplace these days, but not everyone can show actual results.

Search behaviour is changing, and brands are trying to get visibility in AI-generated answers. I think the real problem is understanding what's actually worth investing in and what's just a marketing hype.

Do you think it's mostly hype or have you seen real results? share your experience.

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for me, it's not a scam, but it's heavily overhyped by sellers pushing lazy AI content packages bro. LLMs like Perplexity or ChatGPT don't cite sites just cause u optimized meta tags or generated 100 AI blog posts. if a service claims they can rank inside ChatGPT overnite without building real brand mentions and entity trust -> 100% hype

Linkzo said:

I've seen quite a few people calling AI SEO/AEO/GEO a scam lately. To be fair, I get why some people feel that way. Everyone seems to be selling AI SEO services in marketplace these days, but not everyone can show actual results.

Search behaviour is changing, and brands are trying to get visibility in AI-generated answers. I think the real problem is understanding what's actually worth investing in and what's just a marketing hype.

Do you think it's mostly hype or have you seen real results? share your experience.

Click to expand...

it may not necessarily be a scam but the claims appear to be a bit exaggerated at the moment. being included in the answers of ai is something, while demonstrating that these inclusions result in customers is something else. it will be interessting to see which approaches remain effective after several months.

Half the "AI SEO" offers in the marketplace look like the same link packages with a new label tbh

It's definitely not a scam. I think what most people miss is that citations are quite different from brand mentions. To be honest most of the people that think that currently benefit from it are local businesses.

For example if you're a marketing agency in location X or you are a law firm for accidents in a location, all these kinds of businesses can get direct recommendations on answer engines. Think about it this way: if your business gets direct recommendations, you probably get a direct phone number to call in all these AI answers in the chat. It just straight up leads to you.

It just depends on the business, and people mix up cited URLs with final brand mentions. I think that's where the gap is and that's what people need to understand

BinarySeo said:

Half the "AI SEO" offers in the marketplace look like the same link packages with a new label tbh

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Well probably right, but the BSTs are not really the problem. When you say AISEO, then you're talking about listicles, reviews, and structured articles. This type of content\makes AI engines understand the article in a listicle format because it's all about recommendation and structured article that the LLM agents understand pretty much better