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Good SEO is Good GEO (Not For New Sites, In Any Reasonable Time Frame)

Claim: Good SEO is Good GEO (according to Google in 2026).

Truth: Agree in principle, but if you only do “good SEO” on your own new site in isolation, you can still be invisible for months in AI Overviews, because Google takes the context for the ai overview from most trusted sources it can find, e.g., LinkedIn / Youtube / Reddit / Facebook / Instagram / Trustpilot / Pitchbook / Crunchbase / etc. ie not your site ergo SEO (search engine optimisation) on one site is not enough in 2026 for the SERP for new sites.

PS – You also still need Pagerank. And at the very minimum, you need users.

This isn’t the first time Danny Sullivan said Good SEO is Good GEO. 

Personally, I still use the SEO/SEO/AI SEO acronyms and not GEO.

Regarding the urgency around some GEO sales tactics, John Mueller commented on Bluesky:

The higher the urgency, and the stronger the push of new acronyms, the more likely they’re just making spam and scamming.

John Mueller. Google Search Advocate also said in a Reddit thread:

“If you have an online business that makes money from referred traffic, it’s definitely a good idea to consider the full picture, and prioritize accordingly. What you call it doesn’t matter, but “AI” is not going away, but thinking about how your site’s value works in a world where “AI” is available is worth the time. Also, be realistic and look at actual usage metrics and understand your audience (what % is using “AI”? what % is using Facebook? what does it mean for where you spend your time?).

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