SEO, GEO, AISO… or Just SEO?

SEO, GEO, AISO… or Just SEO? The Real Story Behind AI-Era Visibility

Over the past year, our industry has been flooded with new acronyms trying to rebrand what is, at its core, still SEO.

GEO. AEO. AISO. LLMO.
Everyone seems to be racing to “name” the new era of AI-driven discovery.

And while I love innovation, I’m also a strategist — and a realist.

Just last month, I published an article called “SEO vs AIO: Why SEO Isn’t Dead — AI Just Renamed It.” In it, I explained something simple but foundational:

SEO hasn’t been replaced. AI has simply added new surfaces, new behaviors, and new ways for our content to be retrieved.

Today’s landscape isn’t about abandoning SEO; it’s about expanding the definition of where SEO shows up.

And the data backs this up.

Recently, Search Engine Land and Fractl released research exploring how marketers, job listings, and social conversations are describing brand visibility in the AI era. And after reviewing their findings, here’s what stands out to me as someone who works hands-on with clients every day:

The industry isn’t replacing SEO — it’s stacking new labels on top of it.
Because the fundamentals still matter… no matter what name you use.

Let’s break it down.

1. What the Industry Actually Recognizes: GEO Leads, But SEO Anchors Everything

When Search Engine Land surveyed practitioners:

• 84% recognized GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).
• 61% recognized AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).
• 60% recognized AISEO.

Everything else?
Niche acronyms struggling for adoption.

And yet… here comes the twist.

When marketers were forced to choose ONE term to describe AI-era visibility:

• 42% chose GEO
• 16% chose AISEO
• Only 14% chose SEO or AEO

Here’s the tension:

Everyone knows that SEO work feeds AI visibility…
… but very few are calling it SEO anymore.

As Danny Goodwin put it, we’re in a moment where the industry hasn’t “caught up with its own identity.” And he’s right. This is an identity shift, not a functionality shift.

But let’s be honest:

The work hasn’t magically changed just because AI systems retrieve answers instead of ranking URLs.
The rules changed, not the game.

This mirrors exactly what I wrote in my blog:

“AI isn’t replacing SEO. It’s repackaging it. Every acronym is just another lens on the same foundational behaviors: entity strength, topical depth, clarity, and value.”

2. What People Are Actually Searching For: ASO & GEO Are Rising Fast

By analyzing quarter-over-quarter Google Trends acceleration — not raw volume — Fractl uncovered which terms are gaining traction fastest:

• ASO (Answer Search Optimization) → up 152%
• GEO → up 121%
• AIO → up 99%
• AISO → up 90%
• SXO → up 70%
• AISEO → up 60%

Quick note: as someone who runs a real agency and works with real businesses…
I can tell you: no client on Earth has ever asked me for SXO or LLMAO.
They ask for one thing:

“How do I show up where people are searching now?”

That’s the real question behind all this acronym inflation.

3. Social Media Sentiment: SEO Is Still the Emotional Favorite

This is my favorite part of the research.
Despite all the new terminology, SEO still generates the most positive sentiment on social.
LinkedIn, especially, with 90.4% positive sentiment.

Why?

Because SEO is:

• familiar
• proven
• explainable
• cross-functional

No marketing exec wants to decipher four new acronyms every quarter.
SEO is the anchor term because it’s the only one everyone already understands.

But here’s where things get interesting:

• AISEO gets massive engagement spikes.
• AEO triggers deeper comment threads.
• AISO performs well with practitioners.

What does that tell us?

These acronyms are not replacements. They’re conversation tools.
They’re how marketers discuss the shift — not what they do.

As I say often to clients:

“AI search isn’t a new discipline. It’s a new destination for the same signals we’ve been optimizing for.”

4. The Labor Market Has Chosen: AISO Dominates Job Listings

This is where things get surprisingly practical.

Out of 33,250 U.S. job postings analyzed:

AISO (Artificial Intelligence Search Optimization) has 11,001 open roles,
outpacing SEO, GEO, AEO, and every other acronym combined.

What does this signal?

Hiring managers aren’t chasing the acronym-of-the-week.
They want SEO professionals who understand AI systems.

They want:

• content strategists
• technical SEOs
• schema experts
• entity builders
• knowledge graph thinkers

Not “GEO Specialists.”

GEO is a strategy.
AISO is a skillset.
SEO is the discipline.

This aligns perfectly with what I teach at We Do SEO:

“SEO is the engine. GEO is the terrain. AISO is the driver.”

You need all three, but they play different roles.

So What Should Businesses Actually Do?

Here’s my honest, practitioner-level guidance — the same message I give my clients and my team:

1. Use SEO as the internal alignment term.

Budgets, reporting, org structures — keep these anchored in SEO.
That’s the universal language.

2. Use GEO to explain the shift.

This helps teams understand why visibility now includes:

• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• AI Overviews
• Assistant-style queries
• GEO helps non-SEOs understand where content now appears.

3. Use AEO/AISO for tactical execution.

These frameworks help organize workflows for:

• answer optimization
• summarization retrieval
• context windows
• structured responses
• citations
• multimodal content

This is where the “AI SEO” layer lives.

4. But most importantly…

Double down on SEO fundamentals.**
This is the hill I will always die on.
And it’s the core message from my earlier article:

“AI doesn’t replace fundamentals — it amplifies them.”

Because here’s the truth:

AI systems — whether OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, or Perplexity — all rely on the same signals that SEO has built for decades:

• topical authority
• structured markup
• entity clarity
• citations and mentions
• trust signals
• UX
• completeness of answers
• content depth
• brand sentiment

The names change.
The platforms change.
But visibility still comes from value.

What This Means for the Industry (and Your Brand)

We are not experiencing the death of SEO.
We’re experiencing the expansion of SEO distribution.

Visibility used to be:

• Google
• Bing

Now it’s:

• AI Overviews
• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Perplexity
• YouTube
• TikTok search
• Threads search
• platform-native LLMs
• knowledge graph integrations

Your brand must live across all of these surfaces.

That’s the new game.
But the fundamentals?
They haven’t moved.

Just ask any SEO who’s still winning in 2025.

Final Thoughts: Don’t Call This Confusion — Call It Evolution

What we’re witnessing is not chaos.
It’s growth.

As Danny Goodwin put it:

“Decide what you call it, define it clearly, and stick to it.”

So here’s what I — Krista, CEO of We Do SEO — call it:

SEO is the discipline.
GEO is the reality.
AISO/AEO are the workflows.

And the acronyms?
They’re just scaffolding around the same foundational truth:

Brands win when they create clear, credible, comprehensive content that answers real questions better than anyone else — in any format, on any platform, interpreted by any engine.

AI didn’t replace SEO.
AI expanded SEO.

And the companies who understand that will dominate the next decade of discovery.

Contact We DO SEO Today for your FREE SEO Audit!