{"id":79450,"date":"2026-05-18T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/google-says-ai-optimization-is-just-seo\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T21:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T21:18:33","slug":"google-says-ai-optimization-is-just-seo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/google-says-ai-optimization-is-just-seo\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Says AI Optimization Is Just SEO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Google has finally published guidance for AI optimization. Yet \u201cOptimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/fundamentals\/ai-optimization-guide#create-valuable-content\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">published<\/a> May 15, offers nothing beyond traditional search engine optimization basics.<\/p>\n<p>The guidelines apply to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/more-links-are-coming-to-ai-overviews\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AI Overviews<\/a> and AI Mode, but not necessarily to Gemini, Google\u2019s standalone genAI platform, and certainly not to other models such as ChatGPT and Claude.<\/p>\n<h3>SEO<\/h3>\n<p>The guidelines start with confirming that <a href=\"https:\/\/developers.google.com\/search\/docs\/essentials\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">traditional SEO<\/a> remains as relevant as ever because (i) AI answers rely on search results and (ii) \u201cfan-out\u201d queries use actual human searches.<\/p>\n<p>To Google, there\u2019s no difference between \u201coptimizing for AI\u201d and \u201cSEO,\u201d stating:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>From Google Search\u2019s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The guidelines list traditional SEO tactics, mainly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create original, helpful, people-first content with a unique point of view.<\/li>\n<li>Structure content and pages for humans, not AI agents.<\/li>\n<li>Use quality, helpful images and videos.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure pages are crawlable by Google\u2019s bots. (I use Search Console\u2019s URL Inspection tool to confirm crawlability.)<\/li>\n<li>Use the same semantic HTML structure for people and AI agents.<\/li>\n<li>Minimize duplicate content.<\/li>\n<li>Make sure content is visible with JavaScript disabled.<\/li>\n<li>Emphasize user experience from multiple devices.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure ecommerce product feeds are detailed and submitted to Merchant Center.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>GEO Myths<\/h3>\n<p>Google\u2019s guidelines address common myths for generative AI optimization, stating:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/llms-txt-could-help-ai-find-your-store\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LLMs.txt<\/a> is not needed.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/ai-bots-dont-need-markdown-pages\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Markdown pages<\/a> are not needed.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cChunking\u201d content (i.e., breaking it into short paragraphs for AI retrieval) is not required.<\/li>\n<li>Writing in an \u201cAI-friendly\u201d way is not required.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u201cSeeking inauthentic mentions\u201d may flag your site as spam (like traditional SEO). AI systems do evaluate brand and product mentions across the web, but, like Google, can tell <a href=\"https:\/\/www.practicalecommerce.com\/genai-citations-explained\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">real mentions<\/a> from fake ones.<\/li>\n<li>No \u201cspecial\u201d structured data, such as from Schema.org, is required, though it helps generate rich snippets in organic results.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Core Concepts<\/h3>\n<p>The guidelines emphasize two core concepts for optimizing AI on Google Search:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>AI Overviews and AI Mode rely directly on organic search.<\/li>\n<li>No additional tactics are required or recommended beyond traditional SEO.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Google suggests becoming familiar with the <a href=\"https:\/\/ucp.dev\/latest\/specification\/overview\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer\">Universal Commerce Protocol<\/a>, as AI agents will eventually not only search but also perform various actions on behalf of humans, such as booking a hotel or making a purchase.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"pld-like-dislike-wrap pld-template-2\">\r\n    <div class=\"pld-like-wrap  pld-common-wrap\">\r\n    <a href=\"javascript:void(0)\" class=\"pld-like-trigger pld-like-dislike-trigger  \" title=\"\" data-post-id=\"79450\" data-trigger-type=\"like\" data-restriction=\"no\" data-already-liked=\"0\">\r\n                        <i class=\"fas fa-heart\"><\/i>\r\n                <\/a>\r\n    <span class=\"pld-like-count-wrap pld-count-wrap\">    <\/span>\r\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has finally published guidance for AI optimization. Yet \u201cOptimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search,\u201d published May 15, offers nothing beyond traditional search engine&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":79452,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[601,38],"tags":[78,45,10],"class_list":["post-79450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence-innovation","category-e-commerce-shopping","tag-ai","tag-innovation","tag-technology"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Googles-AI-Reshapes-Organic-Listings.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79450"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79450\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79451,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79450\/revisions\/79451"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dralysstore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}