Search is changing quickly. Google AI Overviews, AI Mode and other generative search experiences are changing how people find information, research companies and make purchasing decisions.
For businesses, that naturally raises a question: Do we need an entirely new strategy to rank in AI search?
The answer is more straightforward than you might think.
Google has made it clear that traditional SEO is still the foundation for visibility in its AI-powered search experiences. That means businesses don’t need to abandon SEO for the latest AI optimization trend. Instead, they need to make sure their SEO strategy is evolving alongside the way people search.
At TMD Marketing & Advertising, we think of this as AI SEO: combining proven SEO fundamentals with content, technical optimization and authority signals that help your business become easier for both traditional search engines and AI-powered search experiences to discover and understand.
Is SEO Still Important for AI Search?
Yes — perhaps more than ever.
Google’s generative search features don’t operate independently from Google Search. AI Overviews and AI Mode rely heavily on Google’s existing search index, ranking systems and quality signals to identify useful sources.
Google also uses techniques such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) to retrieve current information from its search index and query fan-out to explore multiple related searches when answering more complex questions.
For example, someone searching:
“What’s the best way to generate more leads for my HVAC company?”
may trigger Google to explore related topics such as:
- HVAC SEO strategies
- Google Ads for HVAC companies
- Local SEO for contractors
- HVAC lead generation costs
- Google Business Profile optimization
Instead of optimizing a page for one exact keyword, businesses increasingly need comprehensive content and strong website authority surrounding the broader subjects their customers care about.
That’s still SEO. The search experience has simply become more sophisticated.
What About AEO, GEO and AI SEO?
You’ll increasingly hear terms such as AEO (Answer Engine Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AI SEO used to describe strategies for improving visibility within AI-generated results.
The terminology may be new, but many of the underlying principles aren’t.
Google’s own guidance essentially treats optimization for its generative AI experiences as part of SEO rather than an entirely separate discipline.
The objective remains the same: make your website a useful, trustworthy and accessible resource that search engines can confidently surface when someone needs the information, products or services you provide.
The difference is that SEO strategies now need to consider a wider range of search experiences.
Create Content AI Search Engines Actually Want to Reference
One of Google’s strongest recommendations is also one of the most important for businesses: stop creating commodity content.
There are already thousands of articles covering topics like:
“10 Tips for Choosing a Roofer”
“5 Benefits of Professional Carpet Cleaning”
“7 Reasons Your Business Needs SEO”
Simply rewriting information that already exists across hundreds of websites provides very little additional value.
Businesses have a much greater opportunity when they contribute something original.
That might include:
- First-hand experience
- Original research or data
- Customer questions your team regularly answers
- Detailed comparisons
- Case studies and project results
- Industry expertise
- Unique processes or methodologies
- Photos and videos from actual projects
- Expert commentary from people inside your company
Your website should demonstrate something that generic AI-generated content cannot easily reproduce: real-world experience.
Build Topic Authority Instead of Chasing Every Keyword
Traditional keyword research still matters, but modern SEO requires thinking beyond individual keywords.
Google’s AI systems can understand synonyms, related concepts and the broader meaning behind a search. That means businesses don’t need dozens of nearly identical pages targeting every slight variation of a phrase.
Instead, focus on building strong resources around the subjects most closely connected to your business.
A roofing company, for example, might build comprehensive resources covering roof replacement, roof repair, storm damage, roofing materials, insurance claims and local roofing considerations.
Those topics naturally answer hundreds of individual searches without requiring hundreds of repetitive pages.
This creates a stronger overall information ecosystem around your business and gives search engines more context about where your expertise lies.
Make Your Content Easy for People to Understand
Optimizing for AI doesn’t mean writing like a robot.
It means making information clear.
Use descriptive headings, logical sections and straightforward explanations that help visitors quickly understand your content.
A strong page should make it easy to determine:
What is this page about?
Who is it for?
What questions does it answer?
Why should I trust this information?
What should I do next?
Clear content benefits users, traditional search engines and AI systems simultaneously.
Technical SEO Still Matters
Great content isn’t particularly useful if search engines can’t properly discover, crawl or index it.
Google has confirmed that websites still need to meet its standard technical requirements to become eligible for visibility within generative AI search features.
That makes familiar technical SEO practices just as important as before.
Businesses should continue paying attention to crawlability, indexing, internal linking, canonicalization, duplicate content, mobile usability, site performance, JavaScript accessibility and overall page experience.
The goal isn’t to create a separate technical infrastructure for AI.
It’s to maintain a technically healthy website that makes your important content easy to discover and understand.
Don’t Forget Local SEO and Ecommerce
AI search isn’t limited to informational queries.
Google’s generative experiences can also surface businesses, products and commercial information.
For local businesses, maintaining an accurate and optimized Google Business Profile remains important. Business categories, services, locations, hours, reviews and other information help Google understand exactly what your company offers and where it operates.
For ecommerce businesses, accurate product information and properly maintained Google Merchant Center feeds can provide additional opportunities for products to appear throughout Google’s evolving search ecosystem.
AI SEO isn’t replacing these channels. It’s making accurate business and product information even more valuable.
Do You Need an LLMS.txt File?
This has become a surprisingly common AI SEO question.
For Google Search specifically, the answer is no.
Google says it does not require an LLMS.txt file, special AI markup or a separate machine-readable version of your website to appear in its generative search experiences.
An LLMS.txt file may potentially serve purposes involving other AI platforms, but Google says having one does not improve or hurt your rankings or visibility within Google Search.
That’s an important distinction.
There is nothing inherently wrong with experimenting with emerging AI optimization technologies. But businesses shouldn’t allow speculative tactics to distract them from the SEO fundamentals that Google has confirmed actually matter.
Do You Need a Special Schema for AI Search?
Another misconception is that websites need special structured data or schema markup to appear within AI-generated results.
Google says that’s not the case.
There is currently no special AI schema required for Google’s generative search experiences.
Structured data can still be extremely valuable as part of a broader SEO strategy. Appropriate schema helps search engines understand information about businesses, products, services and other entities and can make pages eligible for certain enhanced search features.
The takeaway is simple: use structured data because it improves your overall search presence, not because someone promises it will unlock AI rankings.
What Businesses Should Focus on for AI SEO
Businesses don’t need to rebuild their entire digital strategy around AI search.
They need a stronger version of the strategy that already works.
That means focusing on:
- A technically sound and crawlable website
- Helpful, original and authoritative content
- Strong topical coverage around your products and services
- Clear site architecture and internal linking
- Accurate local business and product information
- Relevant structured data
- High-quality images and video
- Genuine brand authority and third-party recognition
- Strong user experience
- Ongoing measurement and improvement
Most importantly, businesses should resist chasing shortcuts designed exclusively to manipulate AI-generated answers.
Search engines are becoming better at understanding context, expertise and usefulness — not worse.
SEO Isn’t Going Away. It’s Expanding.
AI is changing the way search results look, but it isn’t eliminating the fundamentals that determine which businesses get discovered.
Google’s own guidance reinforces something we’ve believed at TMD for a long time: strong SEO isn’t about chasing algorithms. It’s about building a website and digital presence that clearly demonstrates who you are, what you do and why you’re a credible resource.
AI search simply creates another place where that work can pay off.
The businesses best positioned for the future won’t be the ones chasing every new AI optimization trick. They’ll be the ones combining proven SEO practices with original expertise, technically strong websites and useful content that deserves to be referenced.
That’s where AI SEO and traditional SEO come together.
At TMD Marketing & Advertising, we help businesses build search strategies designed for both today’s Google results and the AI-powered search experiences that are quickly becoming part of how customers research, compare and choose companies.
Want to know how prepared your website is for AI search? Contact TMD Marketing & Advertising to learn how our SEO and AI SEO strategies can improve your visibility across traditional and generative search.
Article reference: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide
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