2. Google’s new AI research guide says most AI optimization tactics are unnecessary. Does this validate your thinking or do you disagree?
I don’t agree.
Google’s guide he is selfish and naive because it treats AI-driven search as if recommendations from a single platform could explain the entire search ecosystem.
That’s the problem with the “it’s just SEO” argument. It gives people permission to keep doing the same thing, even when it produces diminishing returns.
Google’s guide It might be useful if you’re only interested in Google. But it doesn’t explain what works in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, or other AI research environments. Each system retrieves, evaluates and presents information differently.
The only part I largely agree with is the need to create non-core content. Beyond that, Google’s public guidance isn’t in line with what we know about how these systems actually work.
Google also has a long history of saying one thing publicly while its systems behave differently in practice. So when someone refers to Google’s guide and says, “See, AI search is just SEO,” they’re looking for an excuse to stay quiet.
3. AI-powered search requires a fundamentally different strategy, but the consensus is that it overlaps with traditional SEO. What are your thoughts?
AI search is an expansion of SEO, but there is enough difference that it deserves to be treated separately.
The problem isn’t that every tactic is brand new because some tactics overlap. For example, digital PR, link building, sales outreach, and fundraising all use similar movements. But no one claims that they are the same discipline because they share tactics.
AI search works the same way. It may use some SEO tactics, but that doesn’t make it traditional SEO.
The problem with saying “it’s just SEO” is that it reduces work at the exact moment when teams are open to something new. It keeps AI-powered search trapped in the old perception of SEO, limiting what it can do.
If we keep forcing it into the same box, we make it harder to get the budget, tools, team, and strategic ownership that this work requires.
