Journal · Field notes
AEO is just SEO with a new price tag
Google's June 2026 guide confirms AEO and GEO are new names for foundational SEO. For a local shop in Indianapolis, a complete Google Business Profile still beats any $800/month AEO package.
A chiropractor in Noblesville called me two weeks ago. She had just gotten off a call with a vendor who told her she needed "answer engine optimization" or her practice would disappear from Google by summer. The price was $800 a month.
She wanted to know what AEO is.
What Google says AEO actually is
Google published its official guide to AI search optimization on June 5, 2026. The key sentence:
"AEO stands for 'answer engine optimization' and GEO for 'generative engine optimization.' From Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."
That is the whole thing. Google's AI features, including AI Overviews and AI Mode, run on top of the same ranking and quality systems as regular search. Google's SEO guidance did not change in 2026. The vendors' service names did.
The underlying mechanism is called retrieval-augmented generation: the AI pulls content from web pages Google already indexed, then assembles an answer. If your site is indexed and appearing in regular search, you are already eligible for AI answers. No new product required.
What actually moves the needle for a local shop
The guide is specific. Three things matter for local businesses.
A complete Google Business Profile. Google calls this out by name. The Business Profile is the biggest single lever for local visibility in AI search, the same as it is in Maps and standard results. Hours, photos, service list, responses to reviews. A profile that is 60% filled out gets treated as a 60% answer. Fill the other 40%.
Specific, first-hand content. Google's guide rewards content with "a unique point of view" over summaries of what already exists on the internet. A page describing what your practice treats in Noblesville reads differently to the AI than a generic FAQ copied from an aggregator. Same principle for a mechanic, a salon, a dry cleaner.
A fast, crawlable site. Google now mentions that browser-based AI agents access your site the way an automated crawler does, reading structure and content to complete tasks on behalf of users. A site that takes four seconds to load or blocks JavaScript crawlers gets skipped.
What you do not need
Google listed this. Hand it to any vendor who pitches you something new:
No llms.txt. Multiple vendors started selling "llms.txt implementation" in 2025 as an AI-readiness service. Google's guide is unambiguous: "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in generative AI search." Nothing to implement.
No content chunking. Some packages reformat your site content into small blocks "for AI to read." Google says its systems understand full pages and there is no ideal page length.
No AI-specific rewrites. You do not need every phrasing variation of a query in your content. Google's AI understands synonyms and intent. Write for the person sitting across from you, not for a keyword matcher.
No paid mentions campaigns. One pitch charges for getting your business cited across third-party blogs and forums to boost AI visibility. Google's spam systems filter inauthentic mentions. You are paying to get flagged.
What the $800/month is actually buying you
Most AEO packages break down into one of three things:
- A standard SEO audit, repriced.
- A Google Business Profile cleanup, repriced.
- A blog content retainer, repriced.
Any of those can be worth paying for. A solid GBP cleanup that takes two hours of actual work can lift your visibility more in one month than a year of "AEO management." But $800 a month implies ongoing deliverables. Ask what they are each month.
If your AEO vendor can't name one deliverable that isn't already on a standard SEO checklist, you're paying for a rebrand.
The chiropractor in Noblesville spent $240 for a one-time GBP audit with us. She had 34 unanswered reviews, wrong holiday hours, and no photos of the actual office. We fixed it.
Her Maps calls went up 22% in 30 days. No retainer.
The AEO pitch is going to get louder through the rest of 2026. Every agency is adding it to their service page right now. The good versions wrap solid SEO work in a new acronym. The bad versions charge $800 a month for a llms.txt file and a Zoom call. Google published the difference. Now you have it.
Sources
- Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search — Google's official June 2026 guide confirming AEO/GEO is foundational SEO; full list of what is not needed (llms.txt, chunking, AI markup).
- Guidance on evaluating third-party SEO advice — Google's own page for evaluating AEO/GEO vendor claims.
- Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content — The content standard Google's AI features apply to pages.
- Google Business Profiles — The tool Google calls out for local business visibility in AI and standard search.
- Agent-friendly website best practices — Google's guidance on how browser-based AI agents access and read your site.