It’s a fair objection. If you’ve invested in content, technical SEO and links, a separate strategy for AI assistants sounds like starting again. It isn’t. But the overlap between what SEO achieves and what GEO needs is smaller than most teams assume.
What SEO and GEO share
Quite a lot. Both reward clear, accurate, well-organised pages. Both benefit from other reputable sites talking about you. Both need you to describe what you sell consistently. And assistants that search the web while answering often read the same pages search engines rank well, so a strong SEO base is a good starting point.
Where they part is the result. A search page shows a list of links. An assistant writes one answer and names a few brands in it. A brand can rank on the first page of Google for a product and still not be named when someone asks an assistant about that product.
Why good SEO isn’t enough on its own
One answer, not a list
In a search result, ranking fifth still gets you seen. In an answer that names three brands, being fourth means not being there at all.
Pages built to convert aren’t always pages answers can use
A product page built to sell may say little an answer can quote: no materials, no sizing detail, no comparison, no evidence. An answer to “which walking socks last longest?” needs facts about durability, not a “buy now” button.
Other people’s pages weigh heavily
Answers lean on review lists, retailer category pages, magazine guides and forum threads. A competitor with modest rankings but a place on the review list everyone cites may be named more often than you are.
Each assistant differs
Assistants learn from different data and search differently, so a brand’s position in one can be quite unlike its position in another, or in Google’s rankings. The only way to know is to ask them.
GEO adds to SEO; it doesn’t replace it
The answer isn’t to cut SEO. It’s that SEO doesn’t cover the gap. In practice the extra work is targeted: measure where AI answers leave you out, put the missing facts on your pages in plain text, fix wrong prices and stock, and work on the third-party pages answers lean on.