SEO vs GEO: New Discipline or Same Old SEO?
The first one: with Sara & Nik
What we talked about
- GEO vs traditional SEO
- Selling GEO as a standalone service vs add-on
- Reddit as part of search strategy
- Unlinked brand mentions and LLM training data
- Negative labeling and open debate in the SEO industry
- Google DOJ documents and user behavior signals
- Core Web Vitals hype
- LLMs being affirmative/unreliable
- Lack of LLM search volume and traffic data
- Evaluating LLM investment via conversion value and search interest
- SEO as a revenue channel
The questions we dug into
Q1Is GEO (optimization for LLMs) the same as SEO?
No, but roughly 80%+ of what drives LLM visibility is traditional SEO. Nik treats GEO as part of SEO rather than a standalone discipline and says selling GEO as a standalone service without SEO is misleading.
Asked by Sara · answered by Nik
Q2Is GEO a separate service you should sell?
Sara doesn't sell it separately, but says some tactics (Reddit, brand mentions, listicles, LinkedIn Pulse) don't fit the classic technical/content/authority buckets, so the GEO label helps describe what's unique. Google's 'good SEO is GEO' only speaks for AI Overviews, not ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude.
Asked by Nik · answered by Sara
Q3How does Nik's agency package LLM visibility for clients?
As add-ons on top of SEO for brands already established in search: Reddit brand management (profile strategy, karma), organic social content, omnichannel presence, and digital PR, since mentions on big publishers matter more than dofollow links for LLMs.
Asked by Sara · answered by Nik
Q4Is SEO dead and is GEO the new SEO?
No. Google still sends the overwhelming majority of search traffic (~96%) while LLM referrals are a tiny fraction (~0.2%). Educating clients and colleagues matters more than hype.
Asked by Nik · answered by Nik
Q5How should you decide whether a client should invest in LLM visibility?
Sara weighs potential conversion value against topic interest (Google search volume/Trends) as a proxy for LLM demand. Nik adds: invest if you have data showing your ICP uses LLMs in their journey, and only if added revenue justifies the multi-channel cost. SEO should be tackled first.
Asked by Sara · answered by Sara & Nik
Q6Can we reliably track LLM visibility and impact today?
Not yet. There are no reliable LLM search volumes or traffic estimates, and even SEO tools can differ widely from Search Console data, so it's hard to attribute GEO actions to results.
Asked by Sara · answered by Sara & Nik
Q7What should beginners in SEO do?
Learn from blogs, webinars and agency work, then start your own project to test what actually works — SEO is built on trial and error.
Asked by Nik · answered by Nik
Lines that stuck with us
- Nik: selling GEO as a standalone service without SEO makes you 'a fraud' — he estimates ~80%+ of GEO is traditional SEO.
- Nik: Google still accounts for ~96% of search traffic; LLM traffic is ~0.2%.
- Sara: Google's 'good SEO is good GEO' message only covers AI Overviews and AI mode, not other LLM platforms.
- Sara: unlinked brand mentions were dismissed for years but now matter for LLM training data.
- Sara: 'It's a strategy question' — pick tactics that matter for this client instead of running every checklist item.
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