What is the Difference Between AI Optimization and Search Engine Optimization?
Not much at all, and at the same time, they are worlds apart.
AI Optimization (AIO) or sometimes being called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) both require a level of authority beyond the basic underpinnings of technological compliance.
AI analyzes more data than search engines, pulling specific information from signals across disparate data sets and platforms.
The biggest difference is that AI does not wait for human intervention to improve, it learns and improves with each interaction and each newly appropriated piece of data.
These are the early days of AI Optimization, but they are not like the early days of SEO, or are they?
A little history on the beginnings of professional SEO companies.
These are the early days – Not many digital marketing companies can say that when it comes to SEO. Back in the mid-90s to early 2000s, it was the wild, wild west when it came to search engines, and those that laid the groundwork for modern search engine optimization, those original SEO companies were the Lewis and Clark of the time.
In the mid to late 90s, stages and panel discussions featured people like Single Throw Marketing founder and marketing keynote, Larry Bailin, Wil Reynolds, founder of Seer Interactive, Danny Sullivan, Bruce Clay, and a smattering of others, all blazing trails for future explorers.
As time went on, the field expanded. SEO became more than a novelty or a mathematical formula to crack; it was being seen as a desirable way to acquire qualified customers at their exact moment of need, and for those with vision, that became the mission.
Some still see SEO as a formula, measuring backlinks, character counts, alt-text and other technological quantities as the holy grail of SEO. These are the paint-by-number practitioners that lack the vision and rely on regaling the unindoctrinated with their “algorithmic-esque” jargon. Those who truly understand the art of SEO wield a Picasso-like vision, a melding of technology, persuasion, architecture, and creativity that generates a masterpiece of modern digital marketing outcomes.
The pioneers of SEO learned long ago what the mission was: it’s not to merely get clients to show up, that’s only half the job. The mission is to ensure our clients are chosen by those that need them most. And that’s why AI optimization is exciting to those that have the depth of experience and knowledge to see the opportunity.
SEO and AI Optimization – Outcome First
The reason paint-by-numbers strategies do not work is that they exist based on a lie, that all businesses are the same and following a formula is all that is required to win. If that were the case, Google would simply be a level playing field and no one would ever have an advantage over anyone else.
There are only ten positions on page one of Google (organically), are there only ten competitors looking to acquire your prospect? What if Google determines that you are #7 out of ten? That means that your most qualified prospects need to say no to six other companies before choosing you. This is where talent matters. Those that can tell stories, understand the sales process, and understand unique value propositions. Companies with proven SEO services have the competency to know that showing up means nothing unless you’re chosen. And AI Optimization demands an outcome-first optimization strategy.
What Does AI Optimization Require?
AI Optimization requires the same thing that SEO requires, you to be the best choice (or one of them) for the person searching, or in AI’s case, entering a prompt. AI considers a lot more data than a search engine does when making this decision. We have begun to call the information AI uses as intake information, “signals”.
To optimize for AI, whether standalone platforms such as ChatGPT or search engine-integrated AI like Google’s AI Overviews, you need to maximize and unify your signals. AI needs to see you as an expert, the keeper of specific facts, an authority on a subject, and the unwavering best choice for the exact requirements of the person in need.
An SEO example
Let’s use one of New Jersey’s largest physical therapy practices, Jag PT, as an example. The old way was to use search engine optimization services and multi-location marketing services to make the PT brand relevant to a patient’s need and location, for example, “Physical therapy for wrist injury near me”. There is not a lot of detail in this search query to help determine the best fit for the patient or PT practice. A typical response from Google would be a map pack listing like the one below, but as you can see, the review quoted in the listing is about a shoulder injury, not a wrist, yet Google has determined that, based on the generic search, these results best fit the need.
An AIO example
AI leverages a lot more information than search, what we have come to call “signals”. A user of AI will provide a lot more detail when prompting AI for an answer, for example,
“I need physical therapy for a wrist injury caused by too much time typing at work. I have Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance, I need a Tuesday appointment, and I live in Bayonne, NJ.”
This prompt contains six signals.
- Need: Physical therapy
- Condition: Wrist injury
- Cause: Work-related
- Qualification: Blue Cross Blue Shield
- Availability: Tuesdays
- Location: Bayonne, NJ
This is what Google’s AI Overview returns based on the user’s prompt.
Practitioners of AI Optimization services require a deeper understanding of the mathematics of the perfect customer, as well as a deeper understanding of who is not a customer.
Websites, social media, and other forms of communication need to be precise and unified. AI needs to know that Jag PT is open on Tuesday, specializes in wrist injuries caused by work-related stressors, has positive outcomes for treatment, accepts specific insurance, and is locationally advantageous. Ambiguity in any of those areas risks omission from the results and ultimately loss of a quality customer.
AI optimization involves both qualitative and quantitative methods, as does SEO. When you understand the mathematics of the perfect customer, every facet, every formula, only then will you know what makes them the center of the dartboard for you, and you for them. You can now unify your signals, infusing all content, facts, results, writing, video, topics, posts, etc., on only the elements that matter most.
What Can AI Do That Search Can’t?
AI can get you closer to your Goldilocks prospect than search can, especially if your offerings and sales processes are complex. AI determines context within content and aligns it to a source better than search can. But most impressive is AI’s ability, through Large Language Models (LLM), to identify confidence within content. AI can detect tonal shifts and, in that ability, leans heavily into verifiable context, facts over volume, truth, and confidence within content. This means that the use of passive constructs like “this might happen” or “it could possibly”, risks being interpreted as a weaker statement. An active voice, such as “this is the most effective approach” or “we have concluded”, strengthens the statement and is interpreted by AI as content with conviction. Not to mention, it makes your content marketing efforts more conversion-oriented.
What’s better, search or AI?
Search has its advantages. It’s ubiquitous, quick, familiar, and integrated, and Google has a seventeen-year head start building billions of user products for feedback loops. AI, on the other hand, is new and novel, still finding its way and no one knows how citation algorithms will evolve, but we can’t ignore that AI entered the market, shot out of a cannon, and shows no signs of slowing down.
Each has its place right now, stand-alone AI platforms such as ChatGPT are used to create long-form content and not as much for finding services, but that’s changing rapidly.
Google’s AI Overviews are proving to be helpful for searchers and providing conversion rates higher than stand-alone counterparts. Google has done a great job at bridging the intersection between search and AI with its AI Overviews.
It’s too early to tell if AI will replace search in the same way search replaced directories such as the yellow pages, but both are proving useful tools to acquire customers and for as long as they continue to do so, both SEO and AIO require attention.
Interested in more specifics? Need a deeper understanding of how AI Optimization Services and Search Engine Optimization are affecting your company, industry and where your competitors are making strides? Talk to us.