SEO Is Still SEO

I’m still seeing familiar SEO methods work. Research what people are looking for. Build a page that serves that need. Explain the product properly. Make the page easy to find, read, and use.

A lot of that work would have looked familiar ten years ago. The places where people encounter it are changing.

SEO means search engine optimization. AEO, or answer engine optimization, focuses on appearing in answers. GEO, or generative engine optimization, focuses on visibility in generated responses. Those labels describe overlapping work. Google’s guidance for generative AI search explicitly connects that work to the same core search systems.

For someone running a business, the useful question is what to improve on the page tomorrow. Here’s where I’d start.

Start with the job behind the search

Search intent is what someone wants to accomplish. Are they learning, comparing, buying, or trying to find a particular company?

Keyword research helps you understand how they describe that job. I’d look at search queries, customer questions, sales conversations, and the pages already appearing for a topic. A keyword tool can help, but a phrase with a large search volume is only useful if the business can serve the need behind it.

“Standing desks” might call for a category page with options to compare. “How high should a standing desk be?” calls for an explanation. For a specific model, a product page is the natural destination. Look at the actual results before deciding which page to create.

Use the language customers recognize in the title, headings, and body where it fits. Explain related features and questions naturally. There’s no magic keyword density to hit, and repeating a phrase until the copy sounds strange doesn’t make it more useful. Google’s SEO starter guide warns against keyword stuffing.

Make the page clear before making it clever

The title tag, sometimes called the SEO title, tells people and search engines what the page is about. Make it specific and accurate. A product name plus a meaningful product category is usually more helpful than “Discover the Future of Work.”

The title you write also informs how the result appears, although Google can generate a different title link from the page and other signals.

The meta description has a different job: summarize the page and help someone decide whether to visit. Google says the description tag isn’t used in its ranking. It may be used for the snippet, but Google also builds snippets from page content to fit the search.

Then organize the page for someone skimming on a phone. I’d use a clear main heading, section headings for major topics, and subheadings where a section needs them. That hierarchy helps readers, including people using screen readers. It isn’t a rigid formula where a particular number of H2s earns a ranking boost.

Make sure search engines can reach it

A useful page needs to be accessible before it can do much for search.

Check that it loads successfully, isn’t accidentally blocked from crawling, and doesn’t carry an unintended noindex instruction. Link to it from relevant pages. Make sure the canonical URL points where you intend, and that important information appears as readable text rather than only inside an image.

Use URL inspection in your search tools to investigate what’s actually being indexed. Google’s technical requirements are a useful starting point. Meeting them makes a page eligible; it doesn’t guarantee indexing or visibility.

I’d also open the page on a real phone. Can someone read the specifications, find delivery information, and use the purchase button without fighting the layout? That’s part of finishing the page.

What I’d put on a product page

Imagine selling a compact electric standing desk. This is a hypothetical example, but it’s the kind of page where the fundamentals become practical.

First, confirm that the product fits the search. If people want to compare a whole category, give them a useful category page and link through to individual desks. Don’t expect one product to satisfy every possible desk search.

For the individual product, I’d build around these decisions:

• What is it? Put the model and product type in the title and main heading. Explain who it suits near the top.
• Will it fit? Show the actual desktop dimensions and height range. Include a photograph that helps someone understand the scale.
• Will it handle my setup? Give the verified load capacity, explain monitor-arm compatibility, and describe any relevant limitations.
• What happens after I order? Make assembly, delivery, warranty, and return information easy to find.
• Is it right for me? Explain the tradeoffs. A compact desktop may save room while leaving less space for a large monitor setup.

The opening description should answer the basic question directly. The rest of the page should help someone make a confident decision. Use real specifications and evidence from the product, not claims added because they sound persuasive.

That gives the page substance beyond repeating “compact standing desk.” It also gives a search or answer system specific information it could reference.

Give FAQs and structured data a useful job

FAQs are useful when they answer questions the page hasn’t already resolved. For our desk, that might be “Can I attach a monitor arm?” or “What tools do I need for assembly?” Answer directly, then explain the conditions.

An FAQ section and FAQ structured data are different things. Structured data is a machine-readable description of information on the page. Adding it doesn’t guarantee an AI citation. Google has also retired FAQ rich results, so old advice promising expandable Google FAQ listings is out of date.

For a product, appropriate Product structured data can help make it eligible for richer search appearances. Keep prices, availability, and other details consistent with the visible page. Don’t invent reviews or mark up claims visitors can’t verify.

Google doesn’t require special schema for its generative AI results. Use supported markup where it describes something real, and validate it when the page changes.

Measure what actually changed

AI search does change how information is retrieved and presented. A system can search related questions, pull information from several pages, and combine it into an answer. Google describes this as retrieval and “query fan-out” in its AI guidance linked above.

That means a citation, a traditional ranking, and a visit are different outcomes. Someone may get an answer without clicking. Someone else may arrive after comparing options through a conversation.

Look at search traffic and conversions alongside AI visibility. Google now documents a Generative AI performance report in Search Console. Bing’s AI Performance reporting shows citations and cited pages across supported experiences, and explicitly distinguishes those counts from ranking or placement.

I’d track which pages attract useful visits, which generate enquiries or sales, and which questions keep appearing. Referral data won’t explain every customer journey. A citation alone won’t tell you whether the page helped the business.

A practical checklist for your next page

• Choose the intent and the right page type.
• Write a specific title and an honest description.
• Use customer language naturally and answer the main question early.
• Make headings, specifications, and follow-up answers easy to scan.
• Check crawl access, indexing, internal links, and the mobile experience.
• Validate relevant structured data against the visible facts.
• Review visibility, visits, and business outcomes separately.

Pick one important page and work through it. If a buyer still has to email you for basic information, that’s a useful place to improve. SEO still involves doing that work, even when the answer appears somewhere new.