Google Just Said There Is No Such Thing as AI SEO

We have written about AI search several times this year. Each time, the message has been roughly the same: be clear, be specific, and make sure Google can actually read what your business does.

On 15 May, Google published something that makes those posts feel vindicated. They released their first official guide to optimising for AI search features. The title is dry. The content is not. Because the headline takeaway is this:

There is no such thing as AI SEO. It is just SEO.

What Google actually published#

The guide is called "Optimising your website for generative AI features on Google Search." It covers both AI Overviews (the summaries at the top of results) and AI Mode (the conversational search that is rolling out).

Google explicitly addresses the terms "AEO" (answer engine optimisation) and "GEO" (generative engine optimisation) that have been floating around LinkedIn and agency pitch decks for the past year. Their position is blunt: from Google Search's perspective, optimising for generative AI is optimising for the search experience. It is still SEO.

That matters. Because a small cottage industry has sprung up selling "AI search optimisation" as if it were a new discipline requiring new tools, new expertise, and new monthly retainers.

Google just said it is not.

The myths they killed#

The guide names specific tactics that you do not need to do. If someone has been telling you otherwise, or trying to sell you a service based on any of these, take note.

You do not need an llms.txt file. Some SEO tools and agencies have been pushing the idea that you need a special machine-readable file on your website to help AI systems understand your content. Google says no. Their systems read your normal web pages just fine.

You do not need to "chunk" your content. There has been advice circulating that you should break your pages into small, AI-friendly pieces. Google says their systems "are able to understand the nuance of multiple topics on a page and show the relevant piece to users." You can write normally.

You do not need to rewrite your content for AI. If your pages are clear and useful for humans, they work for AI too. There is no separate AI-friendly writing style you need to adopt.

You do not need inauthentic mentions. Some people have been gaming the system by planting fake mentions of their brand across forums and social media, hoping AI systems will pick them up. Google calls this out explicitly.

You do not need special structured data for AI. Regular schema markup helps. Exotic, AI-specific markup does not exist and is not needed.

If you have been sold any of these as a service, you have been sold something you did not need.

What actually matters: non-commodity content#

The guide introduces a concept that is worth understanding. Google draws a line between "commodity content" and "non-commodity content."

Commodity content is information anyone could write. Generic lists, repackaged advice, "7 tips for..." articles assembled from other "7 tips for..." articles. The kind of content that could come from anywhere and adds nothing specific.

Non-commodity content is what only you could write. It comes from your specific experience, your data, your real work with real clients. Google's own example contrasts a generic "7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers" article with "Why We Waived the Inspection and Saved Money: A Look Inside the Sewer Line" - a specific story with verifiable details and a counterintuitive decision.

For a small business, this is the best news in the entire guide. Because non-commodity content is exactly what you have and big aggregator sites do not.

A tiler who writes about why a specific bathroom layout caused drainage problems on a real job. A accountant who explains why a client's tax structure needed changing after a specific revenue threshold. A dog groomer who explains why certain coat types need different drying techniques based on fifteen years of doing it.

That content cannot be generated by AI. It cannot be copied from a competitor. It cannot be bought for £50 from a content mill. And Google's guide makes clear it is exactly the kind of content their AI systems prefer to cite.

How Google's AI actually finds your content#

The guide explains something useful about how AI Overviews and AI Mode work behind the scenes. Two concepts matter.

First: if your content does not rank in regular Google Search for a given query, it will not appear in AI responses to that query either. Google's AI pulls from the same index. There is no separate AI index, no backdoor, no shortcut. If you are invisible in normal search, you are invisible in AI search.

Second: Google uses something called "query fan-out." When someone asks a complex question, the AI breaks it into multiple sub-queries and searches for each one. So if someone asks "affordable web designer in Manchester who does e-commerce," the system might simultaneously search for "web designers Manchester," "affordable web design UK," and "e-commerce website designers." Your content does not need to target every possible phrasing. It needs to be good enough to surface for the queries that matter to your business.

What this means for you#

If you have been doing the things we have talked about all year - being specific on your website, answering real questions, keeping your Google Business Profile current, showing proof of your work - you are already doing what Google's AI guide recommends.

You do not need to hire an "AI SEO" specialist. You do not need new tools. You do not need to restructure your website for AI.

You need to keep being specific about what you do, where you do it, and who you do it for. And ideally, write about your work in ways that only someone who does the work could write.

That last point is the real competitive advantage. Large companies produce commodity content at scale. Small businesses that write from real experience produce the non-commodity content that Google just told us its AI systems favour.

The core update reinforces this#

On 21 May, six days after publishing the guide, Google started rolling out its May 2026 core update. Early data shows exactly the pattern you would expect: aggregator sites, thin comparison pages, and generic affiliate content are losing visibility. Specific, first-hand content tied to credible sources is gaining.

We wrote about the March core update doing something similar. This is not a one-off correction. It is the direction of travel.

The short version#

Google published its first official AI search guide. The message for small businesses is simple.

There is no AI SEO. There is just SEO.

The things that work are the things that have always worked: clear, specific, useful content written by people who know what they are talking about. The only addition is that "non-commodity" content, the stuff only you could create from your actual experience, now matters more than ever.

If someone tries to sell you an AI search optimisation package this month, show them the guide. Google wrote it for free.