What happened

A user in the r/seogrowth subreddit asked whether traditional SEO (GEO), answer engine optimization (AEO), or AI optimization will dominate in the next 2-3 years. The post sparked a debate about where businesses should focus their optimization efforts.

What this means

The industry has gotten caught up in a cycle of chasing whatever seems to be the latest trend. First it was optimizing for Google’s algorithm. Then voice search became the thing. Now everyone’s scrambling to figure out how to show up in ChatGPT and Perplexity.

But here’s what we’ve been missing: there’s a real person on the other side of that screen.

Every time a new search technology pops up, we rush to “optimize” for it. We study the algorithm, try to hack the system, and completely lose sight of the human who’s actually searching for something.

Our take

Stop thinking about whether you’re optimizing for Google, Alexa, or ChatGPT. Instead, ask yourself: who am I optimizing for?

The answer is simple: optimize for the person searching.

When you focus on the user, something interesting becomes clear. AI doesn’t behave all that differently from humans. Research shows most people don’t scroll past 30% of a page. They bounce if they don’t find value quickly. AI does exactly the same thing.

People look for answers to their questions, and AI just searches multiple sources at once to provide those answers. The behavior is remarkably similar.

Here’s what this means practically:

• Create content that directly answers questions people are asking
• Give them value quickly without making them hunt for it
• Structure everything so it’s easy to scan and understand

All these “new” AI optimization tactics? They’re just the same principles we should have been following all along. We just got distracted chasing algorithms and forgot about the actual humans using them.

The technologies will keep changing. The platforms will evolve. But the person looking for information? They’ve always been there, and they’re not going anywhere.