he short answer: less than the hype suggests, and more than the sceptics admit. SEO and GEO share most of their fundamentals — accessible content, clear structure, genuine authority. What changes is the surface where visibility is won and how success is measured.

What stays the same

Technical health, crawlability, content that answers real questions, and demonstrated expertise still do the heavy lifting. An AI system that cannot access or understand your content cannot cite it, just as a search engine cannot rank it.

What is genuinely different

• The objective broadens from ranking positions to being referenced and cited within AI answers.
• Entity clarity matters more — machines need to understand who you are, where you operate and what you do.
• Measurement expands beyond rankings to include brand references, citations and answer coverage.

Do not choose between them. Get the fundamentals right, then extend the objective.

For most businesses the practical move is not to abandon SEO for GEO. It is to keep the fundamentals strong and extend them so brands are discoverable both where customers search now and where discovery is moving next.