SEO vs GEO: What Should a Small Business Pay For?
Google says AI Overviews need no special optimization beyond SEO. What that means for your budget, what to measure, and where GEO money gets wasted.
Elmrank editorial4 min readLast reviewed
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A pool business owner told r/SEO they'd spent $4,200 on an "AEO" agency and got nothing. The post drew 58 comments and 44 points. One reply was blunt: "You got scammed. AEO doesn't exist, it's just a made up phrase and a buzzword." That's harsh, but Google's own documentation points the same way for its search results.
What Google says about AI search
Google's guide to AI features is unusually direct. To be shown as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet." It adds: "There are no additional technical requirements."
Its guide to optimizing for generative AI goes further and lists things you can ignore. On llms.txt and similar files: "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search (including its generative AI capabilities), as Google Search itself doesn't use them." On structured data: "Structured data isn't required for generative AI search, and there's no special schema.org markup you need to add. However, it's a good idea to continue using it as part of your overall SEO strategy, as it helps with being eligible for rich results on Google Search." And on splitting pages up for AI: "There's no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces for AI to better understand it."
What it does recommend is ordinary SEO done well: crawlable pages, a good page experience, structured data that matches the visible text, and content with "a unique point of view" rather than "commodity content." The same guide warns against making separate pages for every variation of a question "primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses."
SEO vs GEO, side by side
| Question | SEO | GEO (for Google's AI features) |
|---|---|---|
| What gets you shown? | Indexed pages that answer searches well | The same: indexed pages eligible for a snippet |
| Special files or markup? | Standard technical SEO | None needed, per Google |
| How to measure? | Search Console Performance report | Search Console generative AI report: impressions only, no clicks yet |
| What to pay for? | Technical fixes, content, links where needed | The same work; extra fees need a measurable reason |
ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants run their own systems, and Google's guidance doesn't cover them. The advice we've seen from practitioners is similar, though: in the same r/SEO thread, one reply said to spend on "content distribution" and to "get your website name mentioned on other relevant websites." That's one person's observation from a B2B fintech company, not a measured rule.
What to measure now
Search Console's generative AI performance report shows "how many times links to your site were shown to a user in a generative AI feature on Google Search," covering AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google's note on the help page reads: "As of August 31, 2026, we've rolled out these insights to all websites worldwide." Search Engine Journal reported that the Search report doesn't include click data as of its publication, and that sites can opt out of these features in Search Console settings; opting out means no traffic or impressions from them.
If your site has no impressions in that report, Google says this "usually happens when your site hasn't received enough impressions in generative AI features." The fix is the same as for regular search: more useful pages that get indexed and rank.
Sample budgets
| Monthly budget | What we'd buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under $500 | Technical SEO and steady content | The same work feeds Google Search and its AI features |
| $500 to $3,500 | Add links or mentions on other sites | Helps where competitors outrank you on authority |
| A separate "AI visibility" program | Only with stated metrics | Digital Elevator, for example, sells a three-month AI Visibility program from $3,000; ask what it reports |
How we handle GEO
Our plan sells SEO and GEO together because, for Google, they're the same work. For $300 a month after a $500 first month, we fix the technical side (indexing, speed, schema that matches the page, site structure), publish up to 30 articles a month written to answer questions directly, host the site and send a monthly report from your Search Console, where the generative AI report now sits alongside the regular one. We don't charge extra for "AI optimization," and we don't promise citations in AI answers; our terms say so.
We haven't published AI-feature impression numbers for our own sites yet, so we won't quote any here. The AI search optimization page lists what we do for it.
How we know this
Written by Elmrank editorial. Every source below was read on the date shown; the page was last reviewed on Oct 14, 2026.
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Google Search Central, Optimizing for generative AI features on Google Search, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Search Console Help, Generative AI performance report (Search), accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Search Engine Journal, Google Search Console AI reports rolled out worldwide, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- Digital Elevator, pricing.md, accessed Oct 14, 2026
- r/SEO, Spent $4200 on an AEO agency for a pool business and got nothing (comments by u/billhartzer, u/reawakensid), accessed Oct 14, 2026
Email us your site.
We reply within 12 hours with what we'd fix first. Then we run it for you, technical SEO and content: $500 for the first month, then $300 a month for up to 30 articles. You don't need any technical knowledge, and you can cancel any time.