Agencies have invented more acronyms for ‘AI SEO’ than Google has ranking factors. And none of them mean a damn thing.

Every week I hear a new acronym agencies are peddling:
• LLM SEO
• Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
• AIO (AI Optimization)
• Conversational SEO
• Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)
• RAI (Retrieval-Augmented Indexing)

Pick your flavour of alphabet soup.....none of it has a foundation.

I’ve spoken to a dozen agencies in the last month. All have a good story, a shiny new pitch deck, and a three-letter acronym to sell. But strip it down, and it’s obvious: LLM Search is just good SEO.

Here’s the problem:
1. No measurement. Nobody can tell you if these “AI SEO” tactics actually improve visibility.
2. No tracking. Unlike Google’s Search Console, LLMs don’t provide query volume, click-through, or ranking data.
3. No transparency. We don’t know how often someone searches for a product vs. asks a question. We don’t know how often they click out vs. stay in-chat. It’s still a walled garden.

Agencies are selling a story they can’t measure. That’s not strategy, it’s theatre.

The fundamentals haven’t changed:
• Content still needs depth, relevance, and structure.
• Authority is still earned, not fabricated.
• User intent still drives visibility.
• Technical hygiene still underpins everything.

AI can make execution faster and cheaper. But if you don’t understand the funnel economics and customer journey, you’re not optimising, you’re gambling.

So next time someone tries to sell you on “LLM SEO” or “GEO,” remember: you’re just buying lipstick for the same old pig.