Google’s John Mueller on AI SEO Acronyms: More Hype Than Help

Google’s John Mueller recently responded to the rising noise about new SEO-related acronyms, including GEO, AIO, and AEO. He put out a tweet on Bluesky:

“I think the higher the urgency, and the stronger the adulation of new acronyms, the more likely they are just about spam and scamming.”

There’s been an apparent push (inside and outside of the industry) saying SEO is “dead” and now needs to be replaced by GEO, AIO, and so on. Personally, I have not really covered the trends much, other than in a couple of videos, because it all feels like semantics to me.

That said, when one of the Googlers speaks candidly about something claiming to be acronym driven (like GEO, AIO, etc.) as “spammy” and “scammy” it’s worth talking about.

The conversation started after Barry Adams pointed to a Digiday article titled “Despite the Hype, Publishers Aren’t Prioritizing GEO.” The discussion shifted onto Bluesky, and later spilled into a Search Engine Land webinar, and we debated it there as well. This is often the case in SEO, the conversation ends up going in circles.

Ultimately however, John’s clearly unvarnished views have sparked a new wave of discussion across the SEO community.