GEO is not replacing SEO, and treating it like a full substitute is a mistake. SEO remains the foundation for being found across traditional search engines like Google and Bing, and it also feeds visibility in AI answers from tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. In their current state, these AI tools rely heavily on search results and web sources via the query fan out and because they do not maintain a complete independent index of the internet. That means the best way to influence AI discovery is still to earn and maintain strong search visibility.
GEO can only be a waste of money when it is sold as a shortcut by people pushing new toolkits and “optimizations” that do not produce measurable outcomes. LLM market share is still too small to move all your focus away from search, and putting all your eggs in one basket is risky.
The reality is GEO depends on SEO. If your pages are not discoverable, credible, and ranking or cited across the web, AI systems have far less reason to surface your brand. SEO is not dying. The only real waste is paying for strategies that do not show results.