SEO in the Age of AI: What Still Works and What Doesn't With Tim Soulo [Ep.203]

About this episode

Tim Soulo discusses the relevance of traditional SEO principles in the context of AI and how to effectively boost visibility without compromising long-term trust.

Everyone is rushing to "optimize for AI." Most are doing it wrong. In this episode, Tim Soulo, the Chief Marketing Officer at Ahrefs, cuts through the noise around AEO and GEO and explains why business owners are massively overcomplicating what visibility really means today. While AI-powered search feels new and unpredictable, Tim argues that the same core SEO principles still apply. Create genuinely useful content for your audience, and the algorithms tend to follow. We dive into how traditional SEO compares to AEO and GEO, and where AI actually changes the game. Tim breaks down how large language models decide what to surface and answers a question many founders are asking right now: how much should you realistically invest in boosting AI visibility before the returns flatten out? Tim explains why creating content purely for AI is a mistake, and how updating existing content, improving clarity, and leveraging social media can increase AI visibility without risking long-term trust. He also challenges the idea that SEO has to be slow, showing how AI can help businesses move faster when used correctly. If you want a practical, hype-free take on AI and SEO, this episode delivers…

People in this episode

Hosts: Justin Cooke, Joe Magnotti

Guest: Tim Soulo

Topics covered

• SEO
• AI
• AEO
• GEO
• content creation
• visibility
• marketing strategies

Keywords

• SEO
• AI visibility
• content strategy
• AEO
• GEO
• large language models
• marketing
• search algorithms

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Ahrefs

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