Already Doing Google SEO? How to Check Whether AI SEO Is Actually Being Implemented
By Zaillor Team · 14 min read · 20 August 2026
Already investing in Google SEO? Learn how to check whether AI SEO and AEO are actually being implemented across crawl access, entity clarity, content and authority.
Quick answer. If your company already has a Google SEO programme, do not replace it simply because AI search is growing. Instead, check whether an additional implementation layer exists. A genuine AI SEO programme should normally go beyond rankings and keywords to address crawl access, structured brand identity, answer-ready content and authority beyond your own website.
Where This Article Fits in the Series
In Part 1 we separated four related jobs: SEO helps information become discoverable. AEO makes reliable information easier for answer-oriented systems to extract and use. GEO addresses the wider challenge of how a brand appears within generated responses. AI Visibility Optimization connects discoverability, accurate representation, citations, recommendations and measurable outcomes. Part 2 asks: if your business already pays for SEO, how can you tell whether the additional AI-search implementation is actually being done?
First, Do Not Throw Away Your SEO Foundation
AI SEO is not a replacement for technical SEO. Google's guidance for its AI search experiences states that many established Search fundamentals continue to apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, including useful content, crawlability, page experience and structured data that matches visible page content. The mistake is not doing SEO. The mistake is assuming that doing SEO automatically completes the AI visibility job.
Google SEO vs AI SEO: What Should Be Different?
| Parameter | Google SEO | Additional AI SEO / AEO Requirement |
|---|---|---|
| Primary objective | Make relevant pages discoverable and competitive in search results | Make reliable information about the business usable in answers, comparisons and generated responses |
| Keywords | Identify search demand and align pages with relevant queries | Understand the wider questions, situations, entities, audiences and decision criteria surrounding those queries |
| Backlinks | Support discovery, authority and search visibility | Assess whether the brand is also described, validated and associated with its category across relevant third-party sources |
| Technical SEO | Crawlability, indexability, architecture, canonicals, site performance | Confirm relevant AI and search crawlers can reach important information and are not unintentionally blocked |
| Content | Build useful pages aligned with search intent | Make important answers explicit, extractable and understandable without relying on vague marketing copy |
| Schema / structured data | Provide machine-readable information about page content | Ensure structured identity and factual information clearly represent the organisation, services, products and relationships |
| Brand / entity clarity | Useful for overall search understanding | A core implementation requirement because systems need to identify who the business is, what it offers and which category it belongs to |
| Success signal | Rankings, impressions, clicks, traffic and conversions | Accurate answers, mentions, citations, recommendation presence and ultimately AI-driven referrals |
Four Checks to See Whether AI SEO Is Actually Being Implemented
Check 1: Is AI and Search Crawl Access Actually Being Reviewed?
The AI-search review should expand beyond Google crawlability. OpenAI states that publishers who want content surfaced in ChatGPT Search should ensure they are not blocking OAI-SearchBot. An implementation review should check robots.txt, important page accessibility, accidental bot blocking, CDN or firewall restrictions, redirect problems, indexability and whether important information exists in accessible page content.
Check 2: Is Your Brand Identity Structured Clearly Enough?
AI systems need to understand the entity behind pages — who the company is, what it sells, which customers it serves, what category it belongs to and how products, services and other entities relate to one another. The work may include consistent naming, clear About and service information, explicit category definitions, structured data that matches visible content and removal of conflicting descriptions. Schema can support this work, but schema alone is not the strategy.
Check 3: Has Search Content Been Turned Into Answer-Ready Information?
A company selling CRM software might target "CRM software India" on Google, but a prospect may ask an AI: "Which CRM is suitable for a 50-person Indian manufacturing company that needs WhatsApp integration and does not have a dedicated IT team?" That question contains far more than a keyword. AEO addresses this through direct definitions, question-and-answer sections, use-case pages, comparison pages, explicit service boundaries, decision criteria and concise factual summaries.
Check 4: Is Authority Being Built Beyond Backlinks?
A generative system may encounter information about a company through several sources. The implementation needs to examine whether relevant third-party sources mention the brand, describe the correct category, confirm factual information, associate the company with relevant products or services, provide reviews or industry context and reinforce what the company says about itself. AI authority work should look at the evidence environment around the brand, not only the backlink count.
A Simple Test: Is Your AI SEO Report Actually Different?
If the last two or three monthly reports from your SEO provider contain only keyword rankings, backlinks, technical SEO fixes, organic traffic and new blogs, those may all be useful SEO activities — but they do not constitute a complete AI visibility programme. Check for: crawl access for relevant AI systems, entity and brand clarity work, answer-ready content changes, use-case and comparison coverage, third-party evidence and brand-context work.
Four Warning Signs That AI SEO May Just Be Rebranded SEO
- The deliverables did not change — the proposal now says "AI SEO" but the monthly activity remains exactly the same.
- Every AI problem is solved with another blog.
- Schema is presented as the complete solution.
- The provider cannot explain which AI-search question each activity is solving.
Three Questions to Ask Your Existing SEO Agency
- "What are you doing today for AI visibility that is different from our existing Google SEO work?"
- "Which gaps have you found across crawl access, brand and entity clarity, answer-ready content and third-party authority?"
- "How will we know whether those changes improved our AI visibility?"
Frequently Asked Questions
- If I already have an SEO agency, do I need a separate AI SEO agency?
- Not necessarily. The same provider can deliver both if it has the capability and the scope clearly distinguishes conventional SEO work from the additional AEO, GEO and AI visibility implementation.
- Are backlinks useless for AI SEO?
- No. Backlinks can still contribute to discovery and authority. The important distinction is that AI visibility should not be reduced to backlink acquisition alone.
- Are keywords still important for AEO?
- Yes, but they are only part of the information problem. AI questions can contain use cases, audiences, constraints, comparisons and other context.
- Is adding FAQ schema enough for AEO?
- No. FAQ content and structured data may improve clarity where appropriate, but AEO also depends on whether the answer itself is accurate, useful, accessible and supported by clear information about the relevant entity.
- What should I check first if my company already has good Google SEO?
- Start by keeping the strong SEO foundation and reviewing four additional areas: AI and search crawl access, brand and entity clarity, answer-ready content, and the wider third-party authority environment.
- Can an agency guarantee that ChatGPT or Gemini will recommend my company?
- No credible implementation methodology can guarantee inclusion across every prompt, user, location or model.
The Bottom Line
If your company already invests in Google SEO, you are not starting AI SEO from zero. But a foundation is not the finished programme. The additional AEO and GEO layers need to make information easier to extract, place the brand in the correct context, strengthen the evidence around it and prepare it for generated-answer experiences.
Check your AI Visibility Score to establish a baseline.
Up next — Part 3: How to measure whether AI SEO implementation is working — separating mentions, citations, accuracy, recommendations and referrals.
Read Part 1: AEO vs SEO: Why Rankings Are No Longer the Whole Answer