SEO vs GEO: Which Traditional SEO Tactics Still Work for AI Search? (with Charlie Whitworth)

Welcome to season 5 of Search with Candour!

Jack sits down with SEO veteran Charlie Whitworth to discuss whether SEO and “GEO” are essentially the same and which traditional SEO strategies still work for AI search.

Follow Charlie

• Whitworth SEO: https://www.whitworthseo.com/
• HIVE MCR: https://hive-mcr.co.uk/
• AIR SEO: https://www.whitworthseo.com/air-seo-ai-ready-seo-campaigns/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-authentic-seo/
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/whitworthseo.bsky.social
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hivemcr/

Chapters

00:00 Highlight

01:36 Introduction

04:27 Meet Charlie Whitworth

05:33 Why this matters now

10:43 Good SEO = Good GEO

14:05 GEO bro debate

15:56 Data and measurement

21:46 KPIs that still matter

25:12 Technical SEO still wins

27:28 Content structure for LLMs

35:46 Pruning and cannibalisation

38:40 Content pruning done right

41:06 Brand mentions vs backlinks

44:34 Good products beat spam

47:07 Old tactics you need to stop

49:03 Testing and reprioritising

51:03 No silver bullets for GEO

56:39 Ignore the noise

58:11 Cloudflare bot settings

01:01:18 Recommendations: Log file analysis

01:05:03 Recommendation tool: WAIKAY

01:07:22 Fun recommendation: The Streets

01:08:40 Wrap up