What's the difference between AEO, GEO, and AIO, and does it actually matter which term you use?

Honestly, not much, and all three guests said as much. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation), GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), and AIO (AI Optimisation) are all describing the same shift: search is increasingly being answered by AI platforms rather than a list of blue links. The terminology is still settling across the industry. What matters more than the label is what you're actually doing about it, and right now, the fundamentals of good SEO are the same fundamentals that get you cited by AI platforms.

Should I optimise for AI search before sorting out my SEO fundamentals?

No, and this was the strongest point of agreement across the episode. Anthony from StudioHawk described it as clients "asking for a Ferrari when they need a Toyota." If your website is technically weak, your content is thin, or you have no link authority, optimising for ChatGPT or Perplexity visibility won't move the needle. The agencies seeing results with AI search are the ones who treated it as the cherry on top of a well-built SEO foundation, not the other way around.

Are AI overviews a threat to organic search traffic?

All three guests called it an opportunity, not a threat. AI overviews sit at the top of the organic SERP, they're the first thing a user sees after paid ads. For agencies that learn how to structure content that gets cited in them, it's the biggest piece of SERP real estate available right now. Charlie's view: it's about producing content in a way that speaks to user intent and earns inclusion. That skill is worth building now, not later.

How should agencies be talking to clients about the decline in click volume?

By shifting the metric from traffic to revenue. Click volume is declining across the industry, that's not a forecast, it's already happening. The agencies navigating this best are the ones who repositioned SEO as a commercial driver rather than a traffic play. As Charlie put it, "SEO is now being sold as what it was supposed to be sold as, a revenue-driving practice." Customers aren't going to say no to more revenue. They will push back on a traffic report that's trending down.

How does personalised search change the way we produce content?

Significantly. Anthony made the point that two people searching for the same thing, say, a pair of shoes, may get completely different results based on their browser history, past behaviour, and query phrasing. That means targeting a single keyword is becoming less reliable. What works instead is content that gives Google and LLMs enough context to match it to a wide range of query variants: who the product is for, who it isn't for, what problem it solves, and why it's the best answer. Context-rich content wins over keyword-stuffed content in a personalised search world.

What hard skills are SEO agencies prioritising in hires right now?

The conversation has moved away from static technical checklists. Given how fast the landscape is shifting, new model releases, Google updates, AI platform changes, specific hard skills have a shorter shelf life than they did two or three years ago. What all three guests converged on was the ability to learn quickly and repeatedly. That said, technical SEO foundations remain important, and any demonstrated experience with AI tools, prompt engineering, or building things (even side projects) is a strong signal. The hard skill that's lost relevance fastest is rote keyword research, the kind that doesn't require judgement.

What should agencies look for when hiring junior SEOs who have no prior experience?

Evidence of the learning pattern, applied to anything. Anthony's framing was clear: past behaviour is the best indicator of future behaviour. If a junior candidate has built a website, run a side project, completed relevant coursework on their own time, or developed a genuine expertise in any area, that shows the drive and initiative that transfers into SEO. It doesn't need to be polished or finished. It just needs to demonstrate that they've committed to learning something outside of what was required of them.

Why is cultural fit being weighted so heavily in agency hiring right now?

Because the pace of change means no static skill set stays current for long. Charlie put it directly, a new Claude release or a major model update can shift best practice overnight. In that environment, what matters most is whether someone has the curiosity and adaptability to keep learning. Cultural fit, in this context, isn't about personality match for its own sake. It's a proxy for whether someone will thrive in a fast-moving environment, take ownership, and stay engaged when the playbook changes underneath them.

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The Future of SEO: AI Search, Agency Survival, and Who to Hire in 2026

Search For Hire

•

May 19, 2026

Search Standard · Episode 1

Featuring: Anthony Barone (StudioHawk UK), Charlie Morley-Harman (SiteLogic), Kevin Kapezi (Growthack)

The conversation has already changed

AI search has arrived, not in some hypothetical future, but in the everyday decisions of ordinary people.

Charlie from SiteLogic made the point that it wasn’t a data report that convinced him. It was watching his friends at the pub open ChatGPT before they opened Google. “When my friends’ search behaviour started to noticeably change… that was when I started thinking, yeah, this is really happening now.”

Charlie Morley-Harman

Sitelogic

Claude could drop something tomorrow and what we’ve been working on or building could change substantially. But that curiosity to learn is only going to be strengthened, because if you’ve done it once, you’re just going to want to learn about the new models.

If it’s happening socially, it’s happening commercially. And if it’s happening commercially, every agency that built its model on organic click volume needs to think carefully about what comes next.

Clients want the cherry before the cake exists

The common thread across all three guests?

Clients are asking for AI search optimisation before their websites are worth ranking anywhere. Anthony from StudioHawk called it shiny toy syndrome, the AEO conversation has become the door clients walk through, but most aren’t ready for what’s behind it.

Anthony Barone, StudioHawk

“They’re focusing on the 0.01% of users. Meanwhile the fundamentals, the website, the content, the links, haven’t been taken care of.”

Kevin from Growthack made a similar point.

The agencies winning right now are the ones treating AEO as the cherry on top, not the whole cake. The foundations of SEO, technical health, content quality, authority, are the same foundations that get you cited by AI platforms.

The overlap is significant.
The order of operations matters.

The shift from clicks to revenue

Zero-click is accelerating. AI overviews, featured snippets, and personalized results mean that even a first-position ranking may not deliver a visitor the way it once did. The agencies adapting fastest are the ones who reframed the value conversation with clients early.

Kevin Kapezi

Growthack

Revenue is never going out of fashion. Clicks will fluctuate. Conversions, leads, and commercial outcomes don’t. The agencies who sold SEO as a traffic play are having a harder conversation. The ones who sold it as a revenue system are not.

Personalized search and what it means for the content brief

Anthony raised something that should be on every content strategist’s radar:

The search result you see is no longer the same one your client’s customer sees. Browser history, cookies, phrasing, these all shape the result. Two people typing the same query in the same city may get meaningfully different responses.

The implication is clear. Generic content that targets a keyword is becoming less powerful. Content that articulates who the product is for, who it isn’t for, and why, content that gives Google and LLMs enough context to match it to the right query variant, that’s the new brief.

Who agencies are actually hiring for in 2026

The hiring conversation shifted the most in this episode. Hard skills that were table stakes two years ago are less relevant. The ability to know every ranking factor matters less when those factors are shifting monthly.

What all three guests converged on was this: the trait that predicts performance now is curiosity. Not just an interest in SEO, a demonstrated ability to learn something, master it, and repeat the process with something new. Kevin summarized it cleanly:

Kevin Kapezi, Growthack

“Attention to detail is the number one thing I’m looking for. Are they able to learn? And do they have a passion, something outside of SEO they’ve taken the time to get really good at? Because that shows the pattern.”

Charlie echoed the cultural fit priority, noting that given how fast model capabilities are changing, a Claude update tomorrow could shift best practice overnight, what you need in a team member is someone who has done the learning cycle before and will do it again.

Anthony’s framing was equally direct:

Anthony Barone

Studiohawk

Past behaviour as an indicator of future behaviour. Side projects, built things, extracurriculars. It doesn’t have to be finished. It has to be evidence of drive.

AI overviews: threat or opportunity?

The quickfire round at the end was unanimous. AI overviews are an opportunity.

They sit at the top of the organic SERP.

They are, for now, the biggest piece of visible real estate in Google search. The agencies learning to appear in them, through structured, intent-matched, authoritative content, are not losing ground. They’re claiming more of it.

What this means for your agency

Three takeaways from Search Standard Episode 1:

One: AI search is the door clients walk through. Use it to have the fundamentals conversation, not to skip it.

Two: The value of SEO is not clicks. If you’re still presenting traffic as the primary metric, the conversation you’re about to have with clients will be harder than it needs to be.

Three: Your next hire should be curious, not just credentialed. The person who built something on their own time, a site, an automation, a niche project, will outperform the person with a longer title history in a slow-moving role.

View our first episode with Anthony, Charlie and Kevin on the Search Standard channel, now live on Youtube.

Want to see more on Studiohawk, Growthack and Sitelogic?

We’ve helped build our guests’ teams up. View their case studies below.

As StudioHawk US continued to grow, U.S co-Founder needed to make her first senior hire in Atlanta. The new hire would be responsible for managing enterprise clients, mentoring the junior team, and leading the SEO department along with the co-Founder, Sophie Brannon.

They reached out to me at just the right time and had a strong value proposition, so I was ready to get started. Within just over a month.

When Sitelogic reached out to Search For Hire, they weren’t looking for full-time hires just yet. They wanted flexible, high-quality SEOs who could help him build consistent delivery systems , without overextending too early.