I went through a few dozen profiles on that directory. Only one person gave an honest, accurate answer. When I checked his stats, his acceptance rate on the platform was low. Meanwhile, everyone confidently pushing the "SEO is dead" line was getting booked constantly.
That tells you something about which voices are getting amplified right now, and it isn't the accurate ones.
Anyone who has actually worked in SEO knows SEO isn't dead. There is no separate discipline called AEO that replaced it. It's marketing noise, built to get your attention so you hire the person saying it.
It's like a car mechanic telling you your flux capacitor is shot and needs replacing. You have no idea what a flux capacitor is, so you just trust him. The AEO and GEO pitch works the same way. It only works on you if you don't already know the answer.
The people making the loudest, most confident claims aren't confident because they're right. They're confident because confidence gets bookings, gets clients, gets attention. Accuracy doesn't have the same pull, so it doesn't get amplified the same way.
Ask anyone you're considering hiring for SEO help a direct question: "Do we need AEO instead of SEO?"
If they say yes, that AEO has replaced SEO or that traditional SEO is dead, that's your answer. Don't hire them. Either they don't understand the field, or they know the truth and are telling you what sounds exciting instead. Neither one is who you want managing your visibility online.
This one question costs you nothing and tells you a lot about who you're about to pay.
SEO changes. AI changes. New acronyms come and go, and there will be another one after AEO and GEO. The more valuable skill isn't memorizing which acronym is real this year. It's learning to recognize the difference between confident marketing and trustworthy information.
That's the part that doesn't change, no matter what the next acronym turns out to be.
I hope this helps,
~ Meredith's Husband
