SEO, AEO, and GEO Don’t Have Standards. Stop Waiting for One.
Rabb Con Content Team
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TL;DR
- SEO, AEO, GEO don't standardize in the same sense as the IEEE or WCAG
- Those waiting for a standard should instead follow the existing guidlines now
- Standardization requires stablization, and 3EO's don't have that
- Those who don't follow existing guidelines now, will be straining to become relevant later.
So, how did we get here?
I overheard some colleagues talking recently about AI search and the changes happening across SEO, AEO, and GEO — 3EO I have started to call them. Their takeaway? There are no standard yet, so they’re going to wait a little longer for things to stabilize before making any moves.
I wanted to look over at them and tell them, plainly and with full confidence, that there is not now — and never will be — a standard for any of the three. The people waiting on stabilization are going to be doing a whole lot of catching up by the time they figure that out. But I wrote this instead.
So what do I mean there’s no standard? Doesn’t SEO at least have some rules of the road? Sort of. What exists are guidelines. Not standards. And that distinction is the entire point.
Need a Primer? Read this first:
- AI SEO vs AI EO — How They Work, Compare, and Which Is Best to Use and When: Understanding how your site gets found is the first step before you can worry about who can use it once they get there.
- Top 10 Design Tips and Cues for 2026: Good design and accessible design aren't competing priorities — here's how they actually work together.
Standards Require a Stable Target
A standard only works when the desired outcome stays relatively constant. Think about the frameworks that actually get standardized:
WCAG — the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines — exists as a stable, referenceable technical standard. The W3C publishes a version, locks it, and it doesn’t change. The desired outcome is consistent: make web content accessible to people with disabilities. That goal doesn’t shift. So it can be standardized.
IEEE standards govern technical interoperability — how systems communicate, how signals behave, how hardware interfaces. Those outcomes are defined and stable. HTML specifications tell browsers how to interpret code. Same story.
The reason those things can be standardized is because the target isn’t moving. You can write a rule, test against it, and know definitively whether something passes or fails. The finish line stays put.
SEO, AEO, and GEO don't have a finish line.
Their entire purpose is to align content with how humans discover information. And humans don’t stand still. Google itself doesn’t publish a single scoring rubric for rankings — what it publishes are guidelines that describe what it’s trying to reward: helpful content, strong page experience, trust signals. Again, not a standard, rather a moving target with documentation.
The Search Query Has Always Been a Moving Target
Twenty years ago, someone looking for a plumber typed: Columbia SC plumber. Two or three words, stilted and transactional, shaped by the limitations of the search engines at the time.
Then behavior changed. Searches became longer and more conversational. That same person now types: best plumber near me. Mobile search, GPS integration, and voice assistants rewired how people phrased their intent.
By 2016, Google reported that 20% of mobile searches were voice searches. Today that number is significantly higher, with roughly 153 million Americans using voice assistants monthly.
Tomorrow, that same person might open an AI assistant and ask: Who would you trust to fix a burst pipe in Columbia tonight? No keywords. No search engine. A direct conversational question to an AI that synthesizes an answer from multiple sources without returning a single blue link. Not so hard to imagine, huh?
Same need. Completely different behavior.
The desired outcome — find a reliable plumber fast — has not changed in twenty years. The behavior used to achieve that outcome has changed three times, and it isn’t done changing. By May 2025, AI Overviews were present in nearly half of all Google searches. Perplexity processed 780 million queries in a single month. ChatGPT reached 100 million users faster than any consumer application in history. Search isn’t just evolving. It’s fragmenting across entirely new surfaces simultaneously.
A standard would freeze optimization around today’s behavior patterns. The moment behavior shifts — and it will — the standard becomes a liability.
Why Search Engines Publish Guidelines, Not Standards
This isn’t an accident or an oversight. It’s the only honest approach to a discipline built on human behavior.
Google doesn’t publish a definitive list of ranking factors. What it publishes are quality rater guidelines — a regularly updated document describing the intent behind the algorithm, not the mechanics of it. Google explains updates as they roll out, offers webmaster guidance, and publishes E-E-A-T principles. All of it is directional. None of it is a standard.
AI companies don’t publish GEO standards either. They publish recommendations. Best practices. Documentation that says here’s what we tend to reward, knowing full well that what they reward will change as their models change and as user behavior continues to shift around them.
The Window Is Already Closing
- 43% of consumers are already using AI search tools like ChatGPT or Gemini daily.
- 75% report using new search tools more frequently than they did just one year ago.
- US spending on AI search advertising is projected to grow from $2 billion in 2026 to nearly $26 billion by 2029.
- Visitors referred from AI platforms spend 68% more time on websites than visitors from traditional organic search. The behavior isn't just shifting. The quality of attention is shifting with it.
- Solopreneurs and lean teams have been fast followers, leveraging no-code tools to do what used to require a full technical staff.
The businesses optimizing for AI citation today are building compounding advantages in brand authority and content structure that become harder to close the gap on over time.
Waiting For Stability Is Its Own Strategy, It's Just Not a Good One.
The colleagues I overheard aren’t wrong that things are in flux. They’re wrong about what that flux means. Flux isn’t a reason to wait. It’s the reason the window exists.
Every month spent waiting for a standard that isn’t coming is a month someone else spends building authority, earning citations, and getting their content into the training sets and retrieval pools that will define AI search results for years.
The businesses that win this aren’t the ones who figured out the standard. They’re the ones who accepted that there isn’t one, got grounded in the principles, and adapted to the guidelines that exist right now — knowing they’ll have to adapt again.
Do you get it now?
SEO, AEO, and GEO aren’t one-size-fits-all. Where you need to focus first depends heavily on where your business stands right now — your content maturity, your search visibility, and how fast your customers are moving toward AI-assisted discovery. Shadetree Digital works with small businesses and growing companies to figure out exactly that.
Take a look at our profiler to get an idea of how things look from your neck of the woods.
Sources
SEO, AEO, and GEO Definitions and Distinctions
- Digital Agency Network — AEO vs SEO vs GEO: Key Differences and Strategies
- Pixis — SEO, GEO, and AEO Explained: The Three Disciplines Reshaping Search
- Search Engine Journal — A Little Clarity on SEO, GEO, and AEO
- PRINT Magazine — What SEO, AEO, and GEO Really Mean Now
Google Guidelines vs. Standards
- Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet 2026 — What Actually Moves Rankings
- WixSEOExpert — Google’s Ranking Factors 2026
Evolution of Search Behavior
- HubSpot — Search Has Changed. Here’s How Your Content Needs to Evolve.
- Writesonic — How AI Has Changed Consumer Search Habits
- WSI World — From Keywords to Conversations: Google Search’s 2025 Evolution
- Medium — The Great Unraveling of Search: How AI Is Reshaping User Behavior
WCAG as a Stable Technical Standard
AI Search Adoption and Growth
SEO, AEO, and GEO Don’t Have Standards. Stop Waiting for One.
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