Google Says AEO and GEO Are Still Just SEO: Practical Advice on How to Overcome Discovery FUD

This IDC Perspective talks about Google's May 2026 guidance, which dismisses much of the GEO and AEO consulting market. Here's how to navigate the noise, protect your budget, and prepare your team for what's actually coming. This document equips technology buyers with the practical actions needed to navigate the SEO landscape of today with confidence and without overcommitting to a single tech vendor's playbook.According to Heather Hershey, research director at IDC, "Digital commerce and marketing practitioners are frantically attempting to build a new foundation on quicksand during an earthquake. Separate signal from noise, trim the fat and refine the foundations of your SEO essentials and, above all, keep testing! At this stage, anyone who says they know everything about this topic is a charlatan; even the LLM providers themselves seem to be making things up as they go."