Quick answer: Yes, almost every business needs both. Traditional SEO wins rankings and clicks in search results, while AI SEO wins citations inside AI answers. They share the same foundations and target the same customer at different moments, so doing only one leaves visibility and trust on the table. Treat them as one programme, not two.
The short answer, and why it is yes
For almost every business, the answer is yes, you need both, but that framing slightly misleads because they are not really two separate things. AI SEO is built on top of traditional SEO, sharing the same foundations of technical health, quality content, and genuine authority. The question is less whether to do both and more whether to stop at rankings or extend into AI answers as well.
The reason it matters is simple. Your customers now search across two surfaces at once: traditional results and AI-generated answers that often sit above them. If you optimise for only one, you are invisible in the other, and increasingly the AI answer is where attention lands first.
What each one actually does for you
It helps to be precise about the job each does, because the value is different even though the foundations overlap. Traditional SEO earns you a place in the results people scroll, while AI SEO earns you a mention in the answer they read.
- Traditional SEO: rankings, clicks, and traffic from search results pages.
- AI SEO: citations and mentions inside AI answers, often with no click.
- Shared foundation: technical health, useful content, and real authority.
- Different metric: clicks and rankings versus AI citations and share of voice.
Why one without the other leaves money on the table
Picture the two failure modes. If you chase rankings only, you might sit at the top of the blue links while an AI Overview above you answers the question and absorbs the click you worked for. Your ranking is technically excellent and commercially hollow.
If you chase AI citations only while neglecting fundamentals, you have no technical foundation or authority for AI tools to trust in the first place, so the citations never come. Each approach depends on the other. Together they cover the whole results page; apart they each leave a gap a competitor will fill.
How much they overlap
The encouraging news is that you are not funding two entirely separate programmes. Most of the work compounds across both goals, which is why treating them as one effort is far more efficient than running them in silos.
| Work | Helps rankings? | Helps AI citations? |
|---|---|---|
| Technical health and crawlability | Yes | Yes |
| Useful, in-depth content | Yes | Yes |
| Backlinks and authority | Yes | Yes |
| Schema and passage structure | Somewhat | Strongly |
| AI citation tracking | No | Yes |
When you might emphasise one over the other
Needing both does not mean splitting effort evenly. The right balance depends on your category, your starting point, and where your customers already look. A quick read of your situation tells you where to weight the work first.
- Weak technical foundations: fix traditional fundamentals before anything else.
- Competitors cited in AI answers but not you: prioritise the AI layer now.
- Strong rankings but flat traffic: AI answers may be absorbing your clicks.
- Brand-new site: build fundamentals and AI structure together from day one.
The cost of treating them as separate
Some businesses try to bolt AI SEO on as a separate project, often with a different provider, and it rarely works well. You end up paying twice for overlapping work, with two teams optimising the same pages toward different goals and no one accountable for the whole picture.
Worse, the seams show. Content gets restructured for AI extraction in ways that conflict with the on-page strategy, or authority work gets duplicated. One integrated programme avoids all of this and spends your budget on the work that serves both goals at once.
How to run both as one programme
The practical answer is to plan once, against both goals, and execute in a single workflow. Every technical fix, every piece of content, and every authority play should be evaluated for how it helps you rank and how it helps you get cited.
Measurement follows the same logic. Report on rankings and traffic alongside AI citations and share of voice, so you can see the full return rather than half of it. That single view is what keeps the programme honest and efficient.
A simple way to start if you can only do a little
Not every business can fund a full programme on day one, and that is fine. The trick is to sequence the work so each step still serves both goals, rather than splitting a small budget across two half-efforts that cancel each other out.
Begin with the shared foundation, because it is the part that pays off twice. Once technical health and a few strong pages are in place, layer on the AI-specific structure and citation work as budget allows.
- Month one: fix technical health and crawlability.
- Month two: strengthen your best pages for both rankings and extraction.
- Month three: add schema, passage structure, and citation tracking.
- Throughout: measure rankings and AI citations side by side.
How MarGen handles both at once
At MarGen we do not sell AI SEO and traditional SEO as separate products, because in practice they are one job. We build the fundamentals, then engineer visibility inside AI answers on top of them through GEO, AEO, and a citation-authority strategy, all measured against both rankings and AI citations.
The result is that your budget buys work that serves both goals, with one team accountable for whether you are visible wherever your customer asks the question. That is the only version of search visibility that makes sense now, and it is how we run every engagement.
See MarGen’s AI SEO Packages
MarGen runs AI SEO as one connected programme — the Synaptic Authority Engine — across three retainer tiers: Foundation (£1,950/mo), Authority (£5,950/mo) and Dominance (from £12,950/mo), each starting with a free audit. See the full packages and pricing breakdown, or book your free AI Visibility Audit to find the right fit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I really need both, or can I pick one?
Almost every business needs both, because customers search across traditional results and AI answers at the same time. They share foundations and target the same customer at different moments. Doing only one leaves visibility and trust for a competitor to take.
Is AI SEO just an add-on to traditional SEO?
It is more accurate to say AI SEO is built on top of traditional SEO. The fundamentals, technical health, quality content, and authority, are shared. AI SEO adds optimisation for AI answer engines on that foundation, which is why running them as one programme is most efficient.
Will I pay twice for doing both?
Not if you run them as one programme. Most of the work, technical health, content, and authority, serves both goals at once. You pay twice only when you split the effort across separate projects or providers optimising the same pages differently.
What if my budget only covers one?
Then fix the fundamentals first, because the AI layer is built on them and cannot work without them. Weak technical health or thin content means AI tools have nothing trustworthy to cite. Get the foundation right, then extend into AI visibility as budget allows.
How do I balance the two?
By your situation. Fix weak fundamentals first; prioritise the AI layer if competitors are cited and you are not; suspect AI answers if rankings are strong but traffic is flat; and for a new site, build both together from day one.
Can one agency do both?
Yes, and one integrated agency is usually better than two specialists. A single team planning against both goals avoids duplicated work, conflicting page strategies, and gaps in accountability. Look for an agency that treats rankings and AI citations as one programme.
How do I measure both?
Report on rankings and traffic alongside AI citations and share of voice inside AI answers. That combined view shows the full return and stops you from optimising one surface while quietly losing ground on the other.
Where should I start if my budget is small?
Start with the shared foundation, because it pays off twice. Fix technical health and crawlability first, then strengthen your best existing pages for both rankings and AI extraction, then add schema and citation tracking. Sequencing this way means every pound serves both goals instead of funding two half-efforts that undercut each other.
Key Takeaways
- Almost every business needs both; they share foundations and one customer.
- Traditional SEO wins clicks; AI SEO wins citations inside AI answers.
- Doing only one leaves a visible gap a competitor will fill.
- Run them as one programme to avoid paying twice for overlapping work.
- Measure rankings and traffic plus AI citations to see the full picture.
About the Author
Leeroy Powell is the founder of MarGen, an AI visibility agency that engineers GEO, AEO, and AI citation authority for B2B SaaS, financial services, legal, healthcare, and premium e-commerce brands. He writes about how search is changing as AI answer engines reshape how customers find and trust businesses.