I think AEO/GEO optimization has gone too far when we start misrepresenting othe
By Jack · October 9, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
I think AEO/GEO optimization has gone too far when we start misrepresenting other people’s businesses to show up in AI answers.
There are ethical ways to write comparisons and I've written these pages before. Cite the company’s website, get access to the tool and test it, or talk to its customers. Tell readers where the information came from and what you checked.
What frustrates me is seeing rankings full of errors presented as buying advice. I recently looked through a “best Amazon agencies” list with roughly 150 agencies. A large number have been acquired or shut down. They list pricing for every agency (which I have no clue how you'd source). The few agency founders I spoke with told me they’d never submitted information for the listing. That alone doesn’t invalidate a ranking but the errors make me question how much research went into it and whether accuracy was even a goal in writing the ranking.
The same publisher ranks Amazon Ads tools and puts itself first across every category, including alongside tools that do different jobs and don’t compete with it. I don’t see how that helps someone decide what to buy.
I suspect these pages are meant to get traffic and become sources for AI answers. That makes the inaccuracies more frustrating: a wrong price could rule an agency out before a buyer ever contacts it, and a misleading comparison could steer someone toward the wrong tool.
To me, publishing in the blind for that visibility is unethical. You’re making claims about someone else’s business that can affect whether they get a customer. Check the facts before publishing, show your sources, and give the businesses you list a way to correct mistakes.