AI SEO: Google Says Technical SEO Remains Key. Here's What Dubai Businesses Should Do

In a recent interview with David Iwanow, Google's John Mueller talked about the future of SEO in AI search, as reported by Search Engine Journal. His main point was simple. The rise of AI search doesn't change what makes an SEO strategy succeed, and technical SEO still sits at its centre.

That matters for any business in Dubai that keeps hearing about new AI search tactics from agencies and freelancers. This post covers what Mueller said, what it means in the UAE and a checklist you can work through with your team.

What Google said about AI SEO and short-term tactics

The conversation started with listicles, the lists of top companies that some businesses publish so AI chatbots name them first in their industry. Iwanow accepted that lists can be useful. Iwanow also pointed out that many have been abused and turned into low-quality slop.

Mueller's reply was about time. Short-term tactics always have an expiry date, he said. A site built on a solid foundation of quality doesn't face that kind of expiry date, where traffic suddenly disappears.

He described a cycle he sees again and again. Someone finds a tactic that works well, everyone rushes to copy it, and half of them do it badly. Then the systems catch up and start treating the pattern as a sign of spam, so people move on to the next trick.

Mueller was careful not to call every listicle spam. A list has to add value, he said, and these AI systems are new and still changing quickly. If your whole strategy is listicles, he warned, at some point that tactic switches off and you're left with nothing.

His advice was to build a serious, stable foundation for the website first. It's fine to try things out along the way, he said. The end goal is a site that search engines and AI systems will want to show people in the long run.

Why Google says technical SEO remains key for AI SEO

The second part of the interview went to a question many marketers keep asking. Iwanow noted that Mueller has said before there's no reason to create special markdown pages for Google's AI search. Iwanow then asked whether AEO and GEO are dead.

Mueller's answer was that many AI systems "build on SEO", so SEO will keep its relevance. He added that technical SEO in particular will stay highly relevant. For anyone planning an AI search strategy, that's the line to remember.

He also explained why it will look a little different. As he understands it, AI systems crawl in a slightly different way because their intents differ. Some collect pages for training, while others want the freshest content they can find. Mueller called that another flavour of technical SEO, and he didn't treat it as a sign that traditional SEO is becoming obsolete.

If you pay for GEO or answer engine optimisation, Mueller's answer suggests that work still depends on the technical SEO underneath it.

What AI SEO means for AI-powered search

AI SEO is the work of getting your business found and cited in AI-powered search results, alongside the usual blue links. That includes Google's AI Overviews and answer engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity.

Read that way, Mueller is describing one system with two outputs. Traditional search engines and AI engines may fetch pages differently, but in his view the groundwork for both is the same. An AI-driven answer still builds on pages that can be found and understood. That's why a sound AI SEO strategy starts with the same audit an SEO would run for traditional search engines.

Where AEO and GEO fit in an AI SEO strategy

AEO and GEO are labels for the same goal, which is to become a source that an AI answer draws on. Answer engine optimisation focuses on direct answers to the specific questions people type into ChatGPT. Generative engine optimisation focuses on being cited when LLMs like ChatGPT write a longer reply.

Mueller didn't call AEO or GEO dead. He said AI systems build on SEO, which puts both on top of the same technical work. His earlier comment about markdown pages fits the same pattern. In our view, a separate version of your content built only for AI crawlers means maintaining two sites that drift apart over time.

If that version ever says something different from the page visitors see, it starts to look like the cloaking the article warns about. A single, well-built page serves people and machines at the same time. In practice, you write content for search engines and AI systems as one job.

Shady AI SEO tactics are old tricks with a new name

The interviewer also complained about SEO companies that use low-quality AI SEO tactics to rank their clients. Mueller said this is nothing new. Some providers used shady tactics for regular SEO, and now some of them do the same for AI SEO.

He compared it to consultants who sold keyword stuffing, or white text on a white background in the early days of search. Those tricks worked for a bit and then stopped. His advice to small businesses was to keep questioning what their vendors are doing, and never take an SEO company's word for it.

The article's author, an SEO with a long career, added a personal view. The author sees people who are new to SEO rediscovering old tactics as if they were new. Cloaking is one example, which here means showing one thing to AI crawlers and something else to users. Listicles, directories and reciprocal links are others, and none of them is a new idea.

What gets overlooked, in the author's view, is the SEO that has always worked. The author points to a strong user experience and to promoting content to the people it's meant for. Building positive awareness of the website belongs there too, and it stays as relevant now as at any point in the history of SEO.

Who this affects in Dubai and the UAE

Nothing launched here and nothing was switched off. The interview is guidance, and it shapes where a sensible business puts its time and effort.

It affects any UAE business that wants customers to find it in Google. It also affects companies that want to be named in AI-powered answers when people ask AI tools like ChatGPT for a recommendation. Clinics, property firms and B2B suppliers in Dubai all compete for those answers.

If you've seen lists of top agencies or clinics in Dubai that place the author's own company first, that's the tactic Mueller was asked about. He didn't say such lists never work. He said a strategy built on them switches off at some point, which leaves the business with nothing.

The UAE market adds its own technical traps. Many sites run in Arabic and English, and a broken language setup can confuse the crawlers that visit. Fast-moving sectors like real estate and healthcare publish pages quickly, which often leaves duplicate listings and long redirect chains behind. Sites built on heavy page builders or JavaScript frameworks also risk hiding their main text from crawlers that don't render scripts.

For a broader picture of how AI answers are chosen in this market, read our guide to AI search SEO in the UAE.

Signs your AI SEO strategy relies on short-term tactics

Mueller's warning is easy to agree with and harder to apply when a provider offers quick wins in AI search. Watch for these patterns in any plan you're shown, including one written by your own team.

• Pages on your own site or on paid placements that put your company first among the top providers.

• Content written mainly for AI crawlers, with a separate version that visitors never see.

• Large batches of near-identical content for location or service pages, with only the area name or keywords swapped.

• Directory submissions and reciprocal link swaps sold as a package for AI visibility.

• Reports that show rankings or AI mentions without any link to enquiries or revenue.

None of these is new, which is the point Mueller and the article's author both make. Each one worked for some sites for a while, and each one carries the expiry date Mueller described.

How to use listicles without relying on them

Mueller didn't rule listicles out, so a comparison page still makes sense when it helps a buyer choose. Adding value is the test he set. A comparison page that ranks your own company first, with thin notes on everyone else, fails that test.

If you publish one, explain how you chose and ordered the entries. Giving each option a fair summary with specific details helps a buyer compare. Keep it current when the facts move and treat it as one page in your content strategy, never the whole of it.

That keeps the page useful even if the systems start treating listicles as spam, which is the cycle Mueller described.

A technical SEO checklist for AI search visibility

Each point below is standard technical SEO, which is Mueller's argument put into practice. Work through them in order, because the later steps depend on the earlier ones.

Let the right crawlers reach your pages

Begin with robots.txt and look for rules that block Googlebot, Bingbot or the AI crawlers you want to allow. Check your CDN and firewall as well, since some security settings block bots by default without anyone on the team noticing.

Then decide crawler by crawler. If an AI provider runs separate crawlers for training and for live answers, you can treat them differently, which mirrors the split Mueller described.

Run a server log analysis

Server logs help you identify which crawlers visit your site and which pages they request. Look for AI user agents hitting error pages, redirect loops or blocked folders, and fix those paths first. If a crawler you've allowed never shows up, check whether your firewall is turning it away before it reaches the server. Repeat the check after any update to your firewall or CDN settings, since one rule can lock out crawlers you meant to allow.

Put the main content in the HTML

Mueller said AI systems crawl differently, so don't assume every crawler renders a page the way a browser does. If your service details, FAQs or listings only appear after scripts load, a crawler that skips scripts sees a near-empty page. Server-side rendering or static HTML for key content fixes this.

To test it, open the page source rather than the rendered page and check the main text is there. Do the same for your Arabic content, which is sometimes loaded through a separate script or plugin.

Keep one clear URL for each page

Duplicate content splits signals and makes it harder for any system to choose which version to cite. Set canonical tags, redirect old URLs in a single hop and remove thin copies of the same page. For Arabic and English versions, use hreflang tags that point both ways, so each pair reads as one page in two languages.

Fix speed and the mobile experience

A strong user experience is one of the basics the article says still matters. Slow, unstable pages lose visitors whether they arrive from a search result or from a link inside an AI answer. Check Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console, compress large images and remove scripts the page doesn't need.

Use schema that matches the page

Structured data helps machines confirm what a page covers and who is behind it. Add LocalBusiness, Article or FAQ schema where each one fits, and keep every value consistent with the visible text. Schema that contradicts the page works against you, because it gives crawlers two versions of the same information.

Keep sitemaps and freshness signals honest

Your XML sitemap should contain only live, indexable URLs with accurate last-modified dates. Take redirected and noindexed URLs out of it so crawlers spend their time on pages you want shown. IndexNow lets you notify Bing and other participating engines the moment a page changes.

If you'd rather have a specialist check all of this, look at our technical SEO audit services in Dubai.

Content that search engines and answer engines want to cite

Mueller's test for any content is whether it adds value. Technical work gets your pages crawled, but your content decides whether they're worth showing or citing. High-quality content answers the question better than competing pages, with details only your business can give.

Structure helps here. Answer the main question in the first lines, then add the detail, the steps and the exceptions. Give each topic its own page, with headings that use customer keywords and match how people phrase a query. A short FAQ section on key service pages can answer the questions your sales team hears every week.

Keywords still matter, because they show you the words people use to describe a problem. Research the keywords your customers type in Arabic and in English before you plan a page. Semantic coverage of the whole topic matters more than repeating a phrase, because that's what helps the reader. Answering the follow-up questions on the same page makes it more useful still.

If your customers search in Arabic, write the Arabic page for them rather than translating the English word for word. A content strategy built around real customer questions in both languages gives you pages worth showing long after any trick stops working.

The article's author also stresses promoting content to the people it's meant for. Coverage on relevant third-party sites is part of that work, and it gives buyers another route to your business. Brand visibility grows from your own pages and from what others publish about you.

Use AI for research or a first draft where it's helpful, but keep a human touch. An editor who knows the business should check every fact, because generic, unchecked pages are the kind of slop that started this conversation.

How to measure visibility in ChatGPT and AI Overviews

Measuring AI search is harder than measuring rankings, and it's worth being honest about the gaps. Treat attribution as partial and look for patterns rather than exact numbers.

Monitoring still gives you enough to make good decisions. Check your analytics for referral visits from ChatGPT and Perplexity. Each month, run the same customer questions across ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews, and record whether your brand appears in AI replies. Benchmark the results against your competitors and look for changes after each technical fix.

Keep a simple log of each question, its date and the AI citations each answer included. Over a few months, that log shows trends no single check can.

Those insights only help if your marketing team acts on them. Reporting should tie the work to leads, not positions alone. The Adnika Dashboard: one live view of a client's ads, analytics and CRM data, with AI recommendations reviewed by the strategist. For an SEO client, organic traffic sits beside the enquiries it produced, so each technical fix is judged by the leads it brings in.

Questions to ask about your SEO provider's strategy

Mueller told small businesses to keep questioning their vendors. That advice applies to every provider of AI SEO services in Dubai, and you should ask us the same questions. Here are good starting questions before you sign or renew a contract.

• What did you change on the site this month, and which pages did it touch?

• Which keywords and questions are you targeting, and why those ones?

• Do any of your tactics rely on listicles about our own brand, bulk links or content written only for AI crawlers?

• Does the version of each page that AI crawlers see match what customers see?

• Which technical issues did your last audit find, and which of them have you fixed?

• How do you track our visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews?

Good answers point to work you can verify on your own site. Vague answers, or a ranking report with nothing behind it, are the warning sign the article describes. Shady providers have always existed, as Mueller said, and AI search hasn't changed that.

What a Dubai business should do now about AI SEO

The playbook for AI search is the existing SEO playbook done properly, with a few additional checks for how AI crawlers behave. Here's the order we'd follow for a business in Dubai.

1. Run a technical audit and fix anything that stops search engines or AI crawlers from reaching your pages.

2. Review robots.txt and firewall rules, then decide which AI crawlers to allow for training and which for live answers.

3. Make sure your main content appears in the HTML, in Arabic and English wherever you publish both.

4. Give each service its own page that answers one topic clearly, in the words your customers use.

5. Drop any tactic built on listicles about your own brand, cloaking or bought links.

6. Track AI visibility next to rankings and leads, so you can see which changes bring results.

Mueller expects AI systems to keep changing quickly, and as they evolve, tactics built on a loophole tend to switch off. A sound technical foundation is the part of your search strategy that doesn't expire. If you want help with it, see how our SEO agency in Dubai approaches technical SEO for AI search.