by Cathy Gray | May 12, 2026 | SEO, eCommerce, Marketing
Everyone’s Talking About AIO and GEO. It’s Still Just SEO.
There’s always something new in marketing. A new platform, a new acronym, a new reason to panic and wonder if everything you’ve been doing is suddenly wrong.
Right now, that thing is AIO and GEO.
AIO: AI Optimization. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization. Both are about showing up in AI-generated answers, the kind you see when you search on Google and get a summary at the top before any links, or when you ask ChatGPT a question and it recommends a business or product. The conversation around these has picked up fast, and part of why is that how people search has genuinely changed.
Searches are longer, more specific, and more conversational. People aren’t typing “plumber Atlanta” anymore. They’re asking “who’s the best emergency plumber in Atlanta that works on weekends.” The questions are more detailed because people expect better answers, and AI search is built to meet that expectation.
With that shift comes the usual wave of “you need to completely rethink your strategy.”
You don’t. Here’s why.
What AIO and GEO Actually Are
When someone types a question into Google, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or any AI-powered search tool, the answer they get is pulled from somewhere. It’s not made up out of thin air. The AI is reading content, evaluating it, and deciding what’s credible and relevant enough to surface.
That process sounds new. The inputs are not.
AI tools pull from content that is well-written, clearly structured, and trustworthy. They favor sources that answer questions directly. They look at how a site is organized, whether it loads properly, and whether other credible sources reference it. They pay attention to whether the content actually matches what the user is asking.
Sound familiar? It should. That’s SEO. And more specifically, that’s user intent: understanding what someone actually wants when they type something into a search bar, and making sure your content delivers it.
The Fundamentals Haven’t Moved
Here’s the short version of what has always driven search visibility, whether you’re talking about Google in 2015 or an AI answer engine in 2025:
Answer the question people are actually asking. Write clearly. Make your site easy to use and navigate. Build credibility through real information and external references. Stay consistent.
User intent sits at the center of all of it, and as searches get more complex, intent becomes harder to ignore. People are asking layered questions now. They want answers that account for their specific situation, location, budget, or timeline. A generic page that broadly covers a topic isn’t going to cut it the way it once did. Someone searching “what causes low water pressure” is in research mode. Someone searching “plumber near me emergency” is ready to call. Someone searching “how much does a water heater replacement cost in Atlanta for an older home” is somewhere in between: comparing options, factoring in their specific circumstances, not quite ready to commit. The more specific the search, the more specific the content needs to be to match it.
That’s the customer journey. And the businesses that have content built for each stage of it are the ones holding up through every algorithm shift, AI-driven or otherwise.
If you want to see how this translates into actual strategy, here’s how I approach SEO work.
What This Looks Like in the Real World
Let’s say you own a plumbing company in Atlanta. A homeowner asks ChatGPT “who are the best plumbers in Atlanta for emergency calls.” That person is at the bottom of the funnel. They have a problem right now and they need someone they can trust immediately.
The AI isn’t guessing who to recommend. It’s pulling from business listings, review platforms, and content that speaks directly to emergency services, response time, and service area. If your website has a page that clearly explains what you do, who you serve, and what customers say about you: you’re a candidate. If your Google Business Profile is accurate and your reviews are solid: you’re a stronger one.
But you also need content for earlier in the journey. The homeowner who isn’t in crisis yet, just researching, is searching things like “how to prevent frozen pipes” or “signs your water heater is failing.” If your site answers those questions, you build familiarity and credibility before they ever need to call someone. When they do need to call, you’re already the name they recognize.
That full-funnel presence is what AI tools are picking up on. Not just the bottom of the journey, but the trail of useful, trustworthy content that got someone there.
Same principle applies to B2B. A procurement manager searching Perplexity for “industrial hose suppliers in the Southeast” is likely mid-funnel: they know what they need, they’re evaluating options. The AI is going to surface suppliers who have clear product pages, defined service areas, and some level of authority built over time. A supplier who also has content explaining lead times, material specs, or how to choose the right hose for a specific application? That’s someone who showed up earlier in the journey too. That content compounds.
For eCommerce specifically, I covered the revenue impact of this in depth in SEO in eCommerce: Unlocking Revenue Potential.”
Structure: The Part Most Business Owners Haven’t Thought About
This is where it gets a little more under the hood, but it’s worth understanding even at a high level because it directly affects whether AI can read and use your content.
Header Hierarchy
Your website pages have heading levels: H1, H2, H3, and so on. Think of them like an outline. The H1 is your main topic, the H2s are your major points, and H3s break those down further. When AI tools scan a page, they use that structure to understand what the page is about and how the information is organized. A page with one giant block of text and no headers is hard for AI to parse quickly. A page with a clear, logical heading structure makes it easy to pull a relevant answer.
I documented a real example of this in a behind-the-scenes look at a site redesign, where reorganizing the navigation and content structure was part of the ranking strategy.
Most business owners don’t know this is happening. Their web designer built the site to look good, which is fine, but if the heading structure underneath is a mess, it’s working against you in search.
FAQ Sections
AI-generated answers are heavily triggered by questions. If someone asks ChatGPT a specific question and you have a page on your site that directly answers it in a clearly labeled FAQ section, you’re in a strong position to be surfaced. FAQ sections also tend to match the way people actually search now: in full questions rather than short keywords. Adding one to a service page or a blog post isn’t complicated, and the payoff in both traditional SEO and AI visibility is real.
Schema Markup
This one is the most technical, but the concept is straightforward. Schema markup is a small piece of code added to your website that tells search engines exactly what type of content is on a page. It’s like attaching a label to your content so there’s no guessing involved. A local business schema tells Google your name, address, phone number, and hours. A review schema surfaces your star rating directly in search results. An FAQ schema can get your questions and answers displayed right in the search result without someone even clicking through to your site.
You don’t need to write this code yourself: it’s something a developer or a marketing person handles. But knowing it exists and asking whether your site has it is a reasonable question to bring to whoever manages your website. If the answer is no, it’s a gap worth closing.
These three things, clear header structure, FAQ sections, and schema markup, have been best practices in SEO for years. They matter more now because AI tools rely on them heavily to decide what content is clear, credible, and worth surfacing.
So what else needs to change
Beyond structure, a few other things are worth paying attention to.
Match the intent, not just the keyword. A page optimized for “emergency plumber Atlanta” needs to feel urgent and action-oriented. A page targeting “how to prevent frozen pipes” needs to be genuinely informative. The words alone don’t win anymore. The content has to actually fit what the person is looking for at that moment in their journey.
Credibility signals carry more weight. Reviews, third-party mentions, directory listings, and backlinks from credible sources have always helped SEO. They carry even more weight now because AI tools are evaluating trustworthiness, not just relevance.
None of this requires starting over. It requires doing the foundational work well.
The Real Risk Isn’t Falling Behind on AIO
The real risk is getting distracted by the new terminology and neglecting the basics. Businesses that abandon a content strategy that was working to chase the latest optimization trend tend to lose ground, not gain it.
If your SEO foundation is solid: good content mapped to real user intent, a well-organized site, accurate business information, and credibility built over time: you are already set up to show up in AI results. You may need to refine a few things. You probably don’t need to blow anything up.
If your foundation isn’t solid, that’s the actual problem. And it was the problem before AIO and GEO entered the conversation.
The Terminology Changes. The Work Doesn’t
Every few years, the marketing industry rebrands the fundamentals. Sometimes it highlights a real shift in how people search. Sometimes it’s noise.
AIO and GEO are a real enough shift: AI is genuinely changing how search results are presented and how people find information. But the underlying question hasn’t changed. Is your business showing up where your customers are looking, at the right moment in their journey, and when they get there, does your content give them a reason to trust you? Getting found is only half the equation.
If the answer is yes, you’re in better shape than you think. If the answer is no, that’s the work: and it starts with SEO.
Getting found is only half the equation. What happens after the click is where conversion rate optimization comes in.”
Want to talk through where your site stands? That’s exactly the kind of thing I dig into
by Cathy Gray | May 8, 2026 | Marketing, eCommerce
A recruiter reached out about an eCommerce manager role. I did what I also do and did some research on the company’s website.
It loaded fine. Clean layout. Products visible. Nothing obviously broken.
Then I ran it through a Shopify theme detector.
The theme wasn’t just old. It had been deprecated by the developer and was no longer listed in the Shopify theme store.
The site didn’t know it was behind. It just kept running.
What a Deprecated Shopify Theme Actually Means
Deprecated means the developer has stopped maintaining it. No bug fixes. No compatibility updates. No support. When Shopify ships platform changes: and they do, constantly: a deprecated theme doesn’t get updated to keep up.
That’s different from a theme that’s just old but still maintained. Deprecated means it’s off the list and the developer has moved on.
Your store can keep running on it indefinitely. That’s the part that makes it easy to miss.
Why This Matters More Right Now
Shopify has been aggressively building out its platform: AI-assisted checkout, personalization tools, merchant analytics, updated Liquid architecture. A lot of that functionality is tied to supported, actively maintained themes built on Online Store 2.0.
Platform limitations don’t just affect features—they can quietly drag down your search visibility too, which I cover in more detail in SEO in eCommerce: Unlocking Revenue Potential.”
If your theme is deprecated, you’re not getting those updates. You might not even know what you’re missing because the store still loads and products still check out.
There’s also a security angle. Older themes may rely on deprecated APIs or JavaScript libraries that Shopify has phased out. They don’t break immediately. They just accumulate risk until something forces the issue.
The gap between what your store could do and what it’s actually doing gets wider every time Shopify ships something new.
And if your theme controls how product titles and identifiers display, it’s worth asking the right questions about your product data—like whether your SKU belongs in the title at all.”
This Isn’t a Just Shopify problem
Every CMS does this. Themes get abandoned. Plugins stop being maintained. Versions go end-of-life.
WooCommerce, Magento, BigCommerce: none of them are immune. The difference is how quietly it happens. There’s no countdown timer. No email that says your theme stops being supported in 60 days. It just falls off the list and keeps running until something breaks: or until someone who knows what to look for actually checks.
Most business owners find out one of two ways: something stops working, or someone tells them.
How to Check Your Own Site in About 10 minutes
Shopify: A theme detector tool will tell you what theme you’re running and who built it. Search for it in the Shopify Theme Store. If it’s not there, go directly to the developer’s site and look for deprecation notices or a “no longer supported” label. Check your Shopify theme through shopthemedetector.com.
Enter your website and if you see legacy then it’s probably no longer supported and taken off the themes list on Shopify.
WooCommerce / WordPress: Check your theme and plugin update logs. If either hasn’t had an update in 12 or more months is worth a closer look. Cross-reference it in the WordPress theme and plugin repository to see if the developer is still active.
Magento / BigCommerce: Check your version against the platform’s current release notes. Magento has a long list of versions that have hit end-of-life. If you’re not on a supported version, you’re not getting security patches: which is a separate, bigger problem.
None of this requires a developer. It requires about 10 minutes and knowing where to look.
The Site Looking Fine is Not the Same as the Site Being Fine
This is the part that tends to get overlooked. A store that loads, displays products, and processes orders can still be quietly falling behind: in security, in performance, in the features your customers expect and your competitors already have.
The company that recruiter mentioned almost certainly didn’t know. The site looked fine to them too.
If this is making you reconsider your setup altogether, I put together a full guide on the factors to consider when choosing an eCommerce platform.”
If you haven’t looked under the hood in a while, it’s worth 10 minutes to check. ☕
If you want to see the broader context for how this fits into running a well-built eCommerce site, here’s an overview of the eCommerce work I do.
A store running on a solid, maintained theme is also better positioned for conversion rate optimization—platform gaps create friction that no amount of CRO testing can fix.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 27, 2026 | eCommerce, Marketing
Recently I was in an online discussion about product titles in eCommerce. Someone made the claim that putting a SKU in the product title messes up your schema and just looks ugly. I disagree: at least not across the board.
The schema argument is a partial truth at best. And “looks ugly” depends entirely on who’s looking at it. A purchasing agent searching a part number doesn’t care how it looks in the title. They care that it showed up.
This isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. It never is in eCommerce. The right call depends on who your buyer is, how they search, and what industry you’re in. That’s what this post breaks down.
SKUs in the Product Title
B2B buyers don’t browse. They already know what they need before they search. They have a part number, a spec sheet, or a reorder list. The title’s job isn’t to sell them: it’s to show up when they search.
- They’re sourcing, not shopping: A purchasing agent searching a SKU has already made the decision. They need to find the product and get a quote. If your title has the part number and a competitor’s doesn’t, you show up and they don’t. That’s it.
- Real traffic from real part number searches: Running eCommerce for an industrial hose and hydraulics distributor, exact part number searches drove a measurable chunk of organic traffic. Not accidental visits. Buyers who knew exactly what they needed.
- Multiple distributors carry the same product: In industrial and technical markets, you’re rarely the only source. The SKU is the differentiator. It’s how a buyer finds you instead of someone else.
- Reorders are real: B2B customers come back. When someone searches the part number they ordered six months ago, your title either shows up or it doesn’t. General keyword optimization doesn’t solve that.
- It helps in Google Shopping too: Having the SKU in the title improves product matching in Merchant Center. Paid and organic both benefit from the same high-intent search.
- Put it at the end: The SKU doesn’t need to lead the title. Front-loading a part number that means nothing to a casual browser hurts CTR. At the end it catches part-number searches without pushing your primary keywords out of the visible window.
- These buyers convert: Someone searching a SKU isn’t comparing options. They’re checking availability and price. The decision is already made.
SKUs Not in the Product Title
This argument isn’t wrong. It’s just built for a different kind of store.
- General shoppers don’t search by SKU: Someone looking for wireless earbuds or a new jacket isn’t typing a part number. A SKU in that title takes up space that could go toward something they actually searched.
- Character space matters, especially on mobile: Titles truncate around 50 to 65 characters. On mobile it happens faster. If a SKU is pushing a real product descriptor out of the visible window, that’s a click you’re losing.
- Consumer brands don’t build recognition through codes: If someone finds you through a keyword search and sees a string of numbers and letters in the title, that’s not helping them connect with what you’re selling.
- The trade-off is real: A SKU runs anywhere from 6 to 15 characters. In a consumer catalog those characters could be a color, a size, a material: something a shopper actually typed.
- The advice is valid, just not universal: It comes from people working in consumer eCommerce. It’s right for that world. The problem is when it gets handed down as a blanket rule for every industry.
Addressing the Schema Argument
SKU belongs in your structured data. That’s not up for debate. But that’s a separate conversation from your title tag. Both can include the SKU and both should, if your buyer is searching for it. The person in that discussion conflated two different things: where Google reads product identifiers for indexing purposes, and what shows up in a search result title. One doesn’t cancel out the other.
If you’re using WooCommerce or a similar platform, your SKU should absolutely be in your product schema. That helps Google understand and match your product. But nothing in schema guidance says it can’t also live in the title. They serve different purposes and can work together.
The Real Question: Who is the Customer?
This is where the debate usually falls apart. Most of the “no SKU in the title” advice comes from practitioners working in consumer eCommerce. That world has different rules. A shopper browsing for shoes or skincare isn’t searching by part number. That advice is correct for that context.
But apply it to a B2B catalog selling industrial parts, hydraulic fittings, or hardware components and it breaks down completely. The buyer is different. The search behavior is different. The intent is different.
In B2C, the title needs to speak to someone discovering your product for the first time. In B2B, the title often needs to speak to someone who already knows exactly what they want and just needs to find where to get it. Those are two completely different jobs.
The Verdict
The debate over SKUs in product titles isn’t really about SEO rules. It’s about knowing your buyer.
If your customer is a general consumer discovering a product for the first time, SKUs in the title are wasted space. Use every character for something they actually searched.
If your customer is a B2B buyer, a purchasing agent, or anyone sourcing a specific part in a technical industry, the SKU might be the most important thing in your title. It’s not clutter: it’s the exact search term that gets you found.
The mistake isn’t following one camp or the other. The mistake is applying consumer eCommerce logic to a B2B catalog, or vice versa. Know who is buying from you, how they search, and what they need to see to click. That’s what drives the decision, not a universal rule someone handed down in a forum. Keyword research is where this decision lives—and if you haven’t mapped out how your actual customers are searching, the eCommerce SEO breakdown is a good place to start.”
Schema handles what it handles. Your title tag handles what it handles. Both can include the SKU and both should, if your buyer is searching for it.
So Should It Be Included?
Follow the questions and answers to help you decide, you don’t have to know the ins and outs of the technical areas, just simple logic.
If you’re building or auditing a product catalog and want a second set of eyes, this is the eCommerce work I do.”
Schema is only part of it—if your store is running on outdated theme architecture, even correct data can get stripped or ignored. This piece on deprecated Shopify themes covers exactly what that looks like.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 25, 2026 | Adventures, By Activity, By Location, Georgia, Hiking
Escaping into Atlanta’s Bamboo Forest
Getting There
The bamboo forest sits along the East Palisades Trail inside the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area: about 20 minutes from downtown Atlanta in average traffic.
There are two entrances: Indian Trail and Whitewater Creek. We parked at the Indian Trail entrance. Plug this into your GPS: 1425 Indian Trail NW, Sandy Springs, GA 30327.
Keep in Mind: you’ll turn off the residential road onto a gravel road and immediately think you’re lost. You’re not. Stay on it. The parking lot is about 4 minutes down, and the road gets narrow: one car wide in spots, so slow down and be ready to pull over if someone’s coming the other way.
I went on a Tuesday morning around 10:30 and the parking lot was not packed. The other times I went it was on a weekend, so you know it was crowded.
Fees
Passes are $5 and valid for one day at the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. Buy ahead at Recreation.gov or scan the QR code posted at the parking lot before you head out.
The Hike and Experience
The trail markers are easy to spot and the path is straightforward: no navigation stress here. Families were out in full force when we visited, so bring the kids.
And bring the dog. The park allows leashed dogs (6 ft max), and they were everywhere. Marker 1 sits right on the bank of the Chattahoochee: shallow water, happy dogs. Sam would have loved it, but he’s gotten too old for the rooty part of the trail.
There are markers on the trails to help hikers navigate, so although the trails meander, it’s easy to find your way.
A few spots worth stopping for:
EP-1: The river bank where the dogs swim and splash while everyone else takes a breather on the shore. If you have a dog, they will not let you walk past this one.
EP-5: A rock outcropping above the Chattahoochee with a view worth sitting down for. Good picnic spot.
EP-10 to EP-14: Somewhere between these two markers you’ll hit Poppi’s Point: an overlook with skyline views of Atlanta and the river rushing below. Bring your camera. Or your easel. No judgment either way.
Marker E-26 is where the bamboo forest is.
Some Travel Tips
- Wear shoes you don’t mind getting dirty: the trails can get muddy, and skip it altogether after heavy rain. Comfortable footwear matters more than you think on elevation.
- Don’t hike alone if you can help it.
- Stay on the trail. Charge your phone. Bring water. These should be obvious you know people can be people sometimes.
- Be honest with yourself about what you can handle before you start. Remember I took the quicker route and took my time.
- The weekends will be busy and they will tow you.
For something further from Atlanta but worth every mile, Dahlonega has a full day of things to do.
The East Palisades Trail is good for clearing your head after a week of staring at campaign dashboards. I work in digital marketing and eCommerce. If you want to see that side of things, here is what I do professionally.
If you are looking for more day trips and hidden spots around Georgia, here is the full Georgia adventures section.
by Cathy Gray | Apr 16, 2026 | Adventures, Life
Over a year ago, I stepped away from a traditional full-time position. It’s not for everyone. And honestly, it wasn’t always easy.
This past year had more loss in it than I expected. I lost my grandmother and my aunt. I lost close friends, some of them unexpectedly. In May, someone ran a stop sign and I ended up in a car accident. Those were the moments that hit hardest. The ones I still sit with sometimes.
But life keeps moving. A cousin got married and it was a beautiful wedding: family together for something good instead of a life service. Some of my closest cousins made a point to actually do something together. I went horseback riding with my cousin Melissa, something we hadn’t done in a couple of years. And I worked on my grandmother’s house with another cousin. It hadn’t been touched in years. There was something right about that.
I made a promise to myself to get back to the things that remind me who I am outside of work.
I rediscovered adventuring. I’d gotten away from it, and that was a mistake: caving, camping, kayaking, traveling. I took a friend out kayaking who hadn’t been in years. A few months later, she was gone. I got my mom her own kayak and spent most of the trip towing her because she got tired. She also doesn’t know how to swim. That trip was something.
Last October I went on a weekend camping trip to get back into caving. In January I did a sporty cave: traversing, frog walking. IYKYK. The trip host asked beforehand if it was something I actually wanted to do. I’d only ever done horizontal caving. Nothing like this. I was scared going in. I did it anyway.
At home, I tackled projects that had been sitting too long: new flooring in the bathrooms, an updated closet that actually fits things now, some siding work, and 8 trees cut that were too close to the house. The list never fully ends. That’s just how houses work.
And Sam. I thought I was going to lose him when lumps appeared again and kept growing. They were removed and he bounced back. But he knows his limits now. He wants to chase the neighborhood cat. He just can’t anymore. He’s officially retired: campfire warmth, a full bowl, and all the attention he can get. Not a bad deal.
Through all of it, I kept my hand in work. A few project-based websites. A show promotion for a friend who needed it done last minute. I wouldn’t have done it for just anybody.
I don’t post much on here. I’m working on changing that. I have a lot to share. I’ve always been more of an introvert: speaking up comes naturally in a small, familiar group but not as much out here. Honestly, I just need to get over it.
If you’ve made it this far: I’m ready for what’s next. Open to the right opportunity, whether that’s a project, a contract, or a full-time role.
Let’s talk over coffee. ☕
For earlier context, this post covers where I was and where I wanted to be.
Getting momentum back after a hard stretch is its own skill. I put together some thoughts on staying motivated when the path forward is not obvious.
Getting back to work was part of getting back to myself. I am looking for the right full-time opportunity in digital marketing and eCommerce, and available for consulting in the meantime. Here is more about the work.
Most of those adventures are documented in the adventure section if you want the details.
