Google Search Central (May 15, 2026): "Optimizing for generative AI is still SEO"

Claim: Google published "Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search" on May 15, 2026, telling site owners they do not need schema, llms.txt, content chunking, or AI-specific rewriting for AI Overviews — and that the path is the same as SEO.

Quote (verbatim): "From Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO."

Quote on commodity content (verbatim): "Be sure that you're writing non-commodity content that your readers will find helpful and reliable. Commodity content (for example, something like '7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers') is often based on common knowledge, which could originate from anyone, and typically adds little unique insight for readers."

Source: https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide (May 15, 2026).

Confidence: Verified.

Tactics Google explicitly says are unnecessary: llms.txt files, content chunking, AI-specific rewriting, inauthentic brand mentions, over-indexing on structured data for AI.

Tactics Google rewards: non-commodity content with a unique point of view, crawlable indexable pages, images/video, strong E-E-A-T.

Used in framing: every Candid client briefing should lead with this. It cuts through the noise that "AI SEO is a separate discipline." Per Google itself, it isn't.