Note: This chapter is being built in public, one brick at a time — just like we do for clients through the Authority Chapter Plan™. Welcome to Chapter Thirteen. Read the entire AIO for Attorneys book here.
Someday soon, maybe even by the time you read this, your inbox and the legal marketing blogs will be flooded with a new alphabet soup of acronyms and phrases, all attempting to define how legal marketing will work in the age of AI referrals.
It will feel like the early 2000’s SEO boom times, with everyone attempting to carve out their piece of the territory.
As I write this chapter in the relative calm of 2025, however, there are barely ripples. Yet I know that soon the sludge marketers, and particularly SEO sorts scared of losing their position, will be teeming out of the woodwork to define AIO, AEO, GEO, “AI SEO” and “AI referrals” in their own image.
I started Books for Experts for one reason: to stop the commodification of attorneys. The rise of these confusing terms by old-guard marketers only reinforces the urgency of that mission. But most lawyers are too busy to see the sludge from the sublime, and that is how the sludge pervades and corrupts. There is an opportunity here, through effective legal marketing, to regain our profession’s heart and dignity. AI offers a rare moment where one can market with sophistication and be still rewarded for it.
I don’t want to see it all scuffed up.
To that end, I wanted to include this chapter discussing all the various AI referral terms, and how our unique, proprietary blend of Authority Intelligence Optimization™ stands out. The last thing I want you to do is read this book, then hire just any old agency claiming they are AIO experts. Most of what you’ll find out there is SEO bolted onto “AIO.” Said another way, 10 SEO rats in a trench coat hawking “AIO” as the new big thing.
AIO, AEO, GEO and Beyond: Essential Definitions
Before we proceed further into this chapter, and attempt real differentiation, let’s pause for a moment to make sure we’re familiar with all of the different, swirling terms currently in play.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It literally means attempting to optimize your website to be easily found and well-ranked by search engines. It utilizes outmoded technical signals and mostly shallow blog-based content writing that used to drive clicks but is now fading in the age of AI. Today, many SEO peddlers are either ignoring the rise of AI referrals, or planning to slap a new coat of paint over the old, SEO engine by branding it as AIO or GEO.
AIO is commonly referred to as Artificial Intelligence Optimization. Here, we call it Authority Intelligence Optimization™ , because we are not merely implementing technical signals, but creating a holistic marketing plan that focuses on the creation of authority assets and real-world validation. We are the first and only comprehensive AIO agency for attorneys in the United States. Although we recognize that we offer Artificial Intelligence Optimization, it is in service of a holistic and all-encompassing plan to increase both human and AI referrals.
Books for Experts is the only agency that offers all in one AIO solutions: the Pillar One Authority Assets, Pillar Two Technical Signals, and Pillar Three Real-World validation. Our AIO Audits and Authority Philosophy sessions are not mere checklists, but part of a global solution to maximizing AI referrals and human referrals, all while increasing professional authority and reputation. Our AIO Rating is also the first of its kind.
AI Referrals: What it is: The overarching category that’s about to dominate legal marketing and referrals for the next twenty to thirty years, at the cost of search engine optimization. What it’s really for: Everyone who hopes to achieve strong digital marketing results now and in the future, though as the below definitions will demonstrate, the efficacy of the marketing will depend upon the strategy’s pursued.
AI SEO: What it is: an attempt to carry over SEO tactics into the new AI reality. What it’s really is: A short-term trick to make SEO look relevant despite massive change. See also, GEO or Generic AIO.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): A component of AIO to aid in getting found when people type query’s into “assistant” apps like ChatGPT and Google Gemini. A nice term, but ultimately replicated and included in the more extensive AIO. Especially as bimodal and multimodal AI grows, this term will become too small to carry the full weight of the operation.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): What it is: A tactic to manipulate chatbot results. What it’s really for: A short-term trick to make old SEO agencies look relevant. See also AI SEO or Generic AIO.
Generic AIO v. Authority Intelligence Optimization™
Generic AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization): What it is: A catch-all buzzword. What it’s really for: A new label for the same old service of using AI to write low-quality content. See also AI SEO or GEO.
Authority Intelligence Optimization™: What it is: A comprehensive strategy to build your real-world reputation. What it’s really for: To make you undisputed, long-term authority that both humans and AI trust.
Generic AIO, AEO, and GEO
The trouble with repurposing SEO methods into AIO and GEO (or AEO) is that AI is far too sophisticated for such constraints. The AIO and GEO (and, yes, even AEO) tactics that will soon explode in the market, mark my words, will be little more than attempting to keyword stuff all over again, only this time for Google Gemini v. Google search.
It may even work, for a little while and at the cost of your long-term credibility. You may be able to stuff the wrong info into AI’s dossier on you for a spell, but once AI realizes the manipulation there goes everything. Such methods also continue to alienate or totally ignore the human audience.
The core belief of Authority Intelligence Optimization™ , what fuels our proprietary blend of creativity, technical signals, PR, and more, is that marketing should not be done unless it succeeds on several fronts. One, it must further your Authority Philosophy™ , otherwise, what is the point. Second, it must appeal to both AI and humans, because humans have been making referrals since they lived in caves and AI will soon surpass search engines as the number one digital referrer of legal work. Third, the marketing must both humanize you/the profession and demonstrate your authority.
Authority = Expertise + Narrative + Authenticity.
If each portion of the above equation is not met by the marketing, then there is a better path forward. It’s back to the drawing board time.
We cannot let those who are slick with sales but empty of ideas co-opt the most beneficial path forward for both our profession and all the promise held within AIO. It disheartens me to know that some lawyers, who are not savvy to these changes, will think they are paying for the new big thing when in fact they’re being duped into funding business as usual.
That’s why I wrote the AI Content Paradox, the first book on this subject for lawyers, and why I am now writing this AIO for Attorneys book.
Because sludge marketing does not hurt the marketers, it hurts the lawyers who pay for it. Who lose their money, their future referrals, and perhaps even a big of dignity in the process.
Our solution, and why I started Books for Experts: Authority Intelligence Optimization™.
Authority Intelligence Optimization™ is the only term that fully expresses what we’re offering here at Books for Experts, and what you should be implementing with your law firm. It contains elements of GEO, AEO, and even SEO, but in a comprehensive system.
We go several steps further to ensure the Three Pillars of AIO™ are met.
Authority Intelligence Optimization™ (AIO)
Authority Intelligence Optimization™ is not a tactic to manipulate AI’s output. It is a comprehensive, proprietary strategy to lift up attorneys by fundamentally reshaping how you are perceived by AI and humans alike. While most other agencies write with AI, we write for it.
As noted before, the framework of Authority Intelligence Optimization (AIO) are the Three Pillars.
- High-Prestige Authority Assets – How we demonstrate your expertise by building real-world authority proof via books, articles, and other authority assets. This is the gift you provide AI.
- Technical Signals – Structuring the proof so that it’s verifiable. Technical signals alone is what most SEO, AEO, GEO, or AI referral “gurus” will be providing if you use their services. To us, it’s merely a necessary holdover from the old SEO days. Accordingly, we weight it as the least important of the pillars regarding actually moving the needle. While we see Pillar Two for what it is, a necessary evil, the sludge marketers confuse it with the main objective. They lose the signal through the noise. Technical signals are merely the wrapping paper for the important authority assets we create for our law firm clients.
- Real-World Validation – This is how you earn third-party digital and real-world mentions that help AI recognize your influence and reputation. This is the bow on top of the gift, and the distribution channel.
Note what Authority Intelligence Optimization™ (AIO) is not:
- Cheap tricks
- Rehashed SEO
- Technical jargon or mumbo jumbo
- AI Written
- Outdated
- Shortsighted
- Expensive without ROI
- Aimed at search engines.
- Slick.
This is honest, old-fashioned authority building for the new judge of authority: AI platforms.
If you want to really see the difference, ask your current SEO agency or would-be GEO expert about their techniques.
The Litmus Test: How to Spot an SEO or Sludge Marketer in AIO, GEO, or AEO Clothing
- Are they talking about only “prompting” and “chatbot results,” or are they helping you create or distribute your created authority assets?
- Have they asked about your professional philosophy?
- Have they mentioned media mentions?
- Do they have a plan to ensure your reputation, credibility, and authority are not maligned by their marketing attempts?
- Are they using AI to write your content, or are they writing for AI?
- Is their proposal focused on a list of technical tricks, e.g. generic AIO or SEO with a new paint job, or have they provided a comprehensive plan to build your reputation both online and off?
- Does their “AIO” package sound suspiciously like their old SEO package, only now with a new name?
- Have they mentioned AIO, GEO, AEO, or AI referrals at all, and in more than passing?
- Have they met with you in the past quarter, year, or even since they were first hired to make meaningful suggestions regarding an overall strategy?
- Are they writing extensive, human-written content that demonstrates who you are, what you know, and your professional philosophy?
- Do you feel proud of being associated with their work, or do you merely accept it as the cost of doing business?
- Is your phone merely ringing or is it ringing with the right types of clients.
- Is your marketing actively repelling the wrong types of clients for your practice?
Here are some of the advantages of AIO for Law Firms using Authority Intelligence Optimization™:
Authority Intelligence Optimization™ v. Generic SEO or AIO
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ provides long-term, often even life-time value via books and other authority assets, generic SEO or AIO provide monthly retainers and a marketing flashlight that refuses to shine the moment it runs out of batteries.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ scales to your vision and offers fixed, ala carte, and predicable costs operating at a pro-client angle, generic SEO or AIO require contracts or rigid monthly fees, operating on a similar model to phone plans or electric company monopolies.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ connects you with high-value clients and repels the wrong clients and tire-kickers, generic SEO or AIO connects you with anyone who happens to click.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ helps you become the known authority in your field, commanding higher fees, generic SEO or AIO commoditizes you and the practice of law.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ is run by me, an attorney with sixteen years of experience who decided to fight back against sludge marketers and create the type of humanizing business I always wish I had in my marketing corner, generic SEO or AIO is run by, well, who really knows.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ reduces or eliminates ad spend entirely and empowers you and your law firm, generic SEO or AIO is banking on your dependency, on both their agency and churning ad cycles.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ creates powerful content aimed at both humans and AI, generic SEO or AIO either ignores content or creates AI or cobbled together, recycled weak posts that impress only yesterday’s outdated search engines.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ makes it easy for humans and AI alike to recommend you by providing tangible tools like books and media mentions, generic SEO and AIO keep your real expertise hidden away and proceed as though you and your firm are the same as all their other clients.
- Authority Intelligence Optimization™ encourages your unique Authority Philosophy™, generic SEO and AIO encourage bland commodification.
- As you can see, AIO for Law Firms, provided that means Authority Intelligence Optimization™ is not only a technical audit or repeated framework, but the opportunity to restore the dignity of our profession and your own authority while growing your revenue and reducing overall and ongoing marketing expenses.
- This all leads to the virtual circle of AI referrals and a referral multiplier from humans, who see your good work, understand it, and refer it.
- Before we close out this chapter, let’s turn now to a hypothetical small divorce firm to review its marketing budget.
Choose Your Definition, Choose Your Future
The terms may all sound confusing, but they are not interchangeable. If you choose an SEO company rebranding itself as AIO, AEO, or GEO, then you know what to expect. Books for Experts never has and never will offer SEO services. We are built not from technical tricks, but mastery: first in the law, then writing, and now in Artificial Intelligence Optimization™. To consistently win AI referrals for the long term, it will take more than technical gamesmanship or short-term tactics.
The battle is being fought now for long-term authority. Grab the land before it’s claimed by a more forward-thinking firm, or marketer.
Authority Intelligence Optimization™ is the only strategy that builds a real moat around your most permanent, defensible asset: your professional reputation.
Your reputation before humans and AI alike means everything now. Do not leave it to chance.