SEO vs GEO vs AEO: what businesses actually need to do

SEO is making your site easy to find in search engines. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) are newer names for making your content usable in AI answers such as Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT. In practice they overlap heavily: clear, accurate, well-structured content on a fast, trusted site helps with all three.

What the terms mean

Where they overlap

Google has said its AI features use the same core ranking systems and that normal SEO best practice applies. AI tools that browse the web also rely on pages they can find, read and trust. So the foundations are the same.

• Pages that answer real questions directly, near the top.
• Clear headings and short paragraphs.
• Accurate business details, consistent everywhere.
• Evidence: reviews, named authors, sources, real examples.
• A fast site that crawlers can access.

What is different

AI answers often draw on mentions beyond your own site, such as reviews, directories, news and forums. Being mentioned accurately in those places matters more than it did for classic rankings. Clicks may also fall even when visibility rises, so measure enquiries, not just traffic.

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