Key takeaways
- SEO earns rankings and clicks in search results. GEO (generative engine optimisation) earns mentions and citations inside AI-generated answers.
- AEO (answer engine optimisation) started with featured snippets and voice search; today it's used almost interchangeably with GEO.
- GEO doesn't replace SEO. AI answers draw heavily on pages that are already crawlable, clear and trusted, which is SEO work.
- AI answers are already everywhere: in our sample of 139 Google results pages for marketing searches, 114 showed an AI Overview.
- Start with SEO fundamentals, then measure what AI assistants say about you with a fixed set of buyer questions.
what is seo?
Search engine optimisation is the work of getting your pages to rank in search results for the searches your buyers make. It has three parts: technical foundations (can search engines crawl and understand your site?), content (do your pages answer the search better than the alternatives?) and authority (do other sites trust you enough to link to and mention you?).
Success is measured in rankings, clicks and, ultimately, the leads and revenue that organic traffic brings in. Google Search Console shows you exactly which searches you appear for and how often people click.
what is geo?
Generative engine optimisation is the work of getting your brand mentioned, described correctly and recommended in answers from AI assistants: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google's own AI Overviews and AI Mode.
The difference is in what the user sees. A search engine shows a list of pages. A generative engine writes an answer, often naming a few brands and sometimes linking to the sources it drew on. If your brand isn't in that answer, the buyer may never reach a list of links at all.
and aeo?
Answer engine optimisation is the older term. It grew up around featured snippets and voice assistants: structuring content so that a search engine could lift a direct answer from it. With AI assistants, the idea has widened, and in practice AEO and GEO now describe the same work.
The search data shows the vocabulary shifting. In the US, searches for "what is aeo" rose from 3,600 a month in October 2025 to 6,600 in August 2026, while "generative engine optimization" fell from 5,400 to 3,600. Whichever name wins, the work is the same.
| Search | Oct 2025 | Aug 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| what is aeo | 3,600 | 6,600 |
| what is geo | 5,400 | 6,600 |
| aeo vs seo | 1,900 | 1,900 |
| geo vs seo | 3,600 | 2,400 |
| generative engine optimization | 5,400 | 3,600 |
| ai seo | 8,100 | 4,400 |
geo vs seo: the differences
| SEO | GEO / AEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank for a search | Be named in the answer |
| Where you appear | A list of results | A written answer, sometimes with source links |
| What the user types | Short keywords | Longer questions and follow-ups |
| What gets measured | Rankings, clicks, conversions | Mentions, how you're described, citations |
| Measurement tools | Mature (Search Console, rank trackers) | Young: fixed prompts, repeated over time |
| Stability | Rankings move gradually | Answers can change between runs of the same question |
The biggest practical difference is measurement. A ranking is a number you can track. An AI answer is generated fresh each time and can vary, so GEO is measured by asking the same set of buyer questions repeatedly and tracking how often you're mentioned, how you're described and which sources are cited.
what they have in common
Most of what makes a brand visible in AI answers is familiar SEO work:
- Crawlable pages. AI search features and assistants that browse the web need to fetch your pages, just like search engines do.
- Clear, direct answers. Pages that answer a question plainly, with descriptive headings, are easier to quote and summarise.
- Consistent facts about your brand. Your name, services, locations and prices described the same way on your site and elsewhere.
- Authority. Mentions and links from sources that search engines and AI assistants already trust.
- Structured data. Markup that states who you are and what a page is about, without the machine having to guess.
can geo replace seo?
No. AI answers sit on top of search, not instead of it. Google's AI Overviews appear above the regular results, and assistants such as ChatGPT search and Perplexity retrieve web pages and cite them. If your pages can't be found, crawled or trusted, there's little for an AI answer to draw on.
What is changing is where attention goes. In our own sample of Google results pages for marketing searches, 85 of 101 US pages and 29 of 38 UK pages showed an AI Overview. When the answer is on the results page, fewer people need to click. That makes being part of the answer matter more, not SEO matter less.
SEO decides whether you can be found. GEO decides whether you're recommended once you are.
how to work on both
- Fix the SEO foundations first: indexing, speed, site structure and pages that match what your buyers search.
- Check your robots.txt. Blocking AI crawlers can keep you out of the assistants that use them. OpenAI, for example, uses separate crawlers for model training (GPTBot) and for ChatGPT search (OAI-SearchBot), so you can make that choice deliberately.
- Answer the questions buyers ask, in their words, with a clear heading per question.
- Describe your brand the same way everywhere: your site, profiles, directories and review sites.
- Earn mentions in the sources assistants cite for your category: industry publications, comparison pages, reviews.
- Measure it: write down 20 to 30 questions your buyers ask, run them through the assistants each month, and track mentions and citations over time.
questions
Can GEO replace SEO?
No. AI answers draw on pages that are crawlable, clear and trusted, which is what SEO builds. GEO adds a focus on how AI assistants describe and recommend your brand.
Is SEO dead now with AI?
No, but it's changing. AI Overviews appeared on most of the marketing searches we sampled, so fewer searches end in a click. Ranking still matters, and being part of the answer matters more.
What is GEO in digital marketing?
Generative engine optimisation: improving how your brand shows up in answers from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews.
What's the difference between GEO and AEO?
Very little in practice. AEO (answer engine optimisation) comes from featured snippets and voice search; GEO from AI assistants. Both are about being the answer, and the terms are now used interchangeably.
Is Google Ads considered SEO?
No. Google Ads is paid search: you pay per click to appear in ad slots. SEO is organic: you earn your position, and clicks are free. Both fall under search engine marketing (SEM).
Sources and data
- Search volume and trends: Google Ads data via DataForSEO, US, pulled 26 September 2026
- AI Overview frequency: our own sample of 139 Google results pages (101 US, 38 UK) for marketing-related searches, 26 September 2026
- OpenAI crawlers: OpenAI platform documentation