GEO vs SEO vs AEO: What’s the Difference?
GEO vs SEO vs AEO in one table: what each optimizes for, how you measure it, where they overlap, and whether GEO is replacing SEO.
In short
- GEO and SEO share a foundation: crawlable, indexed pages that answer clearly. Google says optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO.
- The difference is the scoreboard. SEO counts rankings and clicks; GEO counts mentions, position and citations inside AI answers.
- AEO, AIO and LLMO are other names for roughly the same work. Do the SEO basics first, then measure AI answers separately.
The short answer
SEO gets your pages to rank and be clicked in search results. GEO (generative engine optimization) gets your brand named, and ideally cited, inside the answers of AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity and Claude. AEO (answer engine optimization) is another name for nearly the same thing.
They are not rivals. Google says it plainly: optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, so it is still SEO.1
Side by side
| Aspect | SEO | GEO | AEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank and get the click | Be named and cited in AI answers | Be the answer in answer engines |
| Where | Search results pages | ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude, AI Overviews, AI Mode | Featured answers, voice and AI answers |
| Unit | The page | The answer, and the passage inside it | The answer |
| Scoreboard | Clicks, impressions, position | Visibility rate, position in the answer, citation share | Same as GEO |
| First-party data | Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools | Search Console Generative AI report,2 Bing AI Performance3 | Same as GEO |
Where they overlap
- Crawlable and indexed. Google’s AI features only use pages that are indexed and eligible to show with a snippet; there are no extra requirements.4
- Clear, structured content. Microsoft says clear headings, Q&A pairs, lists and tables help pages get included in AI answers.5
- Sources and numbers. In the GEO study, citing sources and adding quotations and statistics raised visibility in generative engine answers by up to 40%.6 Good SEO content does this anyway.
Where they differ
- Who gets cited. For Google’s AI Overviews, 76% of cited pages rank in the top 10.7 For AI assistants overall, only about 12% of cited URLs rank in Google’s top 10 for the same prompt, and 8% for ChatGPT.8 So ranking well on Google doesn’t guarantee you show up in ChatGPT.
- Third-party pages matter more. Assistants often cite comparison articles, reviews and forums. Being honestly present on those pages is part of GEO.
- You measure differently. You can’t read your ChatGPT position from Search Console. You ask the assistants a fixed set of buyer questions and track the results. → How to track AI visibility
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. GEO depends on SEO: an AI assistant that searches the web can only cite pages it can find. What changes is what you count. Add AI answers to your scoreboard instead of replacing the old one.
AEO, AIO, LLMO: same idea, different names
You will see AEO (answer engine optimization), AIO (AI optimization) and LLMO (large language model optimization). They all describe getting your content into AI-generated answers. We use GEO because it comes from the research that first measured it.6
What to do first
- Fix crawl access and indexing: allow AI crawlers, set up Search Console and Bing.
- Measure your baseline in five assistants.
- Publish answer-first pages for the questions where competitors appear and you don’t.
Sources
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Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, July 10, 2026. ↩
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Google Search Central Blog, Search Generative AI performance reports in Search Console, June 3, 2026. ↩
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Bing Webmaster Blog, Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, February 10, 2026. ↩
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Google Search Central, AI features and your website, December 10, 2025. ↩
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Microsoft Advertising Blog, Optimizing Your Content for Inclusion in AI Search Answers, October 8, 2025. ↩
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Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, KDD 2024. ↩ ↩2
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Ahrefs, 76% of AI Overview Citations Pull From the Top 10, July 21, 2025. ↩
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Ahrefs, Only 12% of AI Cited URLs Rank in Google’s Top 10 for the Original Prompt, August 11, 2025. ↩
FAQ
Will GEO replace SEO?
No. Google’s own guidance says optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO, and AI Overviews and AI Mode only use pages that are indexed in Google Search. GEO adds a goal and a way of measuring on top of SEO.
Is AEO the same as GEO?
Close enough in practice. AEO (answer engine optimization) emphasizes answer engines; GEO (generative engine optimization) emphasizes generative AI answers. The method and measurements are the same.
Can I do GEO without doing SEO?
Not really. If your pages aren’t crawlable and indexed, AI assistants that search the web can’t find them. Fix crawl access and indexing first.
Let your agent do this.
Give one line to ChatGPT or Claude and let the agent run the method step by step.
Read the GEO Asked method at https://geoasked.com/agent.md and run it for my brand, step by step. Ask me short questions first.