SEO, AEO and GEO: what's the difference?

If you work in marketing, websites or search, you've probably started seeing a new collection of acronyms appearing everywhere: SEO, AEO and GEO.

Depending on who you ask, they're either completely different disciplines, the future of digital marketing, or three slightly different names for much of the same underlying work. The truth is somewhere in the middle.

Search really is changing. People are increasingly getting answers directly from Google's AI features, ChatGPT, Copilot and other assistants rather than clicking through a traditional list of results. But that doesn't mean everything we knew about SEO suddenly stopped working. In fact, the big search platforms are saying almost the opposite.

The short version

SEO, AEO and GEO describe slightly different parts of the same problem: helping search systems understand, trust and surface your business when somebody is looking for an answer. The terminology is useful, but businesses shouldn't become obsessed with acronyms. Good technical SEO, clear information, genuine expertise, useful content and strong evidence remain the foundations.

Search engine optimisation

Traditionally, SEO is the process of improving a website so it can be discovered by search engines, understood correctly, indexed, ranked for relevant searches and clicked by potential customers.

For a local garage, that might mean appearing for BMW specialist near me. For an accountant, corporation tax accountant Brighton. For an ecommerce business, Golf GTI performance brakes.

It covers a huge range of work: technical website structure, keyword research, page optimisation, content, internal linking, backlinks, local SEO, Google Business Profile, structured data, page performance and user experience.

And despite what some headlines suggest, SEO is very much still relevant. Google's own current guidance says its traditional SEO best practices remain applicable to AI Overviews and AI Mode, because those systems still rely on Google Search's underlying crawling, indexing and ranking infrastructure.

Answer engine optimisation

The term has been around longer than the current AI boom. Originally it was largely about optimising content to become the direct answer to a question, through featured snippets, voice assistant answers, knowledge panels, FAQ results and instant answers.

Rather than simply asking “can this page rank?”, AEO asks “can the search engine confidently use this information to answer the question?” That changes the emphasis slightly. A page needs to make information easy to find, easy to understand, clearly structured, factually useful and relevant to the question.

With modern AI search, that idea has become much more important.

A simple example

Someone searches “how often should I service my BMW?” Traditional SEO thinking might focus on getting a page ranking for BMW servicing. AEO thinking asks whether the website contains a clear, trustworthy explanation a search system could use when answering. Think service intervals, differences between manufacturer schedules, mileage considerations, vehicle age, driving conditions and specialist recommendations.

The page becomes useful because it contains the answer, not merely the keyword.

Generative engine optimisation

This is the newest of the three terms. It describes optimisation for search and discovery systems that generate answers using AI, such as Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Microsoft Copilot, ChatGPT search and other generative assistants.

Rather than simply returning ten links, these systems can build an answer using information gathered from multiple sources.

Microsoft now explicitly uses the term Generative Engine Optimisation when discussing how content participates in AI-driven experiences such as generated answers and citations. And Bing Webmaster Tools now includes AI performance reporting showing when pages are cited across Copilot and AI-generated Bing experiences.

So GEO is not entirely invented marketing jargon. There is a genuine change happening in how websites are discovered and used.

SEO vs AEO vs GEO

SEO, AEO and GEO are not three different websites or three different marketing strategies. They are different ways of describing how search systems discover and use information.

Because the search result itself is changing. Historically, search engines mainly answered a question by giving you somewhere else to go. You searched best tyres for a Golf GTI and Google returned pages for you to investigate.

Increasingly, AI search can attempt to answer the question directly. It might compare tyre types, wet-weather performance, road noise, track suitability, price and availability, then cite the sources it used.

Microsoft describes this transition as moving beyond simply ranking pages towards using indexed web information to support generated answers. That is a meaningful change. But the information still needs to come from somewhere.

AI search still needs websites, content, business information, product information, reviews, authority, sources and evidence. In other words, the web hasn't suddenly become irrelevant.

OpenAI states that public websites can appear within ChatGPT search, and recommends allowing its OAI-SearchBot crawler so content can be discovered and surfaced. Google similarly says conventional SEO fundamentals remain relevant for appearing within its generative search experiences.

So when somebody tells you “SEO is dead, you need GEO now”, I'd be wary.

There is no secret “AI SEO” button

AI search has created a genuine shift. It has also created a new industry of GEO packages, AI optimisation tools, AI schema, AI content generators, guaranteed ChatGPT rankings and mysterious new optimisation techniques.

Some of these tools may be useful. But be very cautious of anybody presenting AI visibility as a completely separate science with guaranteed outcomes. The platforms themselves are still evolving rapidly.

01 — Searches are becoming more conversational

People can ask much more specific questions. Instead of garage Eastbourne, they might ask “find me an independent garage near Eastbourne that specialises in modified Volkswagen Golfs and has experience with track cars.”

That's a much richer query. A website containing detailed, specific information has a better chance of demonstrating relevance than one filled with broad phrases such as “all makes and models welcome.”

02 — The answer can be built from multiple sources

A traditional result usually sends the user to one page. An AI-generated answer can combine information from several websites, business listings, reviews, product information, news, forums, structured data and other available sources.

That means your website is one part of a wider picture of your business.

03 — Being cited can matter as well as being clicked

Traditionally, SEO reporting has focused heavily on ranking, impression, click and conversion. That journey is becoming more complicated. A customer may see your business mentioned within an AI answer without immediately visiting your website.

Microsoft has already begun reporting citations separately through its AI Performance feature in Bing Webmaster Tools. This is going to make measurement more interesting.

04 — Generic content has less value

If the question is “what is PPC?”, an AI assistant can answer it instantly. It doesn't particularly need the 10,000th agency article explaining that PPC stands for pay per click.

That doesn't mean informational content is useless. It means businesses need to think harder about what they can add that's useful.

The best content often comes from things a business is already doing. For a garage, that might be unusual faults, specialist servicing, workshop projects, customer questions, technical comparisons and common mistakes. For a manufacturer: product development, testing, materials, installation, specification and comparisons. That creates information based on actual experience rather than recycled information.

Structured data (usually Schema.org markup) helps search engines interpret certain information on a page. It can describe organisations, products, reviews, articles, events, local businesses and people. It's useful.

But I wouldn't describe Schema as AEO or GEO by itself. It's simply one of the tools that can make information easier for machines to interpret. Google's latest guidance also makes clear there is no special new structured data required purely to appear in its generative AI features.

llms.txt has been proposed as a way for websites to provide AI systems with a cleaner description or map of their content. That doesn't automatically make it useless, but it shouldn't be treated like the AI equivalent of an XML sitemap.

At the moment I'd regard it as something to watch, rather than a fundamental requirement for every business website. The basic priority remains: can the important content be reached and understood?

Don't optimise for an acronym

Optimise for the person asking the question. Then make sure search engines can find the information, AI systems can interpret it, and there is enough evidence for either to trust it.

Four questions, in order. The fourth is the one most businesses forget.

The objective isn't to rank in Google or appear in ChatGPT for the sake of it. The objective is still to put your business in front of the right customer and give them a reason to choose you.

No. I wouldn't rip up a good search strategy because a new acronym has appeared. Instead, I'd expand it.

Traditional SEO remains important. But alongside rankings, we should increasingly be thinking about whether a website contains enough clarity, context, expertise, evidence and original information to be useful within AI-generated search experiences as well.

That's the direction search is moving. And ultimately it encourages businesses to create better websites.

All three, without treating them as three separate jobs.

A good modern search strategy should make the website technically discoverable, answer customer questions clearly, demonstrate genuine expertise, build authority around important subjects, and make the business easy for both people and machines to understand.

Call that SEO. Call it AEO. Call it GEO. The terminology matters far less than doing the work well.

Google Search Central — Optimising for generative AI features in Google Search. Confirms that conventional SEO best practice continues to apply to AI search features, and discusses common AEO/GEO misconceptions.

Microsoft Bing — Elevating the Role of Grounding on the AI Web. Microsoft discusses Generative Engine Optimisation and how content contributes to AI-generated answers and citations.

Bing Webmaster Tools — AI Performance. Reporting that provides visibility into how websites are cited across Copilot and Bing AI experiences.

OpenAI — Publishers and Developers, ChatGPT Search. Explains how public website content can be discovered and cited within ChatGPT search.