Organic search is an ever-evolving marketing channel. However, in recent years, SEOs have coined more and more terms to describe the current state of search. Makes ‘em feel special. The newest kids on the block this year are “GEO” and “AEO”, and everyone is getting their knickers in a twist about SEO apparently being dead. Again.
AI overviews and advancing LLMs have really shaken things up for SEO. Old tricks no longer work, and SEOs are having to uncover and learn how organic search works in the age of AI. Which is changing every other month. At least it keeps us in a job.
It’s not enough to have discoverable content in search results anymore. Non-brand clicks taking a nose-dive in Search Console should tell you that much. Your website needs to be able to be crawled, cited and trusted by AI sources to perform well organically. Any SEO agency neglecting to include GEO and AEO as part of their organic strategy will inevitably be left in the dust. Keep reading for a full breakdown of how SEO, GEO and AEO differ and where they work well together, and how to effectively optimise your website to increase visibility across both search and AI engines.
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Key takeaways
- SEO helps your website page rank on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)
- GEO influences citations and features in AI search and LLM chat
- AEO is effectively a branch of GEO that helps to optimise your content to be the direct answer to a user’s query
- The success of a GEO strategy relies on building authority and freshness through marked-up content, while AEO strategies are driven by how you structure the content that your traditional SEO efforts already aim to rank:
- Ignoring GEO or AEO comes with huge risks to organic visibility and traffic, with more users shifting to AI assistants to answer their queries
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?
What is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)?
Overview: SEO is the practice of increasing organic traffic to a website from search engines. This involves optimising your website pages to appeal to search engine algorithms and rank higher on the search results, so more users find and click through to your website.
What this includes:
- Technical SEO – Optimising the structure and load speed of your website so search engine crawlers can easily access and index your website
- Keyword mapping – Researching and implementing keywords users are searching for within your content to meet your audience’s search intent
- Optimised content – Creating well-structured content that answers your users’ search queries with highly relevant information
- Authoritative backlinks – Establishing expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness through high-quality, reputable backlinks to your website
How it works: In a nutshell, SEO works by sending signals to search engines to help crawlers understand the content on your website and rank your pages higher on the SERPs.
What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)?
Overview: GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation and influences a website’s citations within AI overviews on the SERPs as well as in generative AI platforms, such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
What this includes:
- Clear structure – Content that is structured in an easy-to-read way that uses clear headings, bullet lists, and concise points that are easy for AI to parse.
- Direct answers – Ensuring the content provides a straightforward answer to your users’ search queries
- Simple language – AI crawlers are less sophisticated than Google’s algorithm, for example, so using basic language that is easy to read will help
- Establishing authority – Cite authoritative, accurate sources with clear links to the original sources to increase trustworthiness
How it works: AI platforms crawl website pages to scrape snippets of content that they deem the most relevant and authoritative to the users’ search query or prompt.
What is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?
Overview: AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation, and is a part of GEO strategies that focus on making website content easily digestible and crawlable for AI search engines.
What this includes:
- Schema markup – Implementing structured data throughout your content to help AI engines crawl and understand your content faster
- Clear answers – Providing concise, direct answers to questions, and ensuring this content is placed at the start of the relevant content section
- Question-answer formatting – Creating content that explicitly answers specific questions about a topic, often formatted as FAQs
- Voice search – Using natural language and long-tail, conversational queries that users are likely searching for in AI platforms, such as “What are the best running shoes for someone just starting to train on a weekly basis?” instead of “best running shoes”
How it works: AEO uses a website’s SEO performance to present content in a way that is easy for AI engines to understand and influences how many features or citations a website has in AI overviews on the SERPs, as well as in AI platforms.
A comparison of SEO, GEO and AEO
| Aspect | SEO | GEO | AEO |
| Content structure | Long-form articles, keyword-rich pages, deep topic coverage | Modular, well-cited content, clear entities, logical hierarchy | Concise, direct answers upfront, bullet points, FAQs |
| Key metrics | Keyword rankings, Organic traffic, Click-through rate (CTR) | Citations, Brand mention frequency, AI traffic referral rate | Featured Snippet count, Voice search share, Position zero visibility |
| Optimisation focus | Keyword targeting, technical health, backlinks (authority) | Semantic understanding, factual accuracy, brand mentions/co-citations | Structured data (Schema Markup), Q&A format, conversational language |
| Ranking method | Algorithmically ranked list based on 200+ factors (links, keywords, speed) | Citation/synthesis based on E−E−A−T and content structure | Selection/extraction based on the best, most direct answer format |
| Target platforms | Traditional SERPs (Google, Bing), Maps, Images, Product feed | AI Overviews, LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude), AI Chatbots | AI Overviews, Featured Snippets, Voice Assistants (Siri, Alexa), Knowledge Panels |
| Tools | Google Search Console, Keyword Planners, Backlink Tools (Ahrefs, Moz) | AI Visibility Trackers, LLM Query Monitoring, Entity mapping tools | Schema Validators, Voice Search Analytics, People Also Ask (PAA) analysis |
| Traffic source | Organic clicks on ranked links (driving users to the site), tracked in Google Search Console clicks and GA4 sessions | Citations/referrals embedded within an AI-generated summary | High-visibility instant answers (often resulting in zero-click) |
| Update frequency | Continuous technical maintenance; content updates aligned with core algorithm changes | Constant monitoring/refinement based on AI model behaviour and knowledge cutoffs | Frequent content audits to maintain featured snippets and answer freshness |
| User behaviour | Typing in keywords, scrolling/browsing multiple results | Conversing with a chatbot, seeking synthesised information | Asking specific questions, expecting an immediate, single answer |
What do SEO and GEO have in common?
Contrary to what most “SEOs” on LinkedIn are spouting, SEO and GEO are not opposing organic strategies. Rather, they are intrinsically linked to a successful organic performance.
SEO and GEO may focus on slightly different parts of the user journey, but both ultimately work together to ensure your website is visible across all search engines. The common traits between SEO and GEO are:
- Shared goal to satisfy user intent: Both SEO and GEO aim to provide users with the most relevant answer to their query. Whether the user clicks a link from the SERPs (SEO) or reads an AI summary (GEO), the content must ultimately address their problem.
- High-quality content is king: Both search algorithms and generative AI models prioritise content that is authoritative, accurate, unique, and well-researched.
- Importance of technical health: A fast, secure, mobile-friendly website with clean code and proper indexation is a basic requirement for both SEO and GEO. If search engine crawlers (for SEO) or AI model crawlers (for GEO) can’t easily access and understand your content, then it won’t be seen by either.
- Content structure matters: Both SEO and GEO reward logically structured content. Using clear headings (H1, H2), bullet points, numbered lists, and concise paragraphs helps users quickly scan the page (SEO) and makes the information easy for AI models to parse and extract (GEO).
- Building authority and trust: Having a strong, reputable brand that is cited across the web (whether with a direct backlink or just a mention) simultaneously improves SEO rankings and increases the likelihood of AI platforms citing a brand as a reliable source.
- Ongoing adaptation: Both SEO and GEO require continuous monitoring, data analysis, and frequent content updates to keep up with evolving search algorithms (SEO) and the learning/retraining cycles of AI models (GEO).
What do SEO and AEO have in common?
SEO and AEO are also deeply interconnected strategies that share the common goal of increasing the visibility and authority of a website across search platforms. Unlike GEO, which is arguably a standalone strategy, AEO is generally considered to be an evolution of, or specialised tactic within, the broader spectrum of SEO. The common traits between SEO and AEO are:
- Satisfying user intent: Both strategies aim to understand why a user is searching for a given keyword and provide the most relevant, helpful information to meet that need.
- Establishing trust and authority: SEO and AEO both favour content that demonstrates E-E-A-T (Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).
- Increase visibility: Both aim to put your content in front of your target audience. While SEO measures visibility in terms of position on the SERPs, AEO measures this in terms of prominence in Featured Snippets or AI Overviews.
- Technical health: A fast-loading, mobile-friendly, and secure website is essential for both SEO and AEO. If search engine crawlers cannot easily access and index your content, your content cannot be processed and featured as an answer in AI Overviews.
- Structured content: Implementing clear HTML headings, bullet lists, and tables enables humans and search engine crawlers to easily scan your content, and makes information easier for AI engines to extract.
- Keyword research: SEO requires relevant keyword mapping to be able to rank for specific keywords, while AEO refines this research to focus on conversational, question-based queries.
How to integrate SEO, GEO and AEO
SEO and GEO integration
GEO’s effectiveness is directly dependent on the strength of your overarching SEO strategy. Generative AI models like Gemini and ChatGPT learn from how search engine algorithms work and prioritise content that is perceived as trustworthy.
The integration between SEO and GEO when structuring and optimising the content of a website:
| Integration | SEO action | GEO impact |
| Structured summaries | Use clear, hierarchical headings (H2s/H3s) and break up long paragraphs with bullet points, lists, and tables. | AI models find it easier to extract and synthesise this information into a concise, conversational answer. |
| Target conversational terms | Expand keyword research beyond short-tail terms (e.g., “GEO tools”) to include long-tail, question-based prompts (e.g., “How do I measure the success of a GEO strategy?”). | Ensures your content directly aligns with how users search via chatbots and voice search. |
| Prioritise E-E-A-T | Clearly showcase author credentials, cite authoritative external sources, and use data/case studies to back up all claims made (court of law mindset) | Maximises the trustworthiness of your content, making AI models more likely to select and cite your brand over competitors. |
| Implement advanced schema | Apply FAQ, How-To, and Article schema markup, for example. | Provides AI with explicit, machine-readable context, allowing it to identify the correct answer snippet with high confidence. |
| Front-load answers | Start content sections with a direct, concise answer immediately following the question heading. | Optimises for both Google’s Featured Snippet (AEO) and AI’s preference for direct information delivery. |
To measure the success of integrating SEO and GEO in your strategy, you should combine reporting on key metrics:
| SEO metric | GEO metric | Combined insight |
| Keyword rank | AI Citation Frequency (ACF) | A top-ranking page that also has a high ACF is your most valuable asset |
| Organic traffic | AI referral traffic | Total organic growth is calculated by adding traditional clicks to visitors referred from AI platforms |
| Backlinks | Brand mentions | Off-page SEO focuses on gaining authority that benefits both the traditional search algorithm and the generative AI model |
SEO and AEO integration
AEO cannot succeed without strong SEO. The authority, technical health, and relevance that traditional SEO builds are the factors that qualify your content to be chosen as an answer in AEO.
- SEO is the Enabler: Strong SEO rankings with a fast load speed and a high-quality backlink profile are more likely to be selected by search engines to provide answers in Featured Snippets or the AI Answer Box.
- AEO is the Enhancer: Optimising content with clear Q&A formats and Schema Markup makes the page easier to read for AI machines, making the content more likely to be cited as an authoritative answer by AI models.
To properly integrate AEO within your wider SEO strategy, content must be created to satisfy both the detailed requirements of an SEO ranking algorithm and the instant-answer requirements of an answer engine:
| AEO component | SEO component | Integration |
| Question-based headings | On-page Relevance | Instead of generic headings, use questions (e.g., <h2>How Does AEO Work?</h2>). This aligns your page directly with conversational search queries that users are searching for. |
| Concise, upfront answers | Content quality/E-E-A-T | Immediately follow a heading with a short, definitive answer. This provides the snippet-ready content that search engines can easily extract and display at “Position Zero.” |
| Structured Data (Schema markup) | Technical SEO | For example, implement FAQPage or HowTo schema markup. This is code that explicitly tells search engines what the question and answer are, dramatically increasing your chance of being featured in an answer box. |
| Conversational language | Keyword strategy | Research and target long-tail, natural-language phrases (the way people speak to Siri or Alexa). This expands your visibility beyond short, traditional keywords. |
| Rich media formatting | User Experience (UX) | Use bulleted or numbered lists and comparison tables to improve readability for humans and make content easier for search engines to convert into rich snippets. |
To track the success of integrating AEO tactics in an SEO strategy, you should combine traditional and answer-focused metrics:
- SEO metrics: Organic traffic volume, keyword rankings, and backlink growth.
- AEO metrics: Featured snippet count, PAA inclusion rate, and voice search share.
How can businesses adapt
Adopting a unified, hybrid approach that establishes a strong SEO foundation and incorporates both GEO and AEO tactics will yield the most effective organic marketing strategy for businesses.
A solid foundation
AEO and GEO efforts are futile if the website lacks basic SEO trust. Businesses must maintain core technical and authority signals:
- Ensure your site is fast, mobile-friendly, and fully crawlable. Both search and answer engines rely on technically healthy websites to gather information efficiently. Run regular audits (using tools like Google Search Console or Screaming Frog) to identify any issues and fix them accordingly.
- Continue rigorous off-page SEO and content creation to build authority. The signals of Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are one of the primary factors AI uses to decide which content to cite. Showcase author credentials, cite authoritative external sources, and keep facts fresh and relevant.
- Develop content around core topics. AI models prefer to draw answers from sites that demonstrate deep, comprehensive knowledge across an entire niche.
Focus on quick wins and direct answers
Optimising your website content with AEO tactics is a fast way to gain visibility in “zero-click” environments, like Featured Snippets and voice search.
- Expand keyword research to focus on natural language questions (Who, What, Why, How). Use Google’s “People Also Ask” (PAA) boxes and voice search data to identify common questions.
- Offer direct answers: Immediately answer the target question following an FAQ or query-based heading in a concise format, ideally 40-60 words long.
- Implement the appropriate schema (e.g., FAQPage for Q&A, HowTo for step-by-step guides). This provides an explicit “translation” for search and AI engines to instantly pick up the most relevant answer.
- Ensure content is written in a natural, conversational tone to align with how users speak to voice assistants.
Understand GEO as a long-term strategy
GEO influences AI models to cite your brand within complex, synthesised responses and has a positive, long-term effect on your website’s authority when implemented correctly.
- Content structure must be modular and extractable. Use clear a H2/H3 hierarchy, and format key data in tables or lists that AI can easily crawl and understand.
- GEO content must contain precise factual data. Back up claims with statistics, original research, and case studies. AI models also prefer content that include links and citable to verifiable data.
- Clearly define your brand, products, and core concepts (entities) in your content and link them logically. This helps AI engines to build a complete, trustworthy knowledge graph about your business.
- Adopt new tools or scripts to track brand mentions and citations within AI-generated responses (e.g., in Google’s AI Overviews). This provides a new performance metric beyond traditional clicks. In our experience, Accuranker has been particularly useful for monitoring AI visibility and mentions.
It’s a lot. Because it’s important to get right. The techniques needed to get your brand to appear in front of your customer are getting more complicated. Come under Dark Horse protection and we’ll get you where you need to be: front and centre. Start today.
