SEO, AEO and GEO: what each one means

Watch · 2:36

• 0:00Three terms
• 0:42Where they overlap
• 1:02Where they differ
• 1:46What the research says
• 2:05How to prioritise
• 2:15How AI Rank Lab helps

In shortSEO (search engine optimization) earns rankings and clicks in search results. AEO (answer engine optimization) makes your page the source an engine quotes when it answers a question directly. GEO (generative engine optimization) gets your brand mentioned and recommended in answers written by AI models such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. They overlap heavily: AI answers that cite sources start with a search, so SEO is the foundation of the other two.

Three labels for one goal

All three disciplines try to make the right people find you when they look for something. They differ in where the looking happens and what counts as a win. SEO wins a ranked link. AEO wins the quoted answer. GEO wins a mention or recommendation inside a generated response, including on pages you don't own.

Google's own position is that these are not separate crafts. Its guide to generative AI features says optimizing for generative AI search "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO", and that the best practices for SEO continue to apply (Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)). Treat AEO and GEO as a change of emphasis, not a new rulebook.

Side by side

Where they overlap

Engines that cite sources retrieve pages from a search index first (see How AI engines pick sources). A page that can't be crawled, isn't indexed or doesn't rank for any related search can't be quoted. So crawlability, indexing, useful content and a good page experience serve all three disciplines at once.

Helpful content is the other shared base. Google's guide asks for unique, "non-commodity" content built from what you actually know, and says there is no special schema, file or page length required for AI features. Content that repeats what ten other pages already say gives an engine no reason to pick yours.

Where they differ

• The result is a passage, not a page. AEO rewards a page where one paragraph, table or list answers a question completely. A page can rank and still not contain anything quotable.
• Your brand can win on someone else's page. For "best" and "vs" questions, models often name brands they found on review sites, comparison articles and forums. GEO work includes getting accurately listed there, which classic SEO usually treats as link building only.
• Mentions without clicks still count. A model may recommend you without linking. That is invisible in Search Console but matters to a buyer reading the answer.
• Measurement is noisier. A ranking is fairly stable day to day. AI answers vary from run to run, so GEO needs repeated runs and comparisons (lesson 7).

How to prioritise

1. Fix the SEO foundation first. Important pages crawlable, indexed, fast enough and not blocked for the search crawlers. Nothing else works without this.
2. Make key pages quotable (AEO). Put a direct answer near the top, add specific numbers and dates, use tables for comparisons and FAQ-style headings for real questions.
3. Then work on presence (GEO). Find the questions buyers ask AI, see who gets named and cited, and close the gap: a better page of your own, or a listing on the sources engines already trust.
4. Measure all three. Search Console for SEO; cited URLs for AEO; mention rate and share of voice across engines for GEO.

How AI Rank Lab helps

The tool sidebar follows the same split. The AEO and GEO checker scores a page's SEO, AEO and GEO readiness, looking at things like headings, JSON-LD, robots.txt and llms.txt. The SEO area has the classic audits and research tools. Brand visibility measures GEO by running your questions on six AI engines and recording mentions, position, sentiment and cited URLs. Scores from different tools are calculated differently, so compare a page with itself over time, not one tool's score with another's.