GEO vs SEO vs AEO: what each one does, and which to do first.

GEO, or generative engine optimization, is the work of getting a business named and cited when an AI assistant writes an answer, in tools such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini and Google's AI Mode. GEO here means generative engine optimization, not geo-targeting, the local SEO practice of ranking in a specific city. It covers your own pages and what the rest of the web says about you, because AI assistants build answers from many sources at once.

Ask an AI assistant "who fixes commercial ice machines near Dallas" and you get a written answer with a few business names, and sometimes links. GEO is about being one of those names, described accurately. It builds on SEO and adds work SEO rarely touches, such as identical business facts across directories and mentions on sites you do not control.

AEO, or answer engine optimization, is the part of the job that happens on your own pages. You write and structure them so search engines and AI assistants can take a direct, accurate answer from them. In practice that means answering the question in the first lines, stating specific facts, and adding FAQ content and structured data (schema: code that states your business facts for machines).

The name dates from featured snippets and voice assistants. The same habits now help with AI Overviews and AI assistants, since a plainly stated answer is easy for any engine to quote. SEO is the older and wider discipline of earning rankings in Google and Bing through technical health, relevant content and links.

What each one optimizes for, and where it shows up

SEO aims at a position in a list of results, including the map results, and its payoff is a click to your site. AEO aims at the answer slot, such as a featured answer or voice reply, where your text is quoted and your link may or may not be clicked. GEO aims at the written answer itself, in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Gemini, and in Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Even Google's own two AI features pick different sources: in an Ahrefs study updated in June 2026, AI Mode and AI Overviews had only about 14% of their cited URLs in common. None of the three turns a visitor into a customer on its own; that is the job of conversion work, covered on our CRO page.

How much the work overlaps

For Google, most of the work is shared. Google has said that optimizing for its AI features is still SEO. AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on the same index as regular search, and a page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet before either can cite it. The sources each surface picks still differ, so results need separate measurement.

ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude work further apart. They mix live search with what the model learned in training and give more weight to third-party sources, and Perplexity especially favors recently updated pages. They also disagree with each other: a 2025 citation study by Profound found that ChatGPT and Perplexity cite the same domains only about 11% of the time.

What SEO needs

SEO rests on three things. The site has to be technically sound: crawlable, indexable, fast on a phone, with clean redirects, sensible titles and no duplicate pages competing with each other. It needs a relevant page for each service and location your market searches for. And it needs authority, which still comes largely from links and mentions on reputable sites.

Local businesses add a complete Google Business Profile and Bing Places listing, because those drive the map results. All of this matters for AEO and GEO too, since a page Google cannot crawl or does not trust will not be quoted by its AI features.

What AEO needs

AEO is mostly a writing discipline. Each page opens with a direct answer in the words a customer would use, and each section answers one narrower question that still makes sense if quoted alone. Facts replace adjectives: prices or price ranges, areas served, hours, turnaround, and what is and is not included.

A short Quick Facts block puts that hard data in one place, and an FAQ block answers the questions people ask before they buy. Structured data backs it up. An llms.txt file is not on the list: Google's 2026 guidance says you do not need one for its AI features, and there is no evidence it affects citations elsewhere.

What GEO needs

GEO adds signals that sit outside a single page. Your business facts must match everywhere, and your content must be readable without JavaScript (our web design page explains why static HTML helps). AI crawlers must not be blocked at robots.txt or at your CDN, the network that serves your site's files.

Freshness counts, and so do reviews, directory profiles, articles and community discussions such as Reddit threads. We earn those mentions and never buy them. Our generative engine optimization services page explains the full method, from the fact registry to the crawler list.

How each one is measured

SEO has mature measurement: rankings, impressions and clicks in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and the inquiries those visits produce. For Google's AI features, Search Console has started showing AI Overviews and AI Mode impressions separately, though without clicks and not yet in every country.

GEO is the hardest to measure, because AI assistants have no ranking position and answers change from one day to the next. It takes a fixed set of prompts run in each engine every month, described on our AEO and GEO page. Those results show a direction, and only a fixed method makes one month comparable with the next.

How long each one takes

SEO takes months for main service terms, and our SEO page puts the typical timings in writing. AEO is quickest on pages that already rank. GEO varies by engine, from weeks for engines that search live to months for answers built from training data.

Here is the order we recommend, cheapest and most certain first:

1. 01

   Make the site readable. Fix crawl errors, slow templates and pages that only render with JavaScript, and confirm AI crawlers are not blocked at robots.txt or the CDN. Everything later depends on this.

2. 02

   Rewrite your money pages answer-first. Put the direct answer, your prices or ranges, and your service area in the first lines, then add Quick Facts and FAQ blocks.

3. 03

   Line up your business facts. Complete Google Business Profile and Bing Places, then make every directory match one master record of your name, address, phone, hours and services.

4. 04

   Fill the gaps in your pages. Add pages for services and areas with real search demand that you do not cover yet.

5. 05

   Earn reviews and mentions. Ask every customer for a review after the job, and be present where your trade is discussed.

6. 06

   Measure per engine. Record a baseline of rankings and AI mentions, then track both monthly.

Steps one to three cost little and help all three at once, so start at the top if budget is tight. The free website checker covers part of step one in a few minutes.

Do the shared work once, then measure Google and each AI engine on its own line. Google's AI features read from the same index as regular search, and organic clicks remain the easiest results to measure. GEO is the only layer that tells you whether ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude name you at all.

Be wary of GEO sold as a replacement for SEO, or SEO that ignores AI answers. Hiring a separate provider for each usually means paying twice for the same page fixes.

Our SEO retainer starts at $1,499 a month and is scoped after a free assessment. All prices are in US dollars. Our SEO service page shows what a month includes, and package prices are on our pricing page.