Explainer
SEO vs AEO vs GEO: what's the difference?
SEO earns your page a place in a list of search results. AEO, answer engine optimisation, earns your content the single direct answer: the featured snippet or the voice reply. GEO, generative engine optimisation, earns a citation inside answers written by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews. Each builds on the last, and each is measured differently.
What does the difference look like on a real site?
Most explanations of these terms are theory. Here is the gap measured on one site I run, fxstrength.org, over near-identical windows, July to October 2026:
Everyone optimises for Google. Bing delivered the AI citations.
- Same site, same content. In the 75 days to 7 October 2026, Bing logged 19,901 citations of it in AI-written answers. From 23 July to 6 October, Google showed it in an AI Overview 130 times.
- Its Google traffic is almost all navigational: 92% of Google clicks come from people searching the site's name. That's SEO doing its job for people who already know it.
- New discovery is coming through AI answers instead. From 16 July to 10 October 2026, ChatGPT sent it 1,487 visitors, about twice the 739 from Google and Bing organic search combined.
- Only one side reports citations. Bing Webmaster Tools counts how often AI answers cite you. Google Search Console reports impressions and clicks for its AI features, but no citation count.
The lesson isn't that one channel beats another. It's that ranking and being cited are separate outcomes, earned in different ways and visible in different reports. A business measuring only rankings can't see the second at all.
Context: the site sits in a narrow niche with few competitors, where results come faster than in a crowded commercial market. Full case study and sources
How do SEO, AEO and GEO compare side by side?
SEO
- Optimises for
- A position in the list
- Seen in
- Google and Bing results
- Success
- Ranked high, clicked
AEO
- Optimises for
- The one answer shown
- Seen in
- Featured snippets, voice
- Success
- Your words in the answer box
GEO
- Optimises for
- A citation in an AI answer
- Seen in
- ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, AI Overviews
- Success
- Named and linked as a source
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you win | A position in the results list | The one answer shown or spoken | A mention or citation inside an AI-written answer |
| Where it appears | Google and Bing results pages | Featured snippets, People Also Ask, voice assistants | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot, Google AI Overviews |
| What earns it | Relevance, links, technical health | A short, direct answer under a question-shaped heading | Being crawlable by AI bots, quotable facts, a consistent description across the web |
| How it's measured | Rankings, clicks, organic traffic | Snippet and People Also Ask ownership | Prompt testing, AI referrals, Bing's AI citation report |
| Main tools | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools | Manual results checks | Manual prompt runs, Bing Webmaster Tools, analytics referrals |
What is SEO?
SEO, search engine optimisation, is the work of getting a page to rank in Google's and Bing's lists of results for the searches your buyers make. It covers technical health, relevant content and links from other sites. Success means a high position and the clicks that come with it.
What is AEO?
AEO, answer engine optimisation, is the work of making your content the single answer a search engine shows or speaks: the featured snippet above the results, a People Also Ask entry, or a voice assistant's reply. It rewards pages that answer one question directly, in a few clear sentences, under a heading phrased as that question.
What is GEO?
GEO, generative engine optimisation, is the work of getting your business mentioned and cited in answers that AI systems write, such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews. It depends on AI crawlers being allowed to read your site, facts stated plainly enough to quote, and a consistent description of you across the web.
What's the difference between AEO and GEO?
AEO wins a single answer lifted from one page, usually shown word for word. GEO wins a place inside an answer an AI writes by combining several sources, where you might be quoted, paraphrased, cited as a link, or left out entirely. The techniques overlap heavily; the difference is mainly where the answer appears and how you measure it.
Do you still need SEO if you focus on AEO and GEO?
Yes. AEO and GEO build on SEO rather than replacing it. A page that can't be crawled and indexed can't be chosen as an answer or retrieved by an AI search tool. Think of SEO as the foundation, AEO as the shape of the answer, and GEO as making sure AI systems can find, trust and cite it.
How do you measure AEO and GEO?
AEO is measured by checking who holds the featured snippet and People Also Ask entries for your key searches. GEO is measured by running a fixed set of buyer questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini each month and recording whether you're cited, plus AI referrals in your analytics and the AI citation report in Bing Webmaster Tools.
Which should a business work on first?
Start with the checks that unblock everything else: make sure AI crawlers aren't blocked, that key facts are in plain HTML rather than images or PDFs, and that your site is submitted to both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Then measure where you're already cited before deciding where to invest.
What is SAGEO?
SAGEO stands for search, answer and generative engine optimisation. It's an umbrella term for doing SEO, AEO and GEO together as one discipline, since the same pages, structured data and measurement serve all three. Most businesses have the search part covered and have never looked at the other two.
Not ready to talk yet?
The AI Visibility Checklist. Ten things to check on your own website to see whether AI assistants can find, trust and quote you, using free tools. Includes the overlooked step: the one search engine report that shows AI citations.
Where does your business stand on each? The free check runs your buyers' questions through the main AI assistants, checks who owns the answer box on Google, and shows you what comes back.