StrategyNovember 7, 20269 min read

AEO vs GEO vs SEO: what's different and what still matters

SEO ranks your pages, AEO makes you the answer, GEO gets you cited in AI answers. Clear definitions, a comparison table, and where to start with little time.

GDBy the GrowDesk team

SEO (search engine optimization) gets your pages ranked in search results. AEO (answer engine optimization) gets your business used as the direct answer, from Google snippets to ChatGPT. GEO (generative engine optimization) is the newer term for getting cited and named inside AI-written answers. They overlap heavily: the groundwork is the same, but AI answers lean more on third-party mentions and clear, specific facts.

Key takeaways

SEO is still the foundation. Google says optimizing for its AI features is still SEO, and search still sends far more website visits than AI tools.
AEO and GEO are mostly the same practice under two names. Both aim to get you quoted or recommended, not just ranked.
What's new: one question becomes many searches, being mentioned matters as much as being clicked, and there are new crawlers to allow.
Outside Google, assistants often cite pages that don't rank in the top 10, so mentions, reviews and comparison lists carry extra weight.
Evidence for many "AI optimization" tactics is thin. Be skeptical of special files and guaranteed results.
With limited time: fix access, fix your facts, rewrite your top pages answer-first, then earn mentions steadily.

What is SEO?

SEO is the work of getting your pages crawled, indexed and ranked by search engines like Google and Bing, so people click through to your site. It covers technical health, content that matches what people search for, authority (other sites linking to and mentioning you) and, for local businesses, listings like your Google Business Profile. Success is measured in rankings, clicks, calls and leads.

What is AEO?

AEO, answer engine optimization, is the work of making your content the answer a system gives directly, instead of one link among ten. The term grew out of featured snippets and voice assistants in the late 2010s. Today it usually means AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok and Copilot, plus Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode.

In practice, AEO means pages that state a clear answer first, cover the follow-up questions, and contain specific facts a system can repeat: prices, lead times, service areas, certifications.

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What is GEO?

GEO, generative engine optimization, comes from a 2023 research paper by researchers at Princeton and elsewhere, later presented at KDD 2024. It describes how content creators can raise their visibility in answers that AI systems write from several sources. The authors reported visibility gains of up to 40% in their tests.

Today GEO and AEO are used almost interchangeably. If there's a difference, GEO focuses more on being cited and mentioned in AI-generated answers, while AEO also covers older answer formats like snippets and voice.

How do SEO, AEO and GEO compare?

	SEO	AEO	GEO
Goal	Rank pages, earn clicks	Be the direct answer	Be cited or named in AI answers
Where it shows up	Google and Bing results	Snippets, voice, AI answers	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Grok, Copilot, AI Overviews, AI Mode
What success looks like	Rankings, clicks, leads	Your answer is used	Your brand is mentioned, recommended, linked
Main inputs	Crawlable pages, relevant content, links, local listings	Clear answers, structured pages, accurate facts	All of SEO and AEO, plus reviews, forums, comparison lists, consistent facts across the web
Crawlers to allow	Googlebot, Bingbot	Same as SEO	Also OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot
How you measure	Search Console, analytics	Snippet and answer tracking	Prompt testing, AI referrals, Google's and Bing's AI reports
Strength of evidence	Decades of data	Solid for snippets	Young, mostly vendor studies

Isn't AEO or GEO just SEO?

For Google, mostly yes. Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI features, published in May 2026, says that optimizing for AI search "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO." Its AI features are built on the same ranking systems. A page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to be used, and the AI features page says there are no extra requirements.

Other assistants behave differently. Ahrefs ran 15,000 questions through Google and Bing and then asked the same questions to AI assistants. Only about 12% of the links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Copilot ranked in Google's top 10 for that question; for ChatGPT's in-text citations it was about 8% (Ahrefs). Ahrefs notes that an earlier study found 76% of AI Overview citations do come from the top 10.

So both views hold. The foundation is SEO. But outside Google, ranking well for one keyword doesn't decide who gets cited.

What carries over from SEO?

Nearly all of it:

Access. If crawlers can't reach a page, no system can use it. Google lists allowing crawling in robots.txt and in your CDN or hosting setup as a first step.
Indexing. AI assistants draw on search indexes, so pages need to be indexed by Google and Bing.
Useful, original content. Google says its AI features favor "non-commodity" content: firsthand experience and expert detail, not generic tips.
Text, not pictures of text. Important facts belong in the HTML, not only in images or PDFs.
Local listings. Google tells local businesses to keep Business Profile information current. A dental clinic with wrong hours there will have wrong hours in AI answers too.
Authentic mentions and links. Google warns that only authentic mentions help. Ahrefs found branded web mentions correlated more strongly with AI Overview visibility than backlinks did (Ahrefs).
Structured data. Google says it isn't required for AI features but still helps with rich results. See schema markup for AI search.

What's actually new?

One question becomes many searches

Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode may use "query fan-out": they run several related searches across subtopics to build one answer. ChatGPT also rewrites questions into targeted searches. A regional manufacturer asked about "custom stainless tanks with fast lead times in the Midwest" needs pages that cover the product, the lead time and the region. That doesn't mean a page for every variation: Google says its systems understand synonyms, so chasing each long-tail phrase isn't needed.

Being mentioned matters as much as being clicked

People click less when an AI answer appears. Pew Research found Google users clicked a regular result on 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, versus 15% without one, and clicked a link inside the summary on just 1% (Pew). Bain's survey found about 80% of consumers rely on zero-click results for at least 40% of their searches, which Bain estimates cuts organic web traffic by 15% to 25% (Bain). When the answer is the destination, being named in it is the win.

Third-party sources weigh more

Assistants build answers from many sites. For buying questions, Ahrefs found "best X" list articles were the page type ChatGPT cited most (Ahrefs). Reviews, directories, Reddit and trade press feed the answer too. Our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT covers how to earn those mentions.

New crawlers, new decisions

Each AI company runs separate bots for search and for training. OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot puts pages in ChatGPT search, while GPTBot collects training data (OpenAI). Anthropic separates Claude-SearchBot from ClaudeBot (Anthropic), and Perplexity says PerplexityBot isn't used for training (Perplexity). You can allow search bots and block training bots. See AI crawlers and robots.txt.

New measurement

Search Console added generative AI performance reports in June 2026, showing impressions in AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover, but not clicks; they reached all sites by August 31, 2026 (Google). Bing Webmaster Tools added an AI Performance report in February 2026 that shows citations in Microsoft Copilot and Bing's AI summaries (Bing). Neither covers ChatGPT, so you still need to test prompts yourself. More in how to measure AI visibility.

AI agents

Assistants are starting to act for people: booking, comparing, filling forms. Google's guide calls this early and optional; see our AI agent-ready website guide.

What's still debated or unproven?

llms.txt. Google says its Search doesn't use llms.txt and creating one won't help or hurt there. Other tools may read it; see our llms.txt guide.
Chunking and rewriting for AI. Google says you don't need to split pages into small chunks or use special phrasing. Other platforms haven't said.
Content tactics from the GEO paper. Adding quotations, statistics and cited sources raised visibility in the researchers' tests, and keyword stuffing hurt. Lower-ranked sites gained the most. But the tests ran on a lab setup built on 2023 models, so treat the results as direction, not a formula.
The value of AI traffic. Semrush reported AI search visitors were worth 4.4 times traditional organic visitors, based on conversion rate (Semrush). It's a vendor study without a published sample size, so treat it as a signal, not a benchmark.

How big is AI search right now?

Big in users, small in clicks. OpenAI said in February 2026 that ChatGPT had 900 million weekly users (TechCrunch). Google said in July 2026 that AI Mode had passed 1 billion monthly users (Google). Yet SE Ranking's study of 101,574 websites found AI platforms sent just 0.32% of website traffic in early 2026, against 42.75% from organic search (SE Ranking).

That gap is the case for doing both: AI answers shape who gets called, often without a click, while search still drives most visits.

Where should you start with limited time?

Work in this order. Each step helps SEO, AEO and GEO at once.

Check access (one hour). Make sure robots.txt, your CDN and your firewall let in Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Fix your facts (one weekend). Match your name, address, phone, hours, services and service area across your website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, Yelp and your industry directories.
Rewrite your top five pages (one month). Lead each with a direct answer, add specifics (prices, lead times, brands, towns served), and close with a short FAQ. For Google specifics, see AI Overviews and AI Mode.
Earn mentions (ongoing). Ask for reviews every week. Pitch one list, trade publication or partner page a month.
Test monthly. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, and note who gets named. GrowDesk's free check at https://growdesk.io does this for your site.

A regional manufacturer might start step 3 with product pages and distributor listings; a dental clinic, with its Business Profile, insurance details and reviews.

Do the SEO basics first. Then make your facts easy to quote and easy to confirm elsewhere.

FAQ

Is GEO replacing SEO?

No. GEO builds on SEO. AI systems pull from search indexes, and organic search still sends far more website traffic than AI platforms do.

Are AEO and GEO the same thing?

Mostly. Both mean getting your business used in direct answers. GEO is the newer term and usually refers to AI-written answers; AEO also covers snippets and voice search.

Should I block AI crawlers?

Block training crawlers like GPTBot or ClaudeBot if you want, but allow search crawlers like OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Blocking those can keep you out of AI answers.

Do I need special files or markup for AI search?

Not for Google: it says llms.txt and special schema aren't needed for its AI features. Accurate structured data still helps with rich results, and other platforms haven't published rules.