The difference between SEO, AEO and GEO is the prize. SEO competes for a place in a ranked list of links. AEO competes for a mention inside the answer that ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews write, and GEO is the same goal under the name researchers use. You don't have to choose: most of the work is shared, SEO is the foundation the other two stand on, and Google itself calls optimizing for its AI features SEO. The extra layers for AI answers take days once that foundation is right.
Side by side, the prize is what changes
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stands for | Search engine optimization | Answer engine optimization | Generative engine optimization |
| The prize | A high position in a list of links | Being named inside the answer | Being cited by generative engines |
| Where it plays out | Google & Bing results pages | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews | The same surfaces as AEO |
| Slots available | ~10 per page, scrollable | A handful of named sources | A handful of named sources |
| Measured by | Rankings, clicks, Search Console | Monthly probes, AI referrals | Monthly probes, AI referrals |
| Full guide | What is SEO? | What is AEO? | What is GEO? |
Most of the work is the same work
The shared core is the site itself. Machines need real text they can fetch, on pages that open with direct answers to the questions customers ask. The wider web needs to see one consistent identity for you, with authority earned from reviews and mentions. The pages need honest speed. Get the core right and you're most of the way to all three.
The differences are thin layers on top. SEO adds the classic plumbing: sitemaps, canonical URLs, Core Web Vitals. AEO adds access for AI crawlers and machine-labeled Q&A (FAQ schema). GEO adds citable specifics such as statistics, quotations and named sources, plus llms.txt for the systems that read it (Google says its Search doesn't) and a monthly habit of probing the engines. No layer works without the core, and each takes days once the core exists.
You need all three, in order
They stack, so the order matters. SEO comes first. Most AI answer engines search an index before they write: Google's AI features use Google's, ChatGPT uses its search partners and its own crawler, and Copilot uses Bing. A site that search crawlers can't read rarely gets cited anywhere. AEO and GEO come straight after, because a growing share of buying research now ends on an answer surface, where the named-source slots are far scarcer than list positions. For the sequence, run the 30-day plans in our three guides one after another. To measure, keep a probe list alongside your Search Console habit.
Common questions about the three
Is GEO just a new name for AEO?
For practical purposes, yes. AEO is the practitioners' term and GEO the researchers', and the techniques are shared. Some people split hairs, using AEO for direct-answer boxes and GEO for long synthesized responses. You'd do the same work either way.
Will AEO and GEO replace SEO?
No. They sit on top of it. Most answer engines retrieve from search indexes, so a healthy SEO foundation is the entry ticket. What's changing is where a customer's research ends: more and more often inside an answer instead of on a results page. That's why the few named-source slots matter so much.
Do I need separate agencies for SEO, AEO and GEO?
No, and be wary of anyone who sells them as three separate mysteries. Most of the work is one shared core, and a team that does the core well can add the AEO and GEO layers in days. That's why we grade all three as one Findability lens.
Which should a small business start with?
The shared core, because work there counts toward all three at once. Write answer-first pages for your five most-asked customer questions, keep your identity consistent everywhere you appear, make the site fast on phones and build a steady review habit. Then add the thin layers (schema, AI-crawler access, llms.txt, monthly probes), which take days, not months.
Grade all three in one pass
Because the work overlaps, the Grader scores all three together as one Findability lens and explains the result in plain English. It's free. Until live scanning reaches that lens, the score is a sample-mode estimate, labeled as one.
Grade my site The SEO & AEO audit