GEO vs SEO vs AEO: the difference, and which one wins clients

SEO wins you a place in a list of links. GEO wins you a mention inside an answer that AI writes.

SEO, search engine optimisation, is the work that gets your pages ranked when someone types a search into Google or Bing. The buyer sees a list, picks a link and lands on your site.

GEO, generative engine optimisation, is the work that gets your firm named when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews. The buyer reads one written answer. Your firm is either in it or it is not, and often nobody clicks anything.

AEO, answer engine optimisation, sits between the two. It aims to make your page the single answer an engine gives, whether that is a box at the top of Google or a spoken reply.

The work behind all three overlaps: clear pages, real facts and a site every engine can read. What changes is the prize, and how you check that you have won it.

Here is how the three compare on what a firm owner cares about: where you show up, and how you know.

The three overlap more than the names suggest. A page that answers one question clearly, with real facts, helps all three at once.

Buyers now split their searching. They type short questions into Google and take the bigger, worried ones to AI.

We measured the searches around this topic on 30 September 2026, on Google and in AI search. The pattern was clear. Definitions, like “geo vs seo”, are typed into Google. Decisions, like “is seo dead” and “is geo worth it”, are asked of AI.

Monthly searches in the US, 30 September 2026

AI search figures are DataForSEO’s estimates of how often a question is put to AI tools such as ChatGPT.

Read that as a buyer’s journey. An owner who wants to learn types a phrase into Google. An owner who is about to spend money asks AI whether it is worth it, and which firm to trust. That second question is where clients are won, so it is the one your firm needs to be named in.

AI is not replacing SEO. When AI engines look something up, they search the web first, so a page nobody can find is rarely quoted.

1. Google sets the entry rules

   Google’s guide for site owners says a page must be indexed and able to show a snippet before AI Overviews can link to it.

2. Bing matters again for ChatGPT

   OpenAI’s help pages say ChatGPT search sometimes sends questions to outside search providers, and they name Bing as one.

3. Search still sends the clicks

   Buyers still type searches and click links. Those visits turn into enquiries you can count, which is harder with a mention in an AI answer.

4. A ranking is not a mention

   Being first on Google does not mean AI will name you. The two have to be checked separately, every week.

So when someone asks whether SEO is being phased out, the honest answer is no. It has become the ticket that gets your pages into the room where AI picks its sources.

SEO competes for a place on a page of results. AEO competes to be the one answer the engine gives first.

Answer engine optimisation began with the boxes at the top of Google and with voice assistants. When someone asks a clear question, the engine lifts one short answer from one page and shows it first. Everyone else is a link below it.

For a service firm, that changes how a page is written. A page built only for SEO often warms up for a while before it says anything useful. A page built for AEO answers the question in its first sentence, then explains. Ask “what is AEO?” and the page that wins says what it is in its first line.

The two do not fight each other. The short, direct answer that wins the box also helps the page rank, and it is the kind of sentence AI engines like to quote. That is why every section of this article opens with a plain answer before the detail.

AEO and GEO are often used as if they mean the same thing. They overlap, but they aim at different moments.

1. AEO wins the single answer

   It targets one question and one reply: an answer box, a voice reply or the first line of an AI answer.

2. GEO wins the written recommendation

   It targets longer answers where AI compares options and names firms, such as who to hire for a job.

3. LLM SEO and AI SEO

   Newer labels for the same GEO work. LLM means large language model, the engine behind tools like ChatGPT.

4. Search everywhere optimisation

   Another label some agencies use for being found at once on Google, in AI answers, on YouTube and on forums.

For a firm owner, the split matters less than the test. Ask AI who you should hire in your field, and see if your name comes back.

We ran the test on our own firm first. What came back shaped how this article is written.

We asked ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google’s AI Overviews the questions our buyers ask, from what GEO is to what it costs, in the US and the UK. Of 178 AI answers on 30 September 2026, one cited us.

The answers leaned on sources a firm can do something about. YouTube videos, Reddit threads and LinkedIn posts came up again and again. Most of the links went to small agency and software blogs.

The one page of ours that was cited was also the only one we tested with a table, real figures and a date on it. One page proves nothing, but it told us where to start.

So is GEO worth it? For a service firm whose buyers ask AI before they call, yes, as long as the work is measured and built on pages that already rank. A report of mentions with no page changes behind it is hard to tie to a new client.

In SEO terms, GEO means making each page easy for AI to read, check and quote. Here is what we look for on a firm’s pages.

1. The answer in the first line

   Open each section with a one-sentence answer to the question it covers. That is the sentence an engine can lift and quote.

2. Real figures with a date

   A number with a source and a date can be checked. A claim like “market leader” gives AI nothing it can trust.

3. Proof that links out

   Link each case study to the real client. If AI cannot check that a case study is real, “it won’t believe it”, as our founder tells clients.

4. A clear map of what you do

   One page for each service, named plainly. As our founder puts it, when AI reaches your site, “it needs a map” of what you sell.

5. Your name where AI reads

   Directories, lists, videos and LinkedIn posts. AI often quotes other sites about you, not only your own.

None of the three wins clients on its own. Clients come from being found, being named and being answered fast.

Traditional SEO gets your pages found. AI SEO, the mix of AEO and GEO, gets your firm named when a buyer asks AI for a shortlist. Neither one answers the phone.

The step most firms miss comes after the search. A buyer finds you late in the evening and sends an enquiry. If nobody replies until the next afternoon, they may have booked a call with someone else. Winning the shortlist is wasted if the enquiry goes cold, so our system answers every enquiry in seconds as part of the same job.

Then measure every engine, not one. Our founder found some of his own pages getting searches on Google, Bing, ChatGPT and Perplexity for topics the page never mentioned, so he rewrote them. You only see that if you look at every engine.

So the answer is SEO and GEO together, with every enquiry answered at the end.

GEO costs whatever the work behind it costs. A price means little until you know what is included and how it is measured.

Our own prices are on our pricing page. Whoever you talk to, check these four things before you pay.

1. They talk about AI, not only Google

   If all you hear about is Google rankings and nothing about AI answers, the work is only half done.

2. They show what AI says now

   Ask to see what ChatGPT and Perplexity say about your firm today, before any work starts.

3. They change pages, not just report

   A monthly list of mentions is not the work. Ask which pages they will change, and what they will change on them.

4. Nobody promises an exact return

   Nobody can promise an exact return from search or AI. Our founder’s view is blunt: anyone who claims they can “is lying”.

His red flag, from a sales call: “If anyone is telling you, OK, and all you hear is Google, Google, Google, Google, and you don’t hear anything about the AIs, run.”