SEO vs AEO vs GEO: what actually changes?
SEO vs AEO vs GEO is mostly a difference in where you appear. SEO targets search results, AEO targets direct answers, and GEO targets AI-generated answers. They overlap heavily. Google says its AI features need no special optimisation beyond normal SEO, so start with good SEO, then make your pages easy to quote.
Reviewed by Anubhav Gupta, Bespoke Devs · Updated
SEO vs AEO vs GEO, side by side
| Compare | SEO | AEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stands for | Search engine optimisation | Answer engine optimisation | Generative engine optimisation |
| Aims for | Rankings and clicks from search | Being the direct answer | Being used or cited in AI answers |
| Where it shows | Google and Bing results | Featured snippets, voice and answer boxes | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews and similar |
| Main work | Crawlability, content and links | Clear questions and answers | Accurate, quotable facts and outside mentions |
| How to measure | Search Console and analytics | Search Console and manual checks | Prompt checks and AI referrals |
AEO and GEO are industry terms, not official standards, so definitions vary.
What to do differently
None of this conflicts with good SEO.
- Answer firstOpen each page with the direct answer to the question.
- State facts plainlyPut prices, areas and details in text, not only in images.
- Keep facts consistentUse the same company facts on your site and elsewhere.
- Earn outside mentionsAI answers often draw on third-party sites, so being mentioned elsewhere matters.
- Add original informationYour own data gives others a reason to cite you.
- Measure over timeAI answers vary from run to run, so track trends, not single results.
One page, three lenses
A single page shows why SEO vs AEO vs GEO is rarely three separate jobs. Take a pricing page for a SaaS product. For SEO, it needs a clear title, a crawlable address and links from related pages. For AEO, it needs a sentence near the top that states the price and what it includes. For GEO, that same sentence has to be accurate and match what other sites say about you.
So you’re doing one piece of work and checking it three ways. The only part that sits mostly outside the page is earning mentions on other sites.
Mistakes to avoid
- Buying three separate servicesAsk what the extra AEO or GEO work includes that good SEO wouldn’t. If nobody can list it, you may be paying twice.
- Rewriting everything for AIStart with your most important pages. If they’re clear and accurate, a full rewrite may add little.
- Trusting one promptOne good or bad AI answer proves very little. Run the same set of prompts each month, and watch the pattern.
- Forgetting the readerA page full of short, quotable lines can still fail if it doesn’t help the person who lands on it.
Common questions
Not really. Direct answers usually come from pages that are already crawlable and trusted, so AEO builds on SEO and doesn’t replace it.
Partly. The foundations are the same. GEO adds more attention to outside mentions and to tracking whether AI tools mention you. AEO vs GEO overlap too.
Google says you don’t need AI text files for its AI features. It’s cheap to add, but don’t expect it to change much.
Start with SEO, because the other two depend on pages that can be crawled and trusted. Then rewrite the openings of your main pages to answer directly. Outside mentions take longest, so work on them over time.
Write a short, fixed list of questions your customers would ask, run them in the AI tools they use, and record whether you appear. Our [guide to getting cited by AI](/seo-for-saas/get-cited-by-ai) goes further.
Keep reading
- SEO for SaaSTechnical foundations, programmatic pages and AI search, explained.→
- Programmatic SEO for SaaSWhich page types work, what data you need, and what backfires.→
- How to get cited by AICrawler access, clear facts and a simple way to measure it.→
- Does llms.txt work?What the evidence shows, plainly.→
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