GEO, AEO and SEO
GEO vs AEO vs SEO, in plain words.
Three names for work that overlaps. Here is what each one means.
Side by side
Same groundwork, different places to show up.
| Term | Aims for | Where it shows up | What you can check |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO (search engine optimization) | Ranking high in search results | Lists of links on Google, Bing or Naver | Clicks and positions in Google Search Console |
| AEO (answer engine optimization) | Your page being the direct answer | Answer boxes, voice assistants, AI answers | Is your page the quoted source? |
| GEO (generative engine optimization) | Being named and linked by AI | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, AI in search | Does AI name you, link you, and who else? |
Where they overlap
Not three separate projects.
- A clear page that says what you sell, to whom and for how much helps all three.
- The names are not fixed. Google says its usual SEO advice also covers its AI features.
- A ranking is a spot in a list. An AI answer is a sentence that can name you, skip you or get you wrong.
Where you stand
Check search and AI answers separately.
- 01Search. In Google Search Console, see which searches show your pages.
- 02Questions. Write 5 to 10 buyer questions, without your name.
- 03AI answers. Ask each AI more than once. Are you named? Which sites? Who else?
- 04Compare. Good rank but no AI mention? That gap is what GEO is about.
Example prompts Why AI leaves a brand out
The free check does the AI steps on the 4 AIs for you.
Other terms
Other AI words, said simply.
- GEO, AEO, LLM SEO, answer engine optimisation
- Names for the same job: getting a company to show up well in AI answers.
- AI visibility
- Whether AI names a company, links its pages and names its rivals, for set questions.
- Mention
- AI says the company’s name. It can be good, neutral or bad.
- Recommendation
- AI really tells you to pick the company. A person checks the exact sentence. A mention is not a recommendation.
- Citation
- AI shows a page as its source. A citation is not a visit.
- Prompt
- What you type into an AI. We call it a question.
- API
- A way for software to ask an AI directly, without the chat app. API answers are not app chats.
- Collection status
- Did the answer come back? Succeeded, failed, waiting or not collected. A failed answer is never “not mentioned”.
- Baseline
- What AI said before you changed anything.
- Recommendation question
- A buyer is choosing and doesn’t use your name. It may name a rival.
- Brand question
- A question that uses your company’s name.
- Share of voice
- How often you are named next to others. We show the counts, not one score.
- Hallucination
- AI says something untrue. We flag answers that differ from facts you confirmed.
- Attribution
- Saying what caused a result. We never claim a page change caused a change in answers or sales.