SEO vs AEO vs GEO: what each one does and why you need all three

SEO helps you rank in Google's results, AEO helps your page become the direct answer, and GEO helps AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity recommend your business. They are not three competing strategies. They are three layers built on the same foundation: fast pages, clear answers and consistent facts about who you are.

Below we explain each one in plain words, compare them side by side, and share the checklist we use on every Webco site, including on our own.

01What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?

The difference is where you show up. SEO targets the list of blue links. AEO targets the single answer at the top. GEO targets the conversation inside an AI assistant.

02What is SEO?

SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of helping search engines find, understand and rank your pages. It is still the base of everything, because AI features mostly draw on pages that are already indexed and trusted.

• Technical health: pages Google can crawl, a sitemap, no broken links, HTTPS.
• Speed: good Core Web Vitals on phones, where most of your visitors are.
• Content: pages that match what people actually search, written by people who know the topic.
• Authority: links and mentions from other trusted websites, and real reviews.

03What is AEO?

AEO (answer engine optimisation) is shaping your content so it can be lifted straight into an answer: a featured snippet, a voice assistant reply or an AI Overview. The page that answers the question clearly and quickly is the one that gets quoted.

• Question style headings (H2 and H3).
• A short, direct answer right under each heading.
• Lists, steps and real HTML tables that are easy to extract.
• An FAQ section with FAQPage structured data.
• Key takeaways at the top, so the summary is obvious.

04What is GEO?

GEO (generative engine optimisation) is about how AI models describe and recommend your brand. When someone asks "which agency builds bilingual websites?", the model answers from what it can find and trust about you across the web.

Research backs up what we see in practice. In the original GEO study from Princeton and partners, adding sources, quotes and statistics to content increased its visibility in generative engine answers by up to 40%.

• One clear sentence about what you do, used the same way everywhere.
• Consistent facts: the same name, services, locations and contact details on your site, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles.
• Structured data (Organization, Service, Person, FAQPage) so machines read your facts without guessing.
• Proof: real numbers, named experts, sources and case studies.
• Mentions on other sites: directories, press, partners and reviews. AI models trust what others say about you.

If an AI model cannot describe what you do in one clear sentence, it will not recommend you.

Arshia Nemati, Founder of Webco

05Do I need special optimisation for Google AI Overviews?

No special tricks. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and that normal SEO best practices apply: the page must be indexed, crawlable and helpful. That is good news, because the work you do for SEO and AEO also feeds Google's AI features.

Other assistants are different. ChatGPT, Perplexity and others use their own crawlers and sources, so it matters that you do not block them by accident and that your facts are consistent everywhere they look.

06What mistakes do we see most often?

Most businesses we audit are not invisible because of competition. They are invisible because of small, fixable mistakes.

1. Blocking AI crawlers without knowing it. Since July 2025, new Cloudflare domains have started with AI crawlers blocked by default, and the settings keep changing. Check your bot settings and robots.txt if you want AI assistants to find you.
2. Burying the answer. Long intros before the actual answer lose snippets and AI citations.
3. Different facts in different places. An old phone number on a directory or a closed address on Google confuses both people and machines.
4. Fake signals. Invented reviews, fake ratings in schema or "number one agency" claims can hurt you. We never use them.
5. Keyword stuffed city lists. A footer with 40 city names does not rank. Real location pages with real content do.
6. Slow phones. A beautiful site that takes eight seconds on mobile loses rankings and customers.

07What does the SEO, AEO and GEO checklist look like?

This is the checklist we run on every site we build, and on our own website.

08How do I measure AEO and GEO?

Measure what you can, and check the rest by hand once a month.

• Google Search Console: clicks and impressions from AI Overviews and AI Mode are included in your normal search traffic.
• Analytics referrals: watch visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com.
• Prompt checks: ask the main assistants the questions your customers ask, and note whether and how you are named.
• Enquiries: ask new leads how they found you. "ChatGPT recommended you" is becoming a common answer.

09Which one should I start with?

Start with SEO, because without a fast, crawlable site nothing else works. Build every page for AEO from day one, because it costs almost nothing extra when you write the content. Then grow GEO month by month, because it depends on your reputation across the web.

That is exactly how we work at Webco: SEO, AEO and GEO built in from the first line of code, then one monthly plan to grow all three. If you want to know how AI assistants see your business today, read how to get recommended by ChatGPT and Perplexity see what it costs in our 2026 price guide, or ask us for a free check.

Written by

Arshia Nemati

Founder & CEO at Webco

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