AEO vs GEO vs SEO: how they differ
Three acronyms, one underlying job. SEO gets you ranked, AEO gets you quoted, and GEO is the term many people use for the same quoting work. Here is what each one really means and where to put your effort.
The one-line version
- SEO, search engine optimization, aims to rank your page in a list of links.
- AEO, answer engine optimization, aims to be the source an AI names inside a written answer.
- GEO, generative engine optimization, is used interchangeably with AEO. The term comes from a 2023 research paper on optimising for generative engines, and it stuck.
They are not three competing strategies. They are layers of the same work. An answer engine has to crawl, parse and trust your page before it can quote you, and those are exactly the things classic SEO already delivers.
Where they genuinely differ
The useful differences are in emphasis, not in kind. Three shifts matter:
- Target. SEO competes for a position in a list. AEO and GEO compete to be one of the few sources trusted enough to be named in a single written answer.
- Unit of content. SEO thinks in pages. Answer engines lift passages, so a clean, self-contained answer near the top of a section matters more than the page as a whole.
- Signals of trust. SEO leans on links. Answer engines also weigh whether you are described consistently and mentioned in plain language across the wider web.
Which one should you work on?
Start with the shared foundation, because it pays off everywhere. Let the AI crawlers in through your robots.txt, add schema.org structured data, answer real questions directly, and make it obvious who you are. Only once that is solid does it make sense to chase engine-specific tactics.
If you want a concrete starting point, the free Avantas audit scores your site across the seven levers that decide whether an answer engine can find, understand and quote you. For the deeper mechanics, read what AEO means and structured data for AI.
Common questions
What is the difference between AEO, GEO and SEO?
SEO gets your page ranked in a list of links. AEO (answer engine optimization) gets your page quoted inside a written AI answer. GEO (generative engine optimization) means the same thing as AEO in practice. All three rely on the same crawlable, well-structured, trustworthy pages, so they are layers of one job rather than rivals.
Should I do SEO or GEO first?
Do them together, starting with the shared foundation. A page an AI cannot crawl or parse will not rank in Google either. Fix crawlability, structure and clarity once, and you improve your standing in both blue links and AI answers.
Is GEO just a rebranding of SEO?
Not quite. GEO leans on the parts of SEO that machines care about most, direct answers, structured data and being referenced elsewhere, and downplays tactics aimed only at ranking position. The overlap is large, but the emphasis is different.