Guides / SEO, GEO and AEO explained
What is GEO, and how is it different from SEO?
Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO, means making your business easy for AI assistants and AI search features to find, understand and mention. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is a close cousin: it focuses on being the direct answer to a question.
How GEO differs from SEO
Classic SEO aims to rank a page in a list of links. With AI answers, the assistant writes a response and may cite a few sources. The goal shifts from ranking to being a source the assistant trusts and can quote.
Most of the groundwork overlaps. A site that crawlers can read, with clear content and good structure, helps in both. GEO adds a focus on clear, quotable answers and on being consistently described across the web.
What to do about it
- Make sure AI crawlers are not blocked by your robots.txt or your firewall, unless you deliberately want that.
- Answer real customer questions directly, in plain sentences near the top of the page.
- Add structured data (schema) so machines can tell what your business, services and pages are.
- Keep your business name, services and details consistent on your site and on other profiles.
- Check periodically what AI assistants say about your business and note whether you appear.
A word of caution
No one controls what an AI assistant says, and anyone promising a guaranteed mention is overselling. What you can do is remove obstacles, publish clear and accurate information, and measure whether your visibility changes over time.
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