If you’ve opened a marketing newsletter at any point this year, you’ll have watched the acronyms breed like rabbits. SEO, GEO, AEO, AIO.
We get asked about it all the time, and it’s not just our clients wondering; around 590 people a month in the UK type “GEO vs SEO” into Google, and another 170 ask whether SEO is dead. So let’s clear it up, minus the buzzword bingo.
The short answer
SEO gets your website ranking in search results, GEO gets your business mentioned, cited and recommended inside AI answers, whether that’s ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google’s own AI Overviews.
One is about being found, the other is about being chosen when there’s no list of links to scroll through.
You need both, just not for the reasons most people are trying to sell you.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the work of making your site easy for Google to crawl, understand and trust, so it turns up when people search for what you do. This includes;
- Technical health
- Content that answers real questions
- A sensible site structure
- Links from other reputable sites
- And if you’re a local business, a properly looked-after Google Business Profile.
The reward is a click. Someone sees your listing, lands on your site, and your website takes it from there.
What is GEO?
Generative engine optimisation is about what happens when there’s no click at all.
Someone asks ChatGPT “who’s a good web design agency in Wakefield?” or “what should I look for in a commercial fit-out company?” and gets a written answer back. The mention results in wither a link back to your website or a paragraph lifted from your website without a link.
GEO is making sure you’re in that answer, described accurately, and ideally the one that gets recommended. For that to happen, AI models need a clear picture of who you are, what you do, where you do it and why anyone should trust you. They build that picture from your own site, but also from reviews, directories, press mentions, case studies and anywhere else your name crops up.
And where does AEO fit in?
Answer engine optimisation is GEO’s slightly older cousin. It grew up around featured snippets and voice assistants: structuring content so it can be lifted out as a direct answer. These days the two terms get used almost interchangeably, and honestly, we don’t lose sleep over which label you prefer. If the aim is being quoted in an answer rather than listed in a set of results, it’s the same job.
Where they overlap (which is most of it)
Here’s the bit the hype tends to skip, most of what makes good SEO also makes good GEO.
AI tools lean heavily on search indexes to find and check information. If Google struggles to crawl your site, there’s a fair chance an AI model will too. If your content is thin, vague or buried under fluff, neither one is going to rate it.
So the foundations are shared: a fast, technically sound website, clear pages that answer the questions people actually ask, consistent business details everywhere online, genuine reviews, and proof of real work like case studies with names and outcomes. If you’ve been doing SEO properly, you’re not starting GEO from scratch, uou’ve got a decent head start.
Where they’re genuinely different
The differences are real though, and they matter.
The goal. SEO chases a ranking and a click. GEO chases a mention and a recommendation, often with no click attached. That changes how you measure success, because traffic alone won’t tell you whether ChatGPT is sending enquiries your way.
The sources. Google mostly judges your website. AI models form an opinion from everywhere: your site, review platforms, industry directories, Reddit threads, local news, LinkedIn. What other people say about you counts for a lot.
The format. AI tools love content they can lift cleanly. Straight answers near the top of the page, clear headings, definitions, comparisons, FAQs.
The plumbing. Schema markup, a well-built About page, an llms.txt file and consistent business information all help machines understand exactly what you are. FAQ schema is a good example. Google stopped showing FAQ dropdowns in its results earlier this year, but the markup still helps with AI visibility, so it’s worth keeping.
The tracking. You can check Google rankings with a dozen tools. Tracking AI visibility is newer and messier, because answers shift from one prompt, platform and day to the next. It’s doable nut it just needs a different approach.
So, is SEO dead?
Nope, not even poorly. What’s changed is what SEO feeds into.
Google is still where most people search, and AI Overviews now sit on top of plenty of those results. ChatGPT, Perplexity and the rest pull from search indexes to back up their answers. Ditch your SEO and you’re pulling the rug out from under your GEO at the same time.
What is dead is lazy SEO, churning out keyword-stuffed blogs, buying dodgy links, writing for an algorithm instead of a person. That stuff was already on its last legs. AI search has just finished it off, and we won’t be sending flowers.
What we’d actually do first
If you’re a business wondering where to start, this is roughly the order we’d tackle it in.
Sort the basics. Fix any technical issues, tidy up your Google Business Profile, and make sure your name, address and phone number match everywhere they appear online.
Ask the robots about yourself. Try ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with the kind of questions your customers would ask. Are you mentioned? Is what they say accurate? Who are they recommending instead? For most businesses it’s a humbling five minutes.
Rewrite your key pages to answer questions directly. Lead with the answer, then explain. Add a proper FAQ where it earns its place.
Build proof beyond your own site. Reviews, case studies, a bit of PR, the right directory listings. The more places saying good things about you consistently, the more confident an AI model feels recommending you.
Then measure both. Rankings and traffic for SEO. Mentions and share of voice across AI platforms for GEO. If you want a quick starting point, ’ave a gander at our AI readiness audit tool, which scores how well your site is set up for AI search.
The bottom line
GEO isn’t a replacement for SEO, and anyone telling you to bin one for the other is probably selling something. They’re two sides of the same coin; be the clearest, most trustworthy answer to your customers’ questions, and make sure both search engines and AI models can see it.
Get that right and you’ll show up whether someone’s scrolling Google or asking a chatbot for a recommendation. Which, let’s be honest, is increasingly the same person on different days.
