SEO, AEO and GEO: what actually changes

Search used to mean ten blue links. Now many questions are answered before anyone clicks, in Google's AI results, in ChatGPT, in Perplexity and in Gemini. That has produced a pile of acronyms. Here is the short version.

SEO

Getting your pages to rank in search results. It rests on technical health, content that matches what people are looking for, and authority from other sites that trust you.

AEO

Answer engine optimisation. This is about structuring your content so it can be lifted out as the direct answer to a question: a clear question, a concise answer, and markup that helps machines read the page.

GEO

Generative engine optimisation. This is about making it more likely that AI systems mention or cite your brand when they write an answer. It depends on being described consistently across your own site and the wider web, and on having sources worth citing.

Do you need all three?

The foundations overlap. A site that is fast, clear, well structured and backed by real expertise helps with all of them. Treat AEO and GEO as an extension of good SEO rather than a replacement for it.

Be wary of anyone who guarantees placement in AI answers. These systems change often and nobody controls them. What you can control is how clearly and consistently your brand is explained.