AEO vs GEO vs SEO: what's the difference?

What are the key facts about AEO, GEO and SEO?

Which term is which?

They're mostly different labels for the same shift: people asking an AI a question and getting one written answer instead of ten blue links.

• SEO (search engine optimization). Making your pages rank higher in a search engine's list of results, so people click through to your site. Our SEO guide covers the basics.
• AEO (answer engine optimization). Getting your page picked as the answer: in AI chat, Google's AI Overviews, featured answer boxes and voice assistants. See our AEO guide.
• GEO (generative engine optimization). Getting your business found, trusted and quoted by AI engines that write an answer from several sources, like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Grok, Meta AI and DeepSeek. See our GEO guide.
• LLMO (large language model optimization). Another name for GEO, used by people who think of the target as the model rather than the search engine. Some also say GSO (generative search optimization).
• AI SEO. The plain-English umbrella term. It usually means GEO and AEO together. See AI SEO.

Where did the term GEO come from?

From a research paper. "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande was first posted to arXiv on Nov 16, 2023 and published at KDD 2024. The current version lists authors from Princeton University and the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. arXiv

The paper calls AI search tools "generative engines" and describes GEO as a way "to aid content creators in improving their content visibility in generative engine responses." Its key move for this article: it says that in classic SEO, visibility is a site's "average ranking over a range of queries," and that this doesn't work for AI answers. So it measures something else: how much of the written answer is tied to your citation, weighted by how early that citation appears. arXiv

That's the whole difference in one idea. SEO counts where you rank. GEO counts how much of the answer is yours.

We've written up what the paper tested and found, including its limits, in What the Princeton GEO study found.

How do SEO, AEO and GEO compare side by side?

The "Who can read you" row is sourced to OpenAI and Perplexity's own bot pages. The rest of this table is our summary of how the terms are used.

How much do they overlap with SEO?

A lot, and the engines say so themselves.

Google. Google's guide "AI features and your website" says "The best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI features in Google Search (such as AI Overviews and AI Mode)." It adds that there are "no additional requirements" and that you don't need "new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup" to appear. To be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Google

ChatGPT and Perplexity. Both run search crawlers. OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is used "to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features." OpenAI Perplexity says PerplexityBot is designed "to surface and link websites in search results on Perplexity." Perplexity If those bots are blocked or your pages are hard to read, no amount of clever wording helps. That's ordinary technical SEO.

Bing and Copilot. Bing's advice for being cited in Copilot reads like good SEO: depth and expertise, clear headings, tables and FAQ sections, evidence for claims, and keeping content fresh with IndexNow. Bing

Our longer side-by-side is GEO vs SEO.

What is actually different about AEO and GEO?

Three things, and none of them is a secret trick.

1. You're quoted, not listed. An AI answer is a few paragraphs, not ten links. The engine picks a handful of sources and may name your business without a link at all. Being in the answer is the win; ranking #4 on a page nobody scrolls is not.
2. You measure citations and mentions, not positions. Bing's AI Performance report, launched Feb 10, 2026, shows "Total Citations," cited pages and "grounding queries" (the phrases the AI used to find your content) across Microsoft Copilot, AI summaries in Bing and partner integrations. Bing says this data "does not indicate ranking." Bing Claude's web search always returns citations, each with the URL, title and up to 150 characters of the cited text. Anthropic
3. Each engine is its own scoreboard. Google doesn't split AI traffic out: AI Overviews and AI Mode visits are counted in Search Console's overall "Web" numbers. Google ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok, Meta AI and DeepSeek each pick sources their own way, so a business can be named by one and missing from the next.

What should a business actually do?

This is our advice. Treat SEO as the foundation and AI visibility as the scoreboard on top.

1. Fix the basics first. Make sure Google and Bing index your important pages, and that AI search bots like OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot aren't blocked in robots.txt.
2. Answer real questions plainly. Put a short, direct answer near the top of each key page, then the detail. That serves SEO, AEO and GEO at once.
3. Back claims with facts. Prices, service areas, numbers and named sources are easier for an AI to quote than slogans. Bing's own advice asks for evidence behind claims.
4. Earn mentions elsewhere. AI answers draw on several sources, so reviews, directories and press about you count, not just your own site.
5. Measure in every engine. Ask the questions your buyers ask in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Google AI Mode and the rest, and record who gets named. Check Bing's AI Performance report for Copilot citations.
6. Don't buy special files as a fix. Google says it needs no AI text files or special markup for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Optional extras are fine; they're not the job.

What should be on my AEO, GEO and SEO checklist?

How do I see whether AI engines are citing me?

Ask the engines yourself. Type the question a customer would ask, like "who's the best [your service] in [your city]?", and note whether you're named, linked, or missing, and who's named instead.

Our Prompt Simulator runs one question across 12 engines at once and shows which sources each one cites. For Copilot specifically, Bing Webmaster Tools' AI Performance report shows your citation counts and the queries behind them.

Sources

1. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (abstract) — arXiv. Read Oct 6, 2026.
2. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (full text, v3) — arXiv. Read Oct 6, 2026.
3. AI features and your website — Google Search Central. Read Oct 6, 2026.
4. Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools (Public Preview) — Bing Webmaster Blog. Read Oct 6, 2026.
5. Overview of OpenAI Crawlers — OpenAI. Read Oct 6, 2026.
6. Perplexity Crawlers — Perplexity. Read Oct 6, 2026.
7. Web search tool — Anthropic. Read Oct 6, 2026.