GEO vs AEO vs SEO: what is the difference?

Three acronyms get used for overlapping work, often interchangeably and often to sell something. Here is what each one actually means, and where the differences are real rather than marketing.

SEO: optimising for a position

Search engine optimisation targets a ranked list. Success is a position, measured over time, for a query. The reader sees your title and description and decides whether to click. Everything downstream — traffic, conversions — depends on that click happening.

AEO: optimising the shape of the page

Answer Engine Optimization targets extractability. Success is that a machine reading your page can lift out a direct, self-contained answer to a question a person actually asked. That means question-shaped headings, the answer stated up front, and passages that survive being separated from their surroundings.

GEO: optimising for being named

Generative Engine Optimization targets the composed answer itself. Success is being one of the two or three businesses the assistant names, and being cited as a source. There is no position, so there is no rank to improve — you are either in the answer or absent from it.

Where they genuinely differ

• Unit of success: SEO a position, AEO an extractable answer, GEO a mention.
• What the reader sees: SEO a link they choose, AEO and GEO an answer already written for them.
• How you measure: SEO with rank tracking, AEO by inspecting page structure, GEO by asking engines the question and recording who gets named.
• Failure mode: in SEO you are on page two, in GEO you are simply not in the answer, which is invisible unless you check.

Where they are the same

More than the acronyms suggest. All three need pages that are crawlable, accurate and genuinely useful, and none of them rewards keyword stuffing. AEO structure work is largely how you get a GEO outcome, and both depend on the technical hygiene SEO has always required. Treating them as three separate budgets is usually a mistake.

Which to start with

Start by measuring, because the answer changes what you should do. If engines already name you, the work is defending and widening that. If none of them do, structural AEO work on your most important pages is the cheapest first move.

Our check is API-grounded: we query each engine through its public API with web search enabled and record, engine by engine, whether your business was named and what was cited. It is a directional signal at one moment rather than a ranking, an API query is not a personalised signed-in session, and we do not guarantee rankings, mentions, or customer outcomes.