SEO earns a page a place in a list of search results. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) earn a brand a mention or a citation inside the answer an AI assistant writes. AEO and GEO are two names for the same work, and both build on SEO rather than replace it.
The three terms get used as if they were rival strategies. They are better read as layers: SEO makes your pages findable, and AEO and GEO make sure the answers built from the web name you, describe you correctly and point to you. This guide sets out where they differ, where they overlap and how to run them together.
AEO vs SEO vs GEO at a glance
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stands for | Search engine optimisation | Answer engine optimisation | Generative engine optimisation |
| Where you appear | A ranked list of links | Inside an AI-written answer | Inside an AI-written answer |
| What counts as a win | A high position and a click | Being named, described accurately and cited | Being named, described accurately and cited |
| Main measures | Rankings, impressions, clicks | Visibility, position, share of voice, sentiment, citations | The same as AEO |
| Where the term came from | Web search, from the 1990s | Marketing practice | A 2023 research paper (Aggarwal et al.) |
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation is the work of ranking pages in search results: making them crawlable and fast, matching them to the queries people type, and earning links that signal trust. Success is visible on a results page and in analytics, as positions, impressions and clicks.
What is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation is the work of getting a brand named, described accurately and cited when people ask an AI assistant a question. The answer is a short piece of writing that names a few brands or none, so there is no page two and often no click. Our longer explainer covers what AEO is and why it matters.
What is GEO, and is it different from AEO?
Generative engine optimisation was named in a 2023 paper, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” by Aggarwal and colleagues, later published at KDD 2024, which studied how content can be made more visible in answers that generative search engines write. AEO is the term more marketers use. Today both describe the same goal and the same practice, and you will see vendors and agencies use either. See what generative engine optimization is for more on the term.
Where do AEO and SEO overlap?
More than the debate suggests. Google’s own guidance for site owners, AI features and your website, says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there are no additional requirements to appear in them. Engines that search the web while answering, including ChatGPT search and Perplexity, also need to reach and read your pages. So the SEO basics carry over:
- pages that AI crawlers and search crawlers are allowed to fetch;
- a direct answer near the top of each page, in plain language;
- accurate structured data and clear headings;
- content people and other sites find worth citing.
Where do they differ?
The result is a sentence, not a position
An AI answer can name you first, last, favourably, wrongly or not at all. None of that shows up in a rank tracker. In our own count of 2,545 AI answers about our brand, the engines named Nurdd in 377 of 379 answers when the question included its name, and in 4 of 2,166 when it did not. Being known and being recommended are different results.
Each engine answers differently
Search has one dominant results page per market. AI answers vary by engine: in the same study Perplexity listed sources in all 617 of its answers and ChatGPT in 636 of 657, while Gemini did in 324 of 646 and Claude in 246 of 625. A brand can be well placed in one engine and absent from another, which is why engines disagree about the same brand.
Third-party pages carry more weight
AI answers often draw on reviews, lists, forums and comparison pages rather than the brand’s own site. So AEO puts more effort into being described accurately on the pages engines cite, not only into your own pages. Our guide on how AI engines choose citations explains why.
Clicks undercount the result
A buyer can read an AI answer, decide, and arrive later by typing your name. That visit looks like direct or branded traffic, which is why zero-click search breaks click-based reporting.
How do you run SEO, AEO and GEO together?
- Keep the SEO foundations sound. Crawlable, fast pages with clear answers serve both.
- Pick the questions that matter. Choose the buyer questions an AI assistant should answer with your name; see which prompts to track.
- Measure the answers, per engine. Record whether each engine names you, how high, how it describes you and which sources it cites, and repeat on a schedule.
- Close the gaps. Write pages for the questions where competitors are named instead of you, and earn accurate mentions on the sources the engines cite.
- Report both sets of numbers. Keep rankings and clicks for SEO, and add visibility and share of voice for AI answers.
If you are deciding where budget should go, our piece on GEO vs SEO budgets covers the trade-offs, and AI visibility vs SEO covers what changes for brand managers.
Where Noma fits
Noma by Nurdd is an AEO platform. It asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude the questions your buyers ask, every day, and shows where you are named, where competitors are named instead and which pages the answers cite, across 13 AI engines in all. It does not track search rankings, so it sits alongside your SEO tools rather than replacing them. To see where you stand today, run a free brand audit.
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Questions people ask
What is the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO (search engine optimisation) works to rank a page in a list of search results so people click it. AEO (answer engine optimisation) works to get a brand named, described accurately and cited inside the answer an AI assistant writes, where there may be no list to rank in and no click at all.
Is GEO the same as AEO?
In practice, yes. GEO (generative engine optimisation) was named in a 2023 research paper about content in generative search answers; AEO is the term marketers more often use. Both now mean getting named and cited in AI-generated answers, and the terms are used interchangeably.
Does AEO replace SEO?
No. Google says the same SEO best practices apply to AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no extra requirements, and engines that search the web while answering still rely on pages they can crawl and rank. AEO adds work on top: tracking answers, earning mentions on the sites engines cite, and correcting what they get wrong.
How do you measure AEO and GEO compared with SEO?
SEO is measured with rankings, impressions and clicks. AEO and GEO are measured from the answers themselves: whether a brand is named for a fixed set of buyer questions, its position among the brands named, share of voice against competitors, the sentiment of the description and which sources are cited, tracked per engine over time.
Should a company invest in SEO, AEO or GEO first?
Start with the SEO foundations, because AI engines that search the web build on them: crawlable pages, clear answers and a sound site. Then add an AEO baseline: track the questions buyers ask across the AI engines your market uses, see where competitors are named instead of you, and work on those gaps.