In brief
- SEO optimises for classic results pages (blue links).
- AEO optimises for direct answers, featured snippets, voice assistants, knowledge panels.
- GEO optimises specifically for generated answers from AI engines (ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, AI Overviews).
- All three share a common foundation; GEO adds requirements specific to retrieval and generation.
Precise definitions
SEO, Search Engine Optimization
The set of practices that improve a site's rank on search engine results pages (Google, Bing). SEO rests on three classic pillars: technical (crawl, indexing, performance), content (relevance, expertise) and popularity (inbound links, mentions).
AEO, Answer Engine Optimization
Optimisation for answer engines. Predates LLMs, originally tied to Google featured snippets (position 0), voice assistants (Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri) and direct-answer panels. Emphasises clear short-answer phrasing, question/answer structure and structured data (schema.org).
GEO, Generative Engine Optimization
Formalised in 2024 in the academic literature (Aggarwal et al., Princeton/IIT/Georgia Tech). It designates optimisation for engines that produce a generated answer, often with citations: ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Bing Copilot, Gemini, Claude. The new dimension is that the engine rewrites content rather than presenting it as-is.
Side-by-side comparison
| Criterion | SEO | AEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main objective | Rank well | Be selected as the answer | Be cited in a generated answer |
| Output format | Link to the page | Extracted answer | Rewritten answer, with citations |
| Metric | Position, clicks | Share of featured snippets, voice impressions | Share of citations, AI Overviews impressions |
| Dominant lever | Authority + technical | Q/A structure + schema | Structure + standalone passages + entities |
| Typical engines | Google, Bing (SERP) | Featured snippets, Siri, Alexa | ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude |
| Freshness dependency | Medium | Medium | High |
| Dependency on explicit sourcing | Low | Medium | High |
What they share
What works for SEO and AEO also works for GEO, at 80%. The fundamentals overlap:
- Semantic HTML, crawlability, indexing.
- Topical authority (links, co-occurrences, editorial consistency).
- Clear titles and structure.
- Reading experience (legibility, accessibility).
- Structured data (schema.org) to disambiguate entities.
What GEO adds
- Standalone passages, every section should read out of context. A good GEO paragraph can be lifted in isolation and remain clear.
- Citability, sharp, numerical, sourced statements. No fuzzy phrasing.
- Explicit freshness, visible, authentic publication and update dates.
- Disambiguated entities, the brand is named, repeated and tied to its domain of expertise consistently.
- Controlled lexical variation, use the various names of a concept (synonyms, acronyms) to help retrieval.
- AI bot management, GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended must be able to reach the site (or not, it's a business call).
Don't oppose them, wire them together
The SEO vs GEO debate is sterile. A site that ranks well in Google is almost always better positioned to be cited by LLMs: it's already crawled, already structured, already referenced by other sources. Conversely, investing in GEO without securing SEO foundations is a shortcut that fails.
Is SEO dead?
No. The "SEO is dead" thesis resurfaces with every rupture (mobile, voice search, featured snippets) and has never held. What's true: classic SEO is evolving into an augmented SEO that includes visibility on generative surfaces. Sites that ignore it will lose ground; those that absorb it will pick up new discovery channels.
Operational conclusion
Keep one method. Call it what you like. Our choice: a unified frame, the LOOP framework, treating SEO, AEO and GEO as three readings of the same discipline, steered by the audit checklist and adapted through use cases.