AEO vs SEO: what's the difference?
SEO helps you show up in Google's search results. AEO helps you show up in the answers people get from ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews.
They're not really competing strategies, but rather two ways of getting your brand in front of people who are searching.
SEO (search engine optimization) is about getting your pages to rank in traditional search results and earning clicks. AEO (answer engine optimization) is about getting your content mentioned, cited or recommended in AI-generated answers. There's a lot of overlap between the two. If you're doing SEO properly, you already have a lot of the foundation you need for AEO. The difference is in how you structure your content, where you build authority and how you measure results.
SEOWinning the ranked link.
SEO is the process of getting your website to appear higher in traditional search results, particularly on Google.
The goal is pretty straightforward: rank well, get the click, and bring someone to your site.
That means paying attention to things like relevant content, technical SEO, links, site structure and overall authority. Someone searches for something, Google shows your page, and the user decides whether to click through.
AEOWinning the answer.
AEO is about getting your brand into the answer itself.
Someone asks ChatGPT a question, searches Perplexity, or gets an AI Overview in Google. Instead of looking through ten blue links, they may get a direct answer pulled from several sources.
The goal is to be one of those sources.
That could mean being cited by ChatGPT, mentioned by Perplexity, recommended in an AI-generated answer, or linked from a Google AI Overview. And in some cases, the person gets what they need without ever visiting your website.
More on how that actually works →
SEO vs AEOThe main differences.
| SEO | AEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you appear | Google/Bing search results | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews, Copilot |
| What you're trying to earn | Rankings and clicks | Citations, mentions and recommendations |
| How people search | Browse results and click through | Often get an answer without visiting a site |
| Content that works well | Comprehensive, relevant pages | Clear, direct, easy-to-extract answers |
| Important signals | Links, relevance, technical SEO, authority | Brand mentions, entity authority, structure, schema |
| How you measure it | Rankings and organic traffic | Citations, AI visibility, AI referrals |
GEOWhere generative engine optimization fits.
You'll also hear the term GEO (generative engine optimization).
There's some overlap between GEO and AEO, and the terminology isn't completely consistent across the industry.
Generally, GEO is used to describe optimizing content for generative AI systems and getting your brand included in their answers. AEO is often used more broadly for optimizing content to become a direct answer, whether that's in an AI response or a traditional search feature like a featured snippet.
In practice, I don't think there's much value in treating them as completely separate disciplines. The work overlaps too much.
The overlapWhy you don't have to choose.
This is where a lot of the "AEO vs SEO" discussion gets a bit misleading.
You don't have to pick one.
A lot of the things that make a website strong for Google also make it easier for AI systems to understand and trust that website. Good technical SEO, useful content, clear site structure and real authority still matter.
AEO just puts more emphasis on a few additional things.
- Answer-first content. Get to the point. If someone asks a question, make the answer easy to find.
- Extractable information. Clear headings, definitions, lists, tables and concise explanations give AI systems useful pieces of information to work with.
- Brand and entity authority. It's not just about links to your site. How your brand is talked about across the wider web matters too.
- More than Google. Bing matters because it plays a role in ChatGPT search, while sources like Reddit, review sites and industry publications can also influence what AI systems surface.
- Different measurement. Rankings and traffic still matter, but AEO also means tracking citations, mentions and your share of visibility across AI platforms.
AEO isn't replacing SEO.
It's another layer on top of it.
In practiceHow to do both.
Start with the SEO fundamentals. Make sure your site is technically sound, your content is genuinely useful, and your important pages can be found and indexed.
Then look at that content through the lens of an answer engine.
Can the answer be found quickly? Are the important facts clearly stated? Is the page structured around the questions your audience actually asks? Are your brand and organization entities clear? Are you building authority outside your own website?
From there, you can add things like FAQ and Organization schema where they're appropriate, make sure you're indexed in Bing, build genuine brand mentions across the web, and start tracking where your brand appears in AI-generated answers.
It's not really two separate strategies.
It's one search strategy across two different ways of finding information.
I run SEO and AEO together rather than treating them as separate services. That means improving your visibility in Google while also working toward getting your brand cited and recommended in places like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews - from the initial audit through to actual implementation.