SEO, GEO, and AEO: A Working Guide

SEO is search engine optimization. You write pages for Google's index. The goal is to rank for a keyword on the ten blue links. The work is technical fixes, content, and links.

GEO is generative engine optimization. You write pages for the large language models that power ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. The goal is to be named and cited when the model generates a long answer. The work is becoming a source the model is likely to read and trust.

AEO is answer engine optimization. You write for the AI answer boxes that appear above Google's traditional results, known as AI Overviews. The goal is to be the link Google cites when it answers a buying question. The work is understanding the specific queries that trigger an Overview and the pages Google's model reads to compose it.

Traditional SEO operates on a corpus of indexed pages. Google's crawler reads your page, its algorithms assess relevance and authority, and it places you on a results page. Authority is measured largely by links from other sites.

The procedure is established. Find keywords with search volume. Create a page that answers the query better than the current top results. Build technical site health. Acquire links from relevant, authoritative pages. Track your rankings and organic traffic.

A concrete example: a company selling ergonomic office chairs wants to rank for 'best chair for lower back pain'. They would publish a detailed review page comparing models, include expert quotes, and ensure fast page loads. Then they would seek links from physiotherapy blogs, home office guides, and product review roundups.

Generative engines train on a snapshot of the web. When you ask ChatGPT a question, it does not search the live internet. It recalls patterns from its training data and generates an answer, sometimes citing specific URLs from that dataset. Your goal is to be one of those cited sources.

The work is different. You must create content that is likely to be included in future training corpuses and deemed authoritative by the model's internal scoring. This often means detailed, factual, well-structured content on established domains. Opinion and marketing copy are less likely to be selected.

For the ergonomic chair company, GEO means creating definitive resources a model would use. A long guide on 'the biomechanics of seated posture' with citations to medical journals, published on a dedicated blog with a strong academic backlink profile, has a better chance than a product page.

Answer engine optimization targets systems like Google AI Overviews. These answers are generated in real time by a model that reads a small set of web pages it deems relevant. Your goal is to be one of the pages it reads and then the link it chooses to cite.

The procedure is specific. First, identify the buying questions that trigger an AI Overview in your niche. Search for them manually. Note the structure of the answer and the sites it cites. Second, create a page that perfectly answers that single question with clear, concise data. Third, ensure your page is indexed, fast, and accessible. Fourth, you need the page to be considered a trustworthy source, which often requires external signals like links.

For our chair company, an AEO opportunity might be the query 'are ergonomic chairs worth the money'. An Overview exists. It cites two product review sites and one health blog. To compete, the company would create a page titled 'The Cost vs. Benefit Analysis of Ergonomic Office Chairs' featuring clear data on pain reduction, productivity gains, and long-term cost savings, then seek links from relevant industry and health sites to bolster its authority for that specific topic.

Link building for SEO often targets any relevant, authoritative page. The pitch can be broader. For GEO, outreach is less direct; you are trying to get your resource into ecosystems models read, like academic aggregators or trusted industry hubs.

AEO outreach is the most specific. You find pages that are already likely being read by Google's answer model. These are often the very pages currently cited in AI Overviews, or resource pages that rank for the question just below the Overview. Your pitch must argue why your page is a better, more current, or more comprehensive source for the exact answer.

A realistic response rate for this precise AEO outreach is low, perhaps 5-10%. Many site owners do not understand the opportunity or are protective of their links. When nobody replies, the step is to identify the next tier of relevant pages that could serve as source material and pitch those instead. Persistence targets the ecosystem, not a single page.

SEO success is measured in rankings and traffic. Use a rank tracker for your target keywords and analytics for organic sessions.

GEO success is harder to measure directly. You can periodically ask models like ChatGPT to answer questions in your niche and see if your brand or URL is cited. This is manual and anecdotal.

AEO success is measured by visibility in AI Overviews. You must run the target queries regularly and record whether your site is cited, what position it holds in the answer, and which competitors are named. This requires systematic tracking because Overviews can change daily. You track your own prompted queries, not the world's conversations. Mentionry's answer engine tracking does this: it runs your questions on a schedule against the engines on your plan, records the answer text, citations, and named brands, and computes visibility and share of voice from those records.

Most businesses should start with SEO. It is the foundation, drives qualified traffic, and the playbook is mature. GEO is a long-term, almost archival strategy for established brands with resources to create reference content.

AEO is for businesses that see their buyers asking questions directly answered by AI Overviews. If you search your core buying questions and see an AI answer box, AEO is a direct channel to that point of decision. The work overlaps with SEO, requiring good content and links, but the targeting is far more precise.

You can do both SEO and AEO concurrently. The same piece of deep, authoritative content can target a keyword for SEO and serve as the perfect source for an AI Overview. The outreach to acquire links for that page then serves both purposes.