GEO, AEO or SEO? What your team needs to know.

Two names, one job

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. AEO stands for answer engine optimisation. Agencies and job ads use both, and some say AI search optimisation, AI visibility or LLM optimisation instead. In practice they all describe the same job: making sure ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews know your brand, trust it and recommend it when your customer asks for help.

I use GEO, because it's the word I hear most from big brand teams and it's the one Microsoft uses for Bing. If your team says AEO, carry on. Don't lose a month arguing about the name.

Where SEO fits

Good SEO still matters. The AI engines read the web through search indexes, so if Google and Bing can't find and understand your pages, the assistants usually can't either. Google's own position is that optimising for AI search is still SEO.

What changes is the goal. SEO aims for a click from a list of links. GEO aims for a mention inside one answer, and that answer is built from many sources, most of which you don't own.

What the engines are reading

When I asked four assistants the same buying question, they gave eleven answers between them and rarely agreed. Most of the evidence came from reviews, blogs and comparison sites, rarely from the brands themselves. Your brand is being described by other people, and the machines read all of it.

So the work spreads across the business:

• Content that answers the questions customers really ask, in plain language, with the answer first.
• Product data that's complete and consistent everywhere you sell, marketplaces included.
• Reviews and ratings, because the engines lean on them heavily.
• PR and partners: the articles, lists and comparison sites the engines trust in your category.
• Access: making sure your site lets the AI crawlers in. Some hosting and security settings now block them by default.

Where I'd start

Pick fifteen questions your customers ask before they buy. Ask them in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. Write down who gets named, what's said about you and which sources are cited. Do it again next month.

That one exercise tells a team more than any strategy deck. It shows where you're missing, which sources matter in your category and who's winning the answer today. It's also how I start every GEO session I run.

A job for the whole team

GEO touches marketing, ecommerce, PR, product and customer service, so it rarely sits in one department. That's why I treat it as capability building, and why my GEO programmes give people a small mission to do back at work between sessions.

If you'd like a GEO session or programme for your team, see GEO training, email me or talk to the team at Econsultancy.