AEO & GEO explained
What it means to optimize for AI answers, and how it differs from classic SEO.
SEO gets you ranked in a list of blue links. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) get you named and quoted inside the AI's answer, in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI overviews.
- SEO, win a position in the ranked results.
- AEO, be the source an answer engine pulls the answer from.
- GEO, be the brand a generative model recommends by name.
The mechanics overlap with SEO (crawlable, authoritative, well-structured content) but reward different things: clear direct answers, factual consistency across the web, entities the model already trusts, and being cited by sources the model reads.
AI models mostly cite pages they can read and verify. If your key claims live only in images, PDFs or JavaScript that doesn't render, they're invisible to most crawlers.
Related guides
Structure pages so an answer engine can lift a clean, correct answer.
Help AI crawlers find and understand your most important content.
Measure whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity actually mention you.
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