AEO and GEO are largely extensions of good SEO. Here's what has actually changed with AI search, what still matters, and five things businesses should do now.
Search has split into three conversations that sound like three different disciplines. SEO is about ranking a page in a result list. AEO — answer engine optimization — is about being the source an assistant quotes when it answers a question directly. GEO — generative engine optimization — is about being included when a model synthesizes an answer from several sources.
In practice they rest on the same foundation. A model can only cite what it can crawl, read, and trust. Clear information architecture, descriptive headings, fast pages, structured data, and specific claims backed by evidence still decide whether you are eligible to be mentioned at all.
What changed is the unit of competition. Instead of competing for a position on a page, you compete for inclusion in a paragraph. That rewards pages that answer one question completely, in plain language, near the top — and that name the entity, the category, and the proof points explicitly, because a model assembling an answer has no context beyond what is written down.
Our guidance to clients: fix crawlability and structure first, then write answer-shaped sections for the questions buyers actually ask, publish with real named expertise, keep facts consistent across the web, and measure mentions and citations alongside rankings. Five moves, in that order.