SEO vs. AEO vs. GEO: Which strategy is right for you?

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Search is evolving. Users are shifting from typing clunky keywords to asking full, conversational questions. And instead of scanning a list of blue links, they now expect direct answers. This shift is already impacting your site traffic, whether you’ve noticed it or not.

With the rise of AI search engines, traditional SEO alone is no longer enough. You need to expand your strategy to include AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). And you need to do it fast to stay ahead.

In this blog, you’ll learn how SEO, AEO, and GEO compare and how to implement them. This will help you choose the best approach to boost brand visibility and drive more traffic to your site.

SEO vs. AEO vs. GEO: Key differences explained

All three strategies help you increase website visibility and traffic. But they differ in how they achieve this. Let's understand those differences.

1. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What is SEO: SEO is the process of optimizing website content so that it ranks higher in traditional search engines like Google and Bing. You align your content with what users are looking for to attract more visitors to your website.

Target platforms: Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc.

Search terms: Short and long-tail keywords (Ex: best CRM software)

How does it work: Search engine bots crawl your web page and save it to their massive database. When a user searches, the search engine shows the list of the most relevant and helpful pages based on their algorithm.

Purpose of SEO: Bring organic, targeted traffic to a website.

Best tools for SEO: Semrush, Ahrefs, Expertise AI, Screaming Frog, and Google Search Console.

How to implement:

Keyword research: Identify words or phrases users search online. Look for high-traffic, low-competition keywords.
Content creation: Write helpful, clear, and original content that naturally includes those keywords. This content can be for website pages, blog posts, or product descriptions.
On-page SEO: Use the primary keywords in your title, URL, meta description, and image alt text naturally. Also, add internal links and use header tags effectively.
Off-page SEO: Get listed in business directories, write guest blogs for authoritative websites, and create high-quality content that attracts backlinks.
Technical SEO: Improve page speed, mobile crawlability, and schema so that search engines can better find and rank your web pages.
Local SEO: Appear in searches done by people nearby by creating a Google My Business profile, adding accurate business details, getting positive reviews, and targeting local keywords.

2. Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)

What is AEO: AEO is the process of improving website content so that it appears on answer engines like voice assistants and Google’s AI Overviews. Unlike SEO, which focuses on ranking your website, AEO gets your content selected as a direct answer to user queries. This leads to zero-click searches which increases your brand visibility.

Target platforms: Google (AI Overviews, People Also Ask, or Featured Snippets), voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant), smart devices, etc.

Search terms: Complete questions (Ex: Which CRM software is good for B2B SaaS companies)

How does it work: Answer engines scan huge volumes of online content to find the best response to user queries. If your website has topical authority and your content provides clear, structured, and to-the-point answers, answer engines are more likely to display it.

Purpose of AEO: Increase content visibility and brand recognition.

Best tools for AEO: Expertise AI, Answer the Public, Also Asked, Surfer SEO, Google Schema Markup Testing.

How to implement AEO:

Question-based queries: Find common questions your audience asks using tools like Expertise AI, understand the search intent, and create content that delivers direct answers.
Schema markup: Identify relevant schema types (Article, FAQ, HowTo, Product, Event, Local, etc.), generate schema markup, and add it to the <head> section of your HTML.
FAQ page: Create a well-structured FAQ page that provides helpful answers to common user queries or concerns.
Authority: Increase your website's authority by consistently creating superior quality content, acquiring quality backlinks, improving internal linking, and enhancing the user experience.
Voice search: Optimize for voice search by finding relevant, long-tail keywords and answering them in a natural way.

3. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

What is GEO: GEO is the process of optimizing your website content so that it appears in LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity AI. Rather than trying to rank your website in traditional search engines (SEO) or provide direct answers (AEO), GEO lets you influence what LLMs say when they generate responses to user queries. If your brand gets mentioned in LLM responses, you increase the brand's reach and establish authority.

Target platforms: ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, Perplexity AI, Microsoft Copilot, You.com, etc.

Search terms: Conversational, long queries (Ex: I’m looking for a CRM platform for B2B SaaS with chatbot, analytics, and automation features. Suggest the best options.)

How does it work: LLMs scan numerous sources in their training data to generate helpful responses to user queries. If your website is closely related to the topics you care about, it will be more visible in LLM responses for those topics.

Purpose of GEO: Get more brand visibility and attract targeted website clicks.

Best tools for GEO: Expertise AI, HubSpot's AI Search Grader, Ahrefs' AI content helper, Profound, Clearscope, TruSEO, etc.

How to implement GEO:

Content clusters: Identify key topics you want to be known for (like data science), list subtopics that are relevant to your offer (like how to learn data science, best data science courses, etc.), and create content to target each subtopic.
Semantic keywords: Semantic keywords are words and phrases that are contextually related to your main topic. Use them in your content to help LLMs better understand your content.
Brand mentions: Get your brand name to appear on authoritative places across the internet, like blog posts, news, forums, social media, etc.
Trust signals: Write accurate content that mentions sources, includes expert quotes, and highlights author bios. Also, keep updating the content to keep it fresh.
Content repurposing: Repurpose your existing blog posts for social media platforms like LinkedIn, X, or Instagram to increase your content's reach.

SEO or AEO or GEO? How to win search in 2025?

LLM users are growing. For instance, ChatGPT users increased from 300 million in Dec 2024 to 400 million in February 2025. Similarly, Perplexity AI now has 15 million monthly active users (which is constantly increasing). That’s why optimizing for these AI search engines is a necessity.

At the same time, voice search is also gaining popularity. Around 20.6% of people around the world use voice search with over 8.4 billion voice assistants. This highlights the importance of AEO.

Now that doesn’t mean SEO is going away. Google still dominates search with 89.57% market share. While ChatGPT gets 37.5 million searches a day, Google handles over 14 billion.

So, AEO and GEO are just expanding the definition of SEO. People are now using traditional search engines, answer engines, as well as generative AI tools to search for products, services, and information online. Therefore, to stay ahead, you need to optimize for all three: SEO, AEO, and GEO.

The good news? The core principles of SEO, like identifying the right search terms, creating quality content, and building authority, also support AEO and GEO. So you’re not starting from scratch.

If you want to boost your overall search optimization strategy, try Expertise AI. This B2B intelligence platform helps you identify the real questions your customers are asking. It also creates indexable website pages that target the most asked queries, improving your visibility across search engines, answer engines, and generative AI tools.