You’ve surely heard of SEO. Recently, a new acronym has been going around: GEO, short for Generative Engine Optimization. Some people also talk about AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or AI search optimization. These terms all describe the same idea: getting AI assistants to name your business when someone asks them a question. Here’s what changes, and what doesn’t.
SEO in one sentence
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is about improving your ranking in the results of a search engine like Google or Bing: a list of links, from which the customer chooses for themselves.
GEO in one sentence
GEO is about improving your chances of being named in the written answer from an assistant like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity, or in Google’s AI overviews. The customer gets an answer, not a list. There are often only a few businesses in that answer.
The differences that matter
- The outcome: in SEO, you’re aiming for a position in a list. In GEO, you’re aiming to be cited in a piece of text.
- Customer behaviour: in SEO, they compare several links. In GEO, they read the answer and often act on the first recommendation.
- What gets measured: in SEO, position and clicks. In GEO, whether you’re named or not, in which answers, and how accurately.
- Stability: an SEO ranking is relatively stable. An AI’s answers vary from one time to the next, so we measure a trend across several tests.
What they have in common
They’re far less opposed than people think. In both cases, what helps is:
- a clear website that says precisely what you do and where;
- consistent information (name, address, phone, services) across all platforms;
- useful content that answers real questions;
- reliable mentions from independent sources.
Good groundwork benefits both. That’s why we don’t replace SEO with GEO: we make sure the foundations serve both.
Do you have to choose?
Not necessarily. If your budget is limited, start with this question: where do your customers ask their question? If more and more of them are asking an AI “who should I call for...”, GEO becomes the priority. If your customers still mostly search on Google, SEO keeps all its value. In practice, most small businesses need both, in this order: fix the foundations, then measure what the AIs say.
What neither one guarantees
No one can guarantee a first-place ranking on Google, or being named by ChatGPT. Algorithms change, AI answers vary, and your competitors are working on it too. Be wary of any promise of a guaranteed result. What’s honest: clear information everywhere, regular follow-up and results presented with full transparency.
Where to start
- Take the ten-minute test to see what the AIs say about you.
- Fix any information that doesn’t match.
- Make your service pages specific, with your city.
- Add a frequently asked questions page and structured data.
