AEO vs GEO vs SEO - Let's Break it Down
In 2025, there are a lot of acronyms to keep up to date with – but essentially when you hear GEO (stands for Generative Engine Optimisation), this is just another term for the widely adpoted term AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) – these new terms are there to compliment SEO (for traditional search) to help you gain appearance on LLM’s like ChatGPT Search and now Google AI Mode.
AEO and GEO: Essentially the Same—and Why SEO Needs Them Both
In the rapidly evolving world of search, the terms AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) and GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) are becoming more than just industry buzzwords—they’re virtually interchangeable.
At Digital Landscope, we’ve distilled these nuances through consistent strategy testing. Our AEO case studies showcase GEO and AEO—both are about ensuring your content is picked up by generative platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and more. Our testing site, aeoagency.co.uk, has demonstrated that optimising for AEO and GEO, allows us to be a trusted source in AI-generated summaries.
So, is AEO the same as GEO? What’s the difference between GEO and AEO?
When comparing “AEO vs GEO”, there is only experimental framework that a few agencies have put together to define a difference between the two, especially in the way we take aim at LLM’s in a coordinated way – we have tried and tested techniques for the best AEO implementation.
AEO & GEO takes aim in delivering structured content to provide direct answers—featured snippets, Q&A formats, FAQ-style responses, and schema mark-up—so that answer engines can easily surface your content verbatim. It is about making your content trustable and authoritative enough to be synthesised or cited by generative AI systems. It emphasises depth, topical authority and credibility, so AI knows to lean on your content when constructing answers.
Building credibility is essential—so AI chooses your content when synthesising responses. That’s why, in practice, AEO and GEO are effectively the same endeavour: both aim to get you noticed by AI, they both focus on direct answer visibility, and citations in generative responses.
At Digital Landscope, our AEO case studies tell the story. Clients — even in competitive niches like e-commerce—have seen conversion leaps. One testing client went from zero to ten purchases in just one month, courtesy of ChatGPT Search traffic alone. That’s the power of combining clear answer-structured content with AI-friendly formatting and authority signals.
On aeoagency.co.uk, our experiments underline this: schema-rich Q&A sections, authoritative citations, FAQs and well-structured headings ensure that content doesn’t just rank—it becomes the content that generative AI wants to quote or summarise. The overlap between AEO and GEO becomes crystal clear.
So when someone asks, “is AEO the same as GEO?” or “what’s the difference between GEO and AEO?”, or even “AEO vs GEO vs SEO”, the answer is simple: they’re two sides of the same coin. Both are essential, and they mesh seamlessly. You can call it AEO or GEO – they both have the same ultimate goal – appearance on LLM’s.
SEO remains the foundation—powering discoverability via keyword targeting, technical optimisation, backlinks and long-form content. AEO/GEO layers on top—delivering visibility, AI citations and users with excellent intent for the future of search.
The best approach? A combined one: SEO + AEO (aka GEO). It’s not just future-proof—it future-enables your content today. At Digital Landscope, we offer a combined approach with both SEO and AEO for max visibility across LLM’s and traditional search covering GEO areas, which are with our tested techniques, are very much the same as AEO.
Digital Landscope SEO / AEO strategies encompass everything needed (like structured data and relevant content) to rank and show up in ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode, and other AI platforms.
