Searching for something nowadays takes many forms. There’s Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Siri, Alexa, Co-pilot. Audiences are even searching on social media platforms. The list is growing each year, so how can you reasonably keep up with the search trends, the current AI influence, all while maintaining good search volume? Let’s break it down the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO.
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?
- SEO: Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization focuses on optimizing web pages for specific keywords so the content appears prominently in search engine result pages.
Metrics for Search Engine Optimization: Organic Search Results, Search Result Positions, clicks, sessions.
- GEO: Generative Engine Optimization
Generative Engine Optimization focuses on optimizing content so that large language models, including ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Microsoft Copilot, reference it in their generated responses. It’s important to note this will not drive impactful traffic to your site. It is more so, that your name appears in the overview as a citation.
Metrics for Generative Engine Optimization: AI citations.
- AEO: Answer Engine Optimization
Answer Engine Optimization is when you frame prompts for search engines or AI models in the form of a question. Again, this will not drive traffic volume. Your content may be included as a citation.
Metrics for Generative Engine Optimization: AI citations.
How to optimize my website for SEO, GEO and AEO?
The following are best practices for optimizing your website for SEO, GEO and AEO.
- Understand the source of your web traffic. Knowing the volume of traffic and source type can quickly put into perspective which source you should prioritize. GEO and AEO may be the current influence for how audiences are searching, but they are not large traffic drivers. They are citations. Be mindful of where you focus your website efforts. Content should be optimized for all engines.
- Restructure your web page content for Q-and-A formats. Today, most searches start with a question and AI doesn’t have all the correct answers (if any), but your site can. Adjusting your pages to include H1, H2 and H3 headlines is now incredibly important. Content should be straightforward and prioritize question-and-answer formats within headlines to allow for search engines and algorithms to pull snippets from your site and serve them in results and citations. Reminder: algorithms may be scanning your site, but real people are still reading the content. Ensure your brand voice is still shining through.
- Review website technical setup early. All search engines and models continually update their crawling, often shifting what they prioritize each year. Ensuring your site schema and technical structure are properly configured is imperative for these evolving scans.
- Invest in an SEO tool. Google Search Console, Semrush, Siteimprove, SEO Clarity (and many more), are examples of tools to utilize to start analyzing your search volume, trending queries and AI appearances. Depending on your needs, these tools offer competitive insights, technical scans, broken-link detection, keyphrase trend analysis and more.
- Set up content reviews. Auditing your content every 6 months to a year is beneficial in ensuring your content is up to date and relevant. Here is a list you should be checking on your site:
- Audit keyphrases for long-tail terms every 6 months to a year: updating your meta descriptions, SEO titles and page content along the way.
- Inspect all media elements like images, PDFs, videos to ensure their file names, alt text, etc. are optimized for search engine scans.
- Revisit your social media profiles. Search engines and AI models are now crawling social media profiles and posts. It is important to review your Google Business Profile setup, YouTube channel video titles and descriptions, and your “About Us” sections across all social media profiles to ensure accuracy, consistency and to infuse relevant search terms as well.
Next Steps:
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