What is the difference between AEO, GEO and SEO?

Are AEO and GEO actually different?

In theory, slightly. AEO emphasises being extracted as a direct answer; GEO emphasises being selected as a source when a model composes a response. In practice the work is identical: clear structure, answer-first writing, verifiable claims, accurate markup, and presence on the sources engines draw from.

No consensus definition distinguishing these terms had been established in the academic literature as of early 2026, and they are used interchangeably across trade and practitioner contexts, alongside LLMO, AIO and AI SEO. If a vendor insists the distinction is critical to your strategy, they are selling a label.

Which term should you use?

AEO, if you are talking to anyone outside the SEO industry. “Answer engine” describes what the thing does; “generative engine” is abstract, and GEO collides with geography, geology and geo-targeting, which makes it awkward to search for and easy to misread in a board deck.

Terminology in a young field tends to consolidate. One term, or a broader umbrella like AI search optimization, will probably dominate while the others fade — but it is not worth betting a strategy on which wins, because the underlying work does not change either way.

Does SEO still matter?

Yes, and the industry has a habit of forgetting it when a new acronym arrives.

Google’s 2026 documentation states that optimising for generative AI search is optimising for the search experience, and is therefore still SEO. AI engines draw heavily on search indexes, so a site that cannot be crawled or indexed is invisible to the assistants too. Titles, internal linking, crawlability and page speed remain load-bearing.

The genuinely new requirement is not a new content discipline. It is technical: whether an AI agent can load, parse and act on your page, which no SEO audit has ever checked.

Where this is contested

Some practitioners argue GEO is meaningfully distinct because generative selection involves different signals from answer extraction. That may prove correct as the field matures, and we would not dismiss it. Today, we cannot find work that is genuinely in one bucket and not the other.

Our practical stance: use whichever word your audience uses, spend your effort on the underlying work, and treat any framework built primarily on a terminology distinction with suspicion.

Is AEO the same as GEO?

For practical purposes, yes. AEO emphasises direct answer extraction and GEO emphasises source selection, but no consensus definition separating them exists and practitioners use the terms interchangeably.

Should I use AEO or GEO in my strategy documents?

AEO is clearer for non-specialist audiences because "answer engine" describes what the technology does. GEO is abstract and collides with geography and geo-targeting.

Does AEO replace SEO?

No. Google states that optimising for generative AI search is still optimising for search, and AI engines draw on search indexes. A site that cannot be crawled or indexed is invisible to assistants too.

What is LLMO?

Another name for the same practice, alongside AIO and AI SEO. None of these terms have agreed definitions distinguishing them from AEO or GEO.