SEO vs AEO vs GEO: Getting Found in Google and AI Answers

What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?

The three terms describe the same goal, being found, in three different places. SEO (search engine optimisation) is about ranking a page in the list of search results. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is about being the single answer pulled out and shown directly: a featured snippet, a “People also ask” box or a voice assistant reply. GEO (generative engine optimisation) is about being mentioned or cited when an AI system writes its own answer, as in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews.

They are not three separate projects. AEO and GEO sit on top of SEO: AI assistants that search the web draw on pages that search engines can already find, crawl and trust. A site that is slow, thin or invisible in Google rarely becomes a favourite source for an AI.

Does traditional SEO still matter?

Yes. For most Indian small businesses, Google Search and Google Maps remain the main way new customers find them, and the fundamentals have not changed. You still need a fast mobile site, pages that match what people actually type, a well-kept Google Business Profile, and links or mentions from reputable local and industry sites.

• One page per service and location people search for, such as “interior designers in Kazhakuttam” and “modular kitchen Trivandrum”, each with genuinely distinct content.
• Page titles and headings that use the words customers use, not internal jargon.
• Core Web Vitals inside Google’s “good” thresholds: LCP ≤ 2.5 s, INP ≤ 200 ms and CLS ≤ 0.1.
• Reviews, accurate opening hours, service areas and real photos on your Google Business Profile.

Speed is the foundation most often neglected. Website Speed & SEO: What Actually Moves the Needle covers which fixes are worth the effort.

How do you optimise for answer engines (AEO)?

Answer engines pick content that answers a question directly and can be lifted out cleanly. The practical pattern is simple: put the question in a heading, answer it in the first 40–60 words underneath, then expand with detail, lists and tables.

• Lead with the answer. Open each section with a one- or two-sentence definition or verdict before any background.
• Use question-shaped headings. Mirror how people phrase searches and voice queries: “How much does…”, “What is the difference between…”, “Which should I choose…”.
• Format for extraction. Numbered steps for processes, tables for comparisons, short lists for criteria.
• Answer the follow-ups. Add an FAQ section covering the questions people ask next, each answered in a few plain sentences.
• Add structured data. Schema.org markup such as Organization, LocalBusiness, Article, FAQPage, Product and BreadcrumbList tells machines what a page is about and who stands behind it.

Do not add markup expecting a particular visual result. Google decides when to show rich results and has narrowed several types over the years. Add structured data because it makes your page unambiguous to every system that reads it, including AI crawlers.

How do you get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini (GEO)?

Generative engines assemble answers from many sources and tend to cite pages that state facts plainly and are backed up elsewhere. You cannot buy a placement, but you can make your business easy to understand and easy to trust.

• Keep your business details identical everywhere. Name, address, phone, founding year, services and leadership should match across your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, Justdial, IndiaMART, directories and press mentions. Inconsistency makes it harder for a model to be confident about who you are.
• Write quotable facts. Specific, self-contained sentences such as “We serve retailers in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam and Kochi” are easier to cite than marketing adjectives.
• Earn third-party mentions. Assistants lean on independent sources: news coverage, industry associations, review platforms, guest articles, podcasts and comparison listings. Being described by others counts for more than describing yourself.
• Publish something original. Calculators, checklists, pricing guides and your own data give assistants something worth citing that does not exist elsewhere.
• Do not block AI crawlers by accident. Check robots.txt and any firewall or CDN bot settings so the crawlers used by AI search tools can reach your public pages, if you want to be cited.
• Consider an llms.txt file. This is a proposed convention: a plain-text file at /llms.txt that summarises your site and links to key pages for language models. Support across AI tools is uneven and unproven, so treat it as a cheap extra, not a ranking lever.

How do you measure AEO and GEO?

Measurement is less mature than for classic SEO, so combine several signals. Google Search Console shows the queries you appear for, though it does not give a clean, separate count of every answer-box or AI appearance. Your analytics can show visits referred by AI assistants when they pass a referrer.

• A fixed list of 20–30 questions your customers ask, checked monthly in Google and two or three AI assistants, noting whether you are mentioned and which sources are cited instead.
• Referral traffic from AI tools grouped as its own channel in your analytics.
• Branded search volume over time, since people who hear your name in an AI answer often search for it next.
• A “How did you hear about us?” question on enquiry forms, with an AI assistant option.

Where should a small business start?

Sequence matters. Fix the SEO foundations first, because answer engines and AI assistants both draw on what search engines can already find. Then restructure your most important pages around direct answers, and only then invest in third-party mentions and original resources, which take longest but compound the most.

Zeekoi’s digital marketing team treats the three as one programme for that reason: the same clear, consistent, well-structured content serves Google, answer boxes and AI assistants at once. Our free GST calculator is an example of the kind of original resource that earns links and citations over time.