A growing share of questions now get answered before anyone visits a website: in a Google AI Overview, in AI Mode, or in a conversation with ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity. For a business, the question is no longer only "do we rank?" but also "when someone asks an assistant about what we do, are we part of the answer?"

That is what AEO and GEO are about. The terms are new; most of the work is not. This guide explains what they mean, what Google and the research actually say, and the practical steps that make a business easier to cite.

AEO, GEO and SEO: what's the difference?

  • SEO (search engine optimisation) helps your pages get found and ranked in search results.
  • AEO (answer engine optimisation) shapes content so it can be lifted as a direct answer: featured snippets, voice answers and AI summaries.
  • GEO (generative engine optimisation) aims to make your content visible and quoted inside answers that AI systems write by combining several sources.

They overlap heavily. A page that is crawlable, clearly structured and genuinely useful tends to do well in all three.

What Google says about its AI features

Google's own guidance is direct: the usual SEO best practices still apply to AI features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, and there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in them. Its advice on helpful content asks the same questions it always has, such as whether the content shows first-hand expertise, whether it would satisfy someone who came straight to it, and whether it was made for people rather than for rankings.

Google has also said that generative AI can help with research and structure, but that using it to produce many pages without adding value may break its spam policy on scaled content abuse. More pages are not the goal; more useful pages are.

What the research says

The term GEO comes from a 2023 research paper that tested ways of rewriting content to make it more visible in AI-generated answers. The authors report that their methods could boost visibility by up to 40%, and that what works varies between subject areas. The broader lesson for businesses is that content structure and evidence influence whether an AI system picks you up, and that there is no single trick that works everywhere.

Seven ways to make your content easier to cite

  1. Answer first. Put a clear 40 to 60 word answer directly under the question it addresses, then expand.
  2. Write headings as the questions people ask, so each section matches a real query.
  3. Keep one idea per paragraph, so a passage still makes sense when quoted on its own.
  4. Back claims with sources and your own data, and link to the original research or documentation.
  5. Show who wrote it. Named authors and a clear About page give both readers and machines a reason to trust you.
  6. Use structured data that describes your organisation, articles and FAQs accurately.
  7. Keep pages current. Update facts and dates when something changes, rather than publishing a new page.

Make sure AI systems know who you are

AI assistants lean on what the wider web says about a company. If your name, address, phone number and services differ between your website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and review platforms, you are harder to recognise as one business. Keep those details identical everywhere, link your profiles from your website, and collect genuine reviews on the platforms buyers in your field already use.

Technical basics that still matter

  • Pages that load quickly and render their main content without depending on scripts.
  • A clean XML sitemap and a robots.txt file that doesn't block the crawlers you want, including the AI crawlers you choose to allow.
  • Descriptive titles, one clear H1 and logical headings on every page.
  • Structured data that matches what is visible on the page.
  • An optional llms.txt file that summarises your key pages. It is cheap to add, though its benefit is not yet proven.

How to measure AEO and GEO

Measurement is still immature, so combine a few signals rather than trusting one number.

  • Each month, ask the main AI assistants the questions your buyers ask and note whether, and how, your business appears.
  • Watch referral traffic from AI assistants in your analytics.
  • Track impressions and clicks for question-style queries in Google Search Console.
  • Count mentions on review sites, directories and industry articles over time.

What to avoid

  • Mass-producing thin pages to target every keyword variation.
  • Hidden text or instructions aimed at AI systems rather than readers.
  • Claims you can't support, which damage trust when an assistant repeats them.
  • Fake or incentivised reviews.
  • Treating AEO and GEO as a replacement for SEO. They depend on it.

Start with your ten most valuable pages: add a direct answer to each, check that every claim is supported, and make sure your business details match across the web. That does more than any new tool.