What is GEO vs AEO in SEO? What is the Difference

Introduction: The Never-Ending “Death of SEO” Debate

Anyone who has worked in digital marketing for a while has probably heard the phrase “SEO is dead” at least a dozen times. People have been predicting its end for the last 10 to 15 years.

SEO is alive and well in 2025 — although it looks very different than it did before. We also learn what is GEO vs AEO in SEO

It’s the terminology that has changed. The following abbreviations have suddenly become popular: AI SEO, LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization), GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization), and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization).

This confuses both new and experienced SEOs:

Beginners wonder: “Should I even try to learn SEO now?”

Experienced professionals ask: “Should I focus my attention on AIO, AEO or GEO? What’s worth my time?”

And what’s worse is that Google doesn’t make things easy. Instead of offering clear, implementable guidance, it often responds with its trademark line: “It depends.”

Whether the question is about backlinks, ranking signals, or algorithm updates, the answers are always wrapped in ambiguity – leaving SEOs more confused than enlightened.

The point is, you need to be familiar with the principles of SEO before you adopt some new catchy acronym like AIO, AEO, GEO, or even LLMO. Because if you don’t have a good understanding of how search engines actually work, these terms will sound like marketing jargon to you.

So, let’s take a comprehensive look at SEO in 2025 – and only then dive into these new-age terms.

The Myth: SEO as Quick Ranking Magic

There are still many people who believe that “true SEO” can get any website ranked on page one of Google overnight. If you have worked in this field for some time, you know that this is a complete myth.

There is no magic secret or quick fix when it comes to ranking a website. It is a systematic, planned process that requires both technical know-how and strategic preparation.

Ranking your website on Google is important – but it’s only one part of SEO. SEOs often think of ranking as their ultimate goal, when in reality it’s only one part of a much larger puzzle.

To fully understand SEO (and later make an informed decision about choosing between AIO, AEO, or GEO) you must first understand how search engines work.

The Logic of SEO: Understanding Search Engines

If SEO is the practice, then search engines are the playground. Without knowing how they work, you can’t optimize effectively.

Google and other current search engines work in five logical steps:

1- Discovery
2- Crawling
3- Rendering
4- Indexing
5- Ranking

Let’s break each of these down.

1: Discovery

Discovery is where it all begins. Google needs to find your content before it can rank it.

Let’s say you create a brand new website with 100 pages – or maybe 100,000. What makes Google aware of these pages in the first place.

That’s what discovery is all about. Google finds new URLs through several methods:

Sitemaps you submit to Google Search Console.
Backlinks from other websites pointing to your page.
Internal links from within your own site structure.
Search engines use crawling patterns, APIs, and feeds to discover new URLs.

Without discovery, the rest of the process doesn’t even begin. If Google doesn’t know your page exists, it can’t crawl, render, index, or rank it.

2: Crawling

In the case of URLs discovered by Google, its crawlers (Googlebots) visit those URLs. Google crawls your content and evaluates what it finds, much like a digital inspector.

But crawling is not guaranteed. Sometimes Google may choose not to crawl a page.

especially if:

The page is blocked by robots.txt.
There are too many duplicate pages.
The crawl budget (the number of pages Google crawls from your site) is limited.

This means one thing for SEO: it becomes easier for Google to crawl. Make sure your robots.txt and meta tags don’t inadvertently block important pages. Use clear site architecture, and maximize internal linking.

3: Rendering

Just crawling is half the work. After Google scans your page, it needs to be rendered, which requires modifying your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to determine how the page will look and function for real people.

If your website uses a lot of JavaScript, which is common in contemporary web development, Google may have trouble rendering it well. This may delay or prevent proper sequencing.

This is why technical SEO is so important today. Pages must be fast, lightweight, responsive, and easily understood by search engines.

4: Indexing

Indexing can be compared to putting your book into Google’s huge library. Google evaluates whether your page is eligible to remain in its search index after crawling and rendering it.

Not all pages are indexed. Some pages may be ignored for the following reasons:

Thin content (pages with little to no value).
Duplicate content that adds nothing new.
Low-quality pages that fail to meet user intent.

Indexing is similar to putting your book on a library shelf, while discovery, crawling, and rendering are similar to getting your book printed. Without it no one will ever be able to find it.

5: Ranking

Finally we get to the point that seems most appealing to everyone: ranking.

Ranking is where Google decides how your indexed pages should appear in search results. The truth is that ranking is about more than just keywords – it’s about relevance, quality, authority, and user satisfaction.

Google’s algorithms consider hundreds of factors, including backlinks and page speed, as well as user signals such as dwell time. Although the exact formula will never be known, the basics are clear: generate signals of trust, ensure technical health, and provide meaningful content.

The Base Before the Acronyms

Before we consider AIO, AEO, GEO, or LLMO, we need to understand the five-step foundation. Because whether you’re optimizing for AI tools, voice assistants, or local searches, the process always comes back to:

Can the engine discover your content?
Can it crawl and understand it?
Can it render it properly?
Will it index it in its database?
And finally—does it deserve to rank?

Talking about the future acronyms makes sense only when you have mastered this foundation.
Now let’s analyze each of the buzzwords in 2025 to see if they hold significance for you.

AIO (Artificial Intelligence Optimization): A Misleading Term

The first term is AIO—Artificial Intelligence Optimization. It seems futuristic and powerful at first glance. But the truth is that AIO is not a useful term for marketers.

Why? Because artificial intelligence is not something that marketers optimize for. We are not developing AI models or using supercomputers. Engineers and scientists are responsible for this.

As SEOs, our users are not AI scientists looking for a breakthrough in medical research from ChatGPT. Instead, they are just ordinary people who are looking for things like:

“Best dentist near me”
“Affordable running shoes online”
“How to fix a leaking tap”

Most people ask search engines and LLM-based platforms (like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity), not AI itself.

Therefore, “optimization for artificial intelligence” is a misleading concept. What we actually optimize for are the platforms that use AI, not AI itself. We don’t optimize AI, but the platforms that use it. Because of this, the idea of ​​AIO is flawed and unnecessary.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): A Practical Term

Next is AEO—Answer Engine Optimization.

Platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI Overview now provide direct answers rather than just links, so the term seems more meaningful.

By optimizing your content for these search engines, you ensure that:

Structured in Q&A format.
Short and concise (30–60 words for snippets).
Schema markup is supported for better machine understanding.

For example:

When someone asks ChatGPT, “What is the difference between SEO and AEO?” Your website can be instantly referenced in the feedback if your page provides the most understandable response.

So AEO is a logical and practical phrase for marketers in 2025.

AI SEO: Old Wine in a New Bottle

Another buzzword is AI SEO (artificial intelligence-based search engine optimization).

While this might sound new, the reality is that we’ve all been using AI SEO since 2017. This was the time when Google introduced its first artificial intelligence-based algorithm. Search rankings have since been impacted by other AI-powered updates such as BERT, Spambrain, and the Helpful Content update.

Even Google Analytics 4 is powered by AI. AI SEO is therefore already in place if you have been optimizing websites since 2017. There’s nothing particularly new about the term – it’s simply a rebranding of what we’ve already been doing.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): The New Darling

Next comes GEO—Generative Engine Optimization.

This means optimizing content for generative AI platforms — search engines or bots that provide AI-generated answers instead of just links.

This refers to optimizing content for Generative AI platforms—search engines or bots that provide AI-generated answers rather than just links. Because both GEO and AEO focus on optimizing for platforms that provide answers rather than just results, they actually overlap considerably in practice.

For instance:

Google’s AI Overview gives summarized answers directly in search results.
ChatGPT and Gemini pull content from their training data and live sources.
Optimizing these requires the same strategies as AEO – clear, concise answers, strong authority, and structured data.

Thus, AEO and GEO are essentially the same process with different nomenclature.The reason GEO is more popular at the moment is that think tanks and industry conferences are promoting it as the next great thing.

LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization): An Overreach

Last but not least, LLMO or Large Language Model Optimization is also important.

This seems reasonable on paper. Ultimately, LLMs such as LLaMA, Claude, and GPT are widely used today.The problem is that an LLM is about much more than just search.

Large Language Models are being used to:

Generate text, images, and videos.
Assist in medical research and predictions.
Power chatbots, enterprise tools, and countless applications.

To say that we “optimize for LLM” is too broad. As marketers, we can’t optimize for the entire field of LLM—it goes far beyond SEO. Instead we optimize specifically for search and answer-driven platforms that use LLM.

Conclusion: Back to SEO First

All of these abbreviations are built on the foundation of SEO, so keep that in mind before using them.

If your content can’t be discovered, crawled, rendered, indexed, and ranked, no amount of “GEO” or “AEO” will save it.

If your site lacks authority, clarity, and value, it won’t appear in Google’s AI Overviews or in ChatGPT’s responses.

So the smart path in 2025 is this:

Master SEO basics.

Layer in AEO/GEO strategies to adapt to AI-driven search.
Ignore buzzwords like AIO or LLMO that don’t serve practical marketing goals.
In the end, SEO hasn’t died—it has simply grown new branches. The roots remain the same.