Short answer: AEO (answer engine optimisation) makes a specific customer question easy to answer. GEO (generative engine optimisation) makes a page's facts clear and reliable enough to be represented accurately—and potentially cited—in a generated answer. AI SEO is often used as an umbrella for visibility in AI search, including AEO and GEO; some providers also use it to mean using AI tools for ordinary SEO work. Ask which meaning they intend. All of this builds on useful, accessible SEO work.
Google's guide to generative AI search names AEO and GEO as common terms for AI-search work but treats that work as part of SEO. Traditional search results, AI summaries and conversational answers can all help someone discover a business; the useful question is what customer task does the page support, and what evidence will show progress?
Compare the terms by the work they describe
These are working descriptions for comparing a brief or agency proposal, not official categories with fixed boundaries.
| Label | Main question | Typical work | Evidence to review |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | Can the right customer find and use the page through search? | Make it accessible, accurate, relevant and useful; earn appropriate visibility in search results. | Search impressions, relevant visits and customer actions, kept separate. |
| AEO | Does the page give a clear answer to a real question? | Place a direct answer near the question, then explain conditions and next steps. | Test whether a reader can act on the answer; record any answer appearances separately from visits. |
| GEO | Can a generated response describe the business accurately and use the page as a source? | Publish specific, supportable facts and keep important business details consistent. | Record the prompt, platform, answer, date and any cited URL; a mention or citation is not a lead. |
| AI SEO | Does the proposal mean AI-search visibility or AI-assisted SEO work? | Identify the pages, technical checks, editorial changes, human review and measurement. | Judge the delivered page improvements and outcomes, not the acronym. |
AEO and GEO overlap. Both benefit from clear answers, maintained facts and readable pages. AEO puts the question and answer first; GEO asks whether a generated response can represent the source accurately. A page can do both. SEO is wider than chasing a number-one ranking, and an AI mention can be useful without replacing visits or enquiries.
One business page as an example
Imagine a hypothetical Melbourne catering business whose office-catering page leaves customers asking: “How much notice do we need, where do you deliver, and what happens after we enquire?” This is an example, not a DonutLabs client result.
First, the business owner confirms the actual notice period, delivery area, minimum order and enquiry process. The page states those facts in text and gives visitors a clear route to ask about an event. That is useful website work and an SEO foundation.
AEO: answer a specific customer question
Answer engine optimisation starts with a question a customer actually asks. The aim is an answer they can understand and use, whether they read it on the page or encounter it through a search or assistant interface. It does not make a platform select the page as its answer.
On the catering page, a heading such as “Do you deliver to my area?” leads with the owner-approved delivery area. The next sentences explain exceptions and how to check an address. A person should understand the answer without guessing from a promotional slogan.
To apply AEO to a page:
- Collect recurring questions from real enquiries, sales conversations or support records. Choose questions that affect a decision, not a list of every wording variation.
- Put a short answer under a descriptive heading, followed by the conditions, evidence and next step a customer needs.
- Use paragraphs, lists or a table when they help people scan. Keep the important answer in accessible page text.
- Ask someone unfamiliar with the business to answer the question using only that page. Fix what they cannot find or understand.
Structured data can support eligible search features when it accurately reflects visible content. Google's AI feature guidance says there is no special schema or markup required for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Adding FAQ markup by itself is not an AEO result.
GEO: make your page a reliable source
Generative engine optimisation is the work of making a business and its pages easier to represent accurately in generated responses. A mention or citation can be one sign of visibility, but it is neither guaranteed nor proof of a visit or enquiry. GEO still depends on ordinary SEO foundations: a usable page with facts a platform can access and a person can trust.
For the catering business, the owner confirms its service area, notice period, minimum order and booking process, then keeps those details consistent across relevant pages and business profiles. If an AI answer later gets a detail wrong, the team records the exact prompt, response, date and cited sources. It checks its own source information before changing the page or assuming the platform made a mistake.
A practical GEO review asks:
- Are the claims specific and supportable? Name the delivery area and conditions instead of saying “we deliver everywhere”; link to original evidence for changing external facts.
- Can people and permitted search crawlers reach the important facts in page text? Check indexing and access issues before commissioning new copy.
- Do relevant profiles and genuine third-party references agree with the business's current facts? Correct discrepancies, but do not buy or manufacture mentions.
- When the page is cited or the brand is mentioned, what did the answer actually say? Save the prompt, platform, date and source URL so observations can be compared later.
Our guide to citations in ChatGPT and AI Overviews goes deeper into source access and page-level tactics. Google's current guidance cautions against special AI files, forced “chunking” and inauthentic mentions as shortcuts for Google Search.
AI SEO: ask what work the label means
AI SEO is a broad commercial label. It often means improving visibility in AI-generated search answers, which includes much of the AEO and GEO work above. It can also mean using AI tools to help with ordinary SEO research, drafting or analysis. These are different deliverables, so a proposal should define the term before promising a result.
For the catering page, ask the provider to identify which page changes, which business facts need approval, which platform or crawler access issue was found, and what evidence will count as progress. If AI helps draft the answer, a person still needs to approve its facts and usefulness. If the work is about AI-search visibility, the provider should separate page improvements from any later mentions, citations, visits and enquiries.
Technical access also depends on the platform. Google says an eligible supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode must be indexed and allowed a Search snippet; it requires no special AI markup. OpenAI distinguishes OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search from GPTBot for model training. A proposal should name the actual access problem and the relevant crawler instead of treating “allow all AI bots” as a universal fix.
Where should a small business start?
Use the current customer journey to choose the next task:
- People cannot find the important page. Check ordinary SEO foundations first: whether the page can be discovered, whether its title reflects the service, and whether related pages link to it. Our first-month SEO action plan gives a sequence for that work.
- People reach the page but still ask the same question. Improve the answer, its location and its conditions. Ask a person unfamiliar with the business to explain the next step using only the page.
- AI answers mention the business inaccurately or cite another source. Record a repeatable sample and inspect the underlying information before making a change. Keep mentions, citations and visits separate.
- An agency proposes a separate “AI SEO package”. Ask which pages will change, which facts need approval, what access or crawler issue has been found, and what evidence will count as progress.
There is no need to build three versions of the catering page. One accurate page that completes the customer's task is the starting point for all three labels.
How do you measure progress without mistaking visibility for sales?
Keep visibility, visits and enquiries in separate columns. For Google Search, the Generative AI performance report in Search Console shows impressions for supported features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode. An impression means a link was shown; it is not a visit or sale. The report may be absent when a site lacks enough impressions or access. Review it alongside ordinary search and enquiry records.
Microsoft's Bing AI Performance report shows citation activity across its supported AI surfaces, but Microsoft says citation counts do not establish ranking, placement or page importance. For ChatGPT and other answers, a repeatable manual sample can record the question, answer, mention, citation and date. Our AI search visibility baseline guide shows how to keep that record. No single count certifies sales impact.
Be wary of a proposal that promises a position inside an AI answer, requires a special file or schema for Google inclusion, or treats more citations as proof of more customers. Ask for a page-level improvement and an honest measurement plan instead. Google's guidance says meeting technical requirements does not guarantee inclusion.
The practical distinction: use AEO and GEO as names for the questions you are investigating, and ask anyone offering “AI SEO” to spell out the work. Start with the page and the reader. The acronym is useful only if it helps you make a better decision.
If you need help deciding what to improve first, bring one important page, the customer questions it should answer and any available search or enquiry records to DonutLabs' SEO services team. The first job is to agree what that page needs to do for its reader.
