Search is splitting in two. Alongside the familiar list of blue links, people now get direct answers, from Google's AI overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. Optimising for those answers is a new discipline with two new acronyms. Here's what they mean.
What is AEO?
Answer Engine Optimization is optimising so your content becomes the answer to a question, not just a result to scroll. It means structuring content around real questions, giving clear, direct answers, and marking it up so machines can extract it.
What is GEO?
Generative Engine Optimization goes a step further: getting large language models to cite you when they generate an answer about your topic. That depends on being clearly written, well-structured, factually consistent and referenced across the web.
How they differ from SEO
Classic SEO competes for a ranking position. AEO and GEO compete to be the source the engine quotes. The foundations overlap, structure, clarity, authority, but the goal shifts from "rank" to "be cited".
What actually helps
- Question-led headings and direct first-sentence answers.
- Structured data (FAQ, Article, Organization schema).
- Clear, factual, jargon-free writing a model can quote.
- Consistent business details and clear, crawlable service pages. An optional
llms.txtsummary is not a Google requirement.
Why act now
Being eligible for an AI answer does not guarantee a citation. Focus on useful, original information and measure actual search visibility and enquiries over time. For the practical how-to, read how to get cited by AI search, and to cover both fronts, how to show up on Google. Want it done for you? Start with an audit.