Definitions
- SEO — Search Engine Optimization. Targets ranking in traditional search results (Google's 10 blue links, Bing, etc.). Primary signals: links, content, technical SEO, user signals.
- AEO — Answer Engine Optimization. Targets being the answer surfaced in featured snippets, People-Also-Ask boxes, voice assistants, and AI-generated answers. Primary signals: structured data, FAQ format, clear definitions.
- GEO — Generative Engine Optimization. Specifically targets being cited inside LLM-generated answers. Primary signals: entity consensus, schema, llms.txt, citation breadth.
What overlaps
About 60% of the on-site work is shared: clean HTML, fast pages, schema markup, semantic headers, internal linking, freshness. If you do solid technical SEO with FAQ schema and a clear content structure, you're 60% of the way to AEO/GEO already.
What diverges
Off-site is where the three split. SEO weights backlinks heavily. AEO and GEO weight third-party brand mentions across diverse domains (directories, podcasts, Reddit, listicles) more than raw link count. A brand with 50 high-authority mentions and 100 backlinks often out-cites a brand with 0 mentions and 1,000 backlinks in AI answers.
Which should you prioritize?
Most SMBs in 2026: 60% SEO, 30% AEO/GEO, 10% paid AI optimization (Bing Ads to influence ChatGPT). Pure local service businesses: tilt more toward SEO + GEO citation building. B2B / SaaS: tilt more toward GEO + content depth. Brand-stage businesses: tilt toward GEO + PR because brand mentions feed all three.