SEO gets your page into Google's results. AEO makes that page easy to lift as the answer. GEO gets your brand named inside AI answers on ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. You don't need three teams. You need to keep the SEO work that still feeds AI, change a few habits, and move some hours. This page shows you which, with your own numbers.
Where to start
See what actually changes, then pick the one you need first
The names overlap, and many people use GEO and AEO for the same job. The useful split is by what you are trying to win: a position in a list of links (SEO), the quoted answer on a page (AEO), or your brand named in an AI-written answer (GEO). Each one depends on the one before it. A page Google can't index can't be quoted, and a brand no source names won't be recommended.
| Question | SEO | AEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you win | A high position in the links | Your page quoted as the answer | Your brand named in the AI answer |
| Where it shows | Google and Bing results | AI Overviews, featured snippets, voice | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Mode |
| Bot that must reach you | Googlebot, Bingbot | Googlebot (snippets must be allowed) | OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Googlebot |
| Unit of work | A page and its keyword | A question and its first 2 sentences | Your brand across many sites |
| Main lever | Relevance, links, crawlability | Answer-first text, facts in plain text | Mentions on cited pages, consistent facts |
| What a win looks like | Rank and clicks | Being the linked source | Share of answers that name you |
| How you check | One search, fairly stable | A few searches, desktop and mobile | Many repeat answers per engine |
Which one do I need first? Example answers
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. Tap one answer per question; the result updates as you go and sets the plan in Step 3.
Rewrite your best page so the answer comes first
This is the cheapest AEO and GEO win, and you only do it once per page. AI engines search, read a few results and quote the text that answers the question. A page that opens with "Welcome to our blog" gives them nothing to quote. Pick the page that ranks for your main buying question, paste its current opening below, and fill in the facts.
Answer-first rewriter Example page
Runs in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere. It checks your current intro, then builds an answer-first block you can paste under the page's first heading.
Move your weekly hours from rank-chasing to answer-winning
GEO work mostly happens on other people's websites: best-of lists, marketplaces, Reddit threads and YouTube reviews. That time has to come from somewhere. Type how many hours a week you spend on each SEO task now. The planner keeps what still feeds AI, moves the rest to the AEO or GEO task it turns into, and writes your new week.
Weekly effort planner Example week
Runs in your browser and is saved here, so you can come back. The starting point is set by your Step 1 result; you can change it.
| SEO task now | Hours / week | Keep | Moves to |
|---|
Your new week
Questions people ask
Is GEO the same as AEO?
Mostly, and many people use them as synonyms. The practical split: AEO is page-level (make one page easy to quote as the answer), GEO is brand-level (get your brand named across the sources AI engines read). You need both, and both sit on top of SEO.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. Google only links pages in AI Overviews that it has indexed and can show with a snippet. ChatGPT also runs web searches behind your question. If you stop SEO, you lose the pages AI reads first.
What should I stop doing?
Daily rank checks, chasing single keywords with near-duplicate posts, and treating one screenshot as proof. In a SISTRIX study, ChatGPT Search replaced 74% of its cited domains each week (Dec 2025 to Apr 2026), so measure weekly, over many answers.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
It is harmless but not progress yet. Ahrefs found 97% of llms.txt files on 137,210 domains got zero requests in May 2026. Spend that hour on Step 2 instead.
Do backlinks still matter for AI?
Less than mentions. Ahrefs found brand mentions correlated with Google AI Overview visibility at 0.664, against 0.218 for backlinks (75,000 brands, May 2025). A mention counts without a link, so PR, reviews and lists beat link swaps.
Data: Ahrefs (llms.txt requests, May 2026; brand mentions and backlinks, May 2025). SISTRIX (ChatGPT Search cited domains, Dec 2025 to Apr 2026). Vercel (AI crawlers and JavaScript, Dec 2024). Snippet rule: Google Search Central, AI features and your website. Crawler names: OpenAI and Perplexity crawler documentation. Free guide by SEO to GEO HQ.