Search engine optimization (SEO) is the work of getting pages found and ranked in search results. Answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) are two names for getting a website read and cited inside AI written answers, and backlinks are other websites vouching for yours. For Google the first three meet, since Google says its AI features rest on the same core ranking and quality systems as Search and that optimizing for them is still SEO.
These four words keep turning up in the same sales pitch as if a store had to choose one. A store does not. It does them in order, and the order matters more than the labels. AI visibility is the result all four serve: how often and how accurately AI assistants and AI search features find a business, describe it and name it when people ask a question the business can answer.
What do SEO, AEO, GEO and backlinks each do?
Each one does a different job, and for Google the first three overlap. Once you keep the jobs apart, the plan gets simple. Mix them up and you can end up paying to improve a ranking that fewer of your buyers ever see.
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page in search results and earn the click | Be read and quoted in the answer an assistant writes | Be used and cited in AI written answers |
| What it measures | Rankings, impressions and clicks | Mentions and citations in AI answers | Mentions and citations in AI answers |
| Which systems it covers | Google, Bing and other search engines | Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot | The same systems as AEO |
| Who defines it | Search engines document their own rules | No standard body; vendors use the term | A 2023 research paper named it; vendors use it widely |
| Google's view | This is the work | Still SEO, for Google Search | Still SEO, for Google Search |
What does SEO do?
Search engine optimization makes sure crawlers can reach and index your pages, and that those pages are strong enough to appear when someone searches. For twenty years that was the whole game: rank, earn the click and win the sale on your own page.
Search engines still have to index your page first. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet before AI Overviews or AI Mode can use it as a link, and it sets no extra technical requirements beyond that. What changed is the deal around the ranking. SparkToro reported on June 9, 2026 that 68 percent of US Google searches from January to April 2026 ended without a click, based on Similarweb clickstream data that leaves out the Google mobile app. A ranking earns less when two thirds of searches end without a click.
What is AEO and how is it different from SEO?
Answer engine optimization is about the single answer an assistant writes. A buyer asks for the best waterproof boot for wide feet under $200 and gets a recommendation, often without a results page at all. We cover that shift in results versus answers.
For Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google treats this work as SEO. Outside Google, each assistant finds sources its own way, and that is where AEO adds work. AEO asks whether a machine can reach you, read you and quote you cleanly. That means structured data, plain claims and pages that agree with each other. Before any of it works, a crawler has to reach your website at all.
How is GEO different from SEO?
GEO aims at being used and cited inside AI written answers, while SEO aims at ranking in search results. For Google the two meet. Outside Google, GEO adds checks that SEO never needed.
- OpenAI says OAI-SearchBot is the crawler that surfaces websites in ChatGPT search. Our guide to how ChatGPT search works covers it step by step.
- Perplexity says PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in its search results.
- Anthropic lists Claude-SearchBot as the crawler that improves the quality of Claude's search results.
- Microsoft says Copilot grounds some answers in web search results, with citations, in its transparency note of August 18, 2026.
Each of those crawlers has to be let in, by robots.txt and by any firewall in front of the site. The GEO definition page covers the rest.
Is GEO different from AEO?
In practice AEO and GEO describe the same work. GEO comes from a research paper, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Aggarwal and others, first posted to arXiv on November 16, 2023. Vendors now use both names for making content easy for AI systems to use and cite. Google's guide mentions the labels mainly to say that, for Google Search, the work is SEO, and it asks readers to weigh third party AEO and GEO advice with care. I would not pay a premium for either label.
Do backlinks still matter for AI search?
Backlinks are other websites linking to yours, and each one is a vote that you are a real business. Google documents part of this. Its spam policies still define link spam, including buying or selling links for ranking purposes, and its AI guide says the usual SEO best practices remain relevant.
The rest is not documented. No AI company says how ChatGPT, Perplexity or other assistants weigh links against mentions. My working hypothesis is that references from credible sources help an assistant decide that a business is real and recognizable, but I cannot show it, and neither can anyone selling links.
A strong link profile also cannot rescue pages a model cannot parse, missing structured data or claims that live only in prose. Our article on earning backlinks and mentions without buying them covers the part that lasts.
In what order should a store do the work?
Do the work in order: first make sure the store can be reached and indexed, then make it readable, then earn the links and mentions. On a Shopify store, I would run the first pass in this order.
- Confirm the store is open and indexed. Go to Online Store > Preferences and check under Store access that private mode is off, then inspect your homepage with the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console.
- In Search Console, open Settings and check the Search generative AI setting. Include is the default, and Exclude keeps your pages out of Google's AI features.
- Open yourstore.com/robots.txt and check that OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot are not blocked. If a firewall or app sits in front of the store, check it too.
- Go to Products, open your five best sellers and confirm each one has a clear title, a description with real facts and a filled Search engine listing.
- View the page source of one product and confirm there is one Product block with the price and availability the page shows.
- Only after that, plan the work that earns mentions: a guide, a dataset or a story another site would want to link to.
Should a baking supply shop buy the backlink package or the AEO package?
Take a baking supply shop on Shopify with 150 products, a good Google ranking for its brand name and an SEO retainer that has run for two years. The owner is offered a backlink package and an AEO package in the same month.
The first pass above finds two problems neither package would touch. The robots.txt file, edited years ago, blocks every crawler it does not name, which shuts out OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. The product pages describe flour and bannetons in warm prose with no Product markup beyond a name and a price. Fixing those two takes a few days of work. The backlink package can wait until there is something readable for the links to point at.
What else do owners ask about SEO, AEO and GEO?
Is AEO replacing SEO?
AEO is not replacing SEO. For Google, AEO is part of SEO, since Google says its AI features rest on the same core ranking and quality systems. Outside Google, AEO adds checks for assistants that run their own search crawlers.
Do backlinks still matter for AI search?
Backlinks still matter for Google Search, where Google says the usual SEO best practices remain relevant and its spam policies still define link spam. How ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants weigh links against mentions is not documented by any of them, so any claim about it is a hypothesis.
Can I skip SEO and only do AEO?
You cannot skip it. Google says a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet before it can appear as a link in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Skipping SEO removes the entry ticket.
Does my business need SEO, AEO or GEO?
Most businesses need one program, not three. The work that makes a site eligible for Google Search also serves Google's AI features, and AEO and GEO add checks that other assistants can reach the site and read its facts. Start with whatever is broken first, which is often access and clarity.
What is the difference between LLMO and GEO?
There is no practical difference. LLMO, large language model optimization, and GEO are two names vendors use for making content easier for AI systems to cite. When a vendor uses either label, ask which platforms and which measurements they mean.
Are brand mentions more important than backlinks for AI visibility?
Nobody outside the AI companies knows, and none of them documents it. Links and mentions come from the same place, which is other people writing about you because you gave them a reason, so aim for coverage that would exist even if AI did not.
To see which of these steps your own website fails, the free scan checks whether AI crawlers can reach it and reads the structured data and text of five key pages.
Sources
- Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central, read November 9, 2026.
- AI features and your website, Google Search Central, read November 9, 2026.
- Search generative AI control, Search Console Help, read November 9, 2026.
- Spam policies for Google web search, Google Search Central, read November 9, 2026.
- In 2026, less than one third of Google searches still send a click, SparkToro, published June 9, 2026, read November 9, 2026.
- "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", Aggarwal and others, arXiv 2311.09735, first posted November 16, 2023.
- Overview of OpenAI crawlers, OpenAI, read November 9, 2026.
- Perplexity crawlers, Perplexity, read November 9, 2026.
- Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, Claude Help Center, read November 9, 2026.
- Transparency Note for Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft, August 18, 2026, read November 9, 2026.