SEO is the work of getting pages found and ranked in search results. AEO and GEO are two names for the work of getting a website read and cited inside AI written answers, and backlinks are other sites vouching for you. For Google, the first three meet: Google says its AI features draw on the same index and ranking systems as Search.
- SEO gets a page found, AEO and GEO get it quoted in AI answers, and backlinks get you vouched for.
- For Google Search, Google says the AI work is still SEO.
- Outside Google, each assistant runs its own crawler or web search, and that is where AEO and GEO add work.
- You do not pick one. You do them in order: reachable first, readable next, vouched for over time.
Three words keep turning up in the same sentence, and now there is a fourth. SEO, AEO, GEO and backlinks get sold as rival strategies you have to choose between. They are different jobs, and two of them are the same job under two names. All of them serve AI visibility. AI visibility is how often and how accurately AI assistants and AI search features find a business, describe it and name or cite it when people ask questions the business can answer.
I spell out answer engine optimization (AEO) and generative engine optimization (GEO) the first time each appears, since both abbreviations mean other things to other people.
What do SEO, AEO, GEO and backlinks each do?
SEO gets your page found. AEO and GEO get it quoted. Backlinks get you vouched for. Everything else is detail hanging off those three verbs. Once you keep them apart, the strategy 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 is the oldest of these jobs and the best understood. It makes your pages crawlable and indexable, and strong enough to appear in a ranked list when someone searches. For twenty years that was the whole game: rank, get the click and win the sale on your own page. The searcher saw ten links and did the choosing.
SEO is still the price of admission. 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. What changed is the deal around it. When an answer sits on top of the results, fewer people scroll the list. From January to April 2026, 68 percent of US Google searches ended without a click (SparkToro, June 9, 2026). A great ranking on a page nobody opens does not pay the bills.
What is AEO and how is it different from SEO?
Google treats AEO work for its AI Overviews and AI Mode as SEO, while ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot each find sources through their own crawlers or web search, which is where AEO adds work. Answer engine optimization is about the single answer the machine writes. A buyer asks an assistant for the best waterproof boot for wide feet under $200 and gets a recommendation, often without a results page at all. You are either named in that answer or you are not. We cover that shift in Results vs. Answers.
AEO asks whether a machine can read you, trust you and quote you cleanly. That means structured data instead of specifications buried in prose, claims stated plainly and pages that agree with each other. It is plumbing, and like plumbing you only notice it when it is missing. Before any of it works, a crawler has to reach you at all, which is its own question: can AI crawlers even access your website?
How is GEO different from SEO?
GEO, generative engine optimization, aims at being used and cited inside AI written answers, while SEO aims at ranking in search results. For Google the two meet, since Google says its AI features draw on the same index and ranking systems as Search.
Outside Google, GEO adds checks that SEO never needed. ChatGPT search uses OAI-SearchBot and sometimes sends rewritten queries to partner search providers. Perplexity uses PerplexityBot, Claude uses Claude-SearchBot, and Microsoft says Copilot grounds some answers in web search results. 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 2023 research paper on generative engines, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", 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 mentions both only to say that, for Google Search, the work is SEO. I would not pay a premium for either label.
Do backlinks still matter for AI search?
Backlinks are other websites linking to yours. Each one is a vote that you are a credible, real business. Google documents part of this. It says the fundamental SEO best practices remain relevant for its AI features, and its spam policies still define link spam, including buying or selling links for ranking purposes.
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.
The mistake is treating backlinks as the whole strategy. A strong link profile cannot rescue a website whose pages a model cannot parse, whose structured data is missing or whose claims live in prose no machine extracts. Links vouch for you. They do not make you readable. The article on how to earn backlinks and mentions without buying them covers the part that lasts.
Why does the order of work matter?
The work is plumbing. SEO lays the pipe that gets water to the building, so the site can be reached and indexed. AEO and GEO decide whether the taps run when someone turns them, which means whether a machine can draw a clean answer out of you. Backlinks are the inspector's stamp that says the building is real. You want all of them, installed in order, and the middle step is the one people skip first.
What should you do this quarter?
Do not fire your SEO provider, and do not chase a thousand backlinks. Do the work in the gap: find out whether an AI system can read your website at all, and fix what it cannot. That is a measurement problem before it is a content problem, since nobody can fix legibility they have not looked at. Nobody controls what a model says about you. What you control is whether it can read and trust you in the first place, and that is where the job starts.
Questions people ask
Is AEO replacing SEO?
AEO is not replacing SEO. For Google, AEO is part of SEO, since its AI features retrieve from the same index. Outside Google, AEO adds checks for assistants that run their own search crawlers. SEO gets the page found, and AEO makes sure each assistant can read it and cite it.
Do backlinks still matter for AI search?
Backlinks still matter for Google Search, where Google says fundamental SEO best practices remain relevant for its AI features 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. Links also cannot make up for pages a model cannot parse, missing structured data or claims buried in prose.
Can I skip SEO and just 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, and a site must also be included in Search generative AI features in Search Console. 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 is also what Google uses for its AI Overviews and AI Mode, and ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot retrieve public web pages through their own search crawlers or web search. AEO and GEO add checks that those assistants can reach the site, that its facts are stated plainly and consistently, and that other sources confirm them. Start with whatever is broken first, which is often access and clarity, then work on authority.
What is the difference between LLMO and GEO?
There is no practical difference. LLMO, large language model optimization, and GEO, generative engine optimization, are two names vendors use for the same goal: making content easier for AI systems to find, use and cite. None of the platform documentation from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic or Perplexity that we read on September 26, 2026 defines LLMO, and Google mentions GEO only to say that, for Google Search, the work is still SEO. 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. Both come from the same place: other people writing about you because you gave them a reason. Links still count in Google Search, where its spam policies define what does not count, and mentions without links still tell readers and crawlers who you are. Google's guide says to ignore the pursuit of inauthentic mentions for Google Search, so aim for coverage that would exist even if AI did not.
How do I know if my website is readable to AI right now?
You measure it. A scan that reads your website the way an AI crawler does shows what the crawler can reach, parse and trust, and where the gaps are. The Visibility Mesh free scan reads five of your key pages and emails you the scorecard.
Next step
We read five of your pages the way an AI crawler reads them, and you do not need a card or a call.
Run a free scanIf you already know something is broken and want a person to look at it, tell us what's not working. Describe it in your own words, and a person will reply within one business day. To compare tools first, read how to choose an AI visibility tool.
Sources
Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search, Google Search Central, last updated July 10, 2026, read September 26, 2026: developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide.
AI features and your website, Google Search Central, last updated December 10, 2025, read September 26, 2026: developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features.
Search generative AI control, Search Console Help, read September 26, 2026: support.google.com/webmasters/answer/16908024.
Spam policies for Google web search, last updated August 28, 2026, read September 26, 2026: developers.google.com/search/docs/essentials/spam-policies.
"GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Aggarwal and others, arXiv 2311.09735, first posted November 16, 2023, read September 26, 2026: arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735.
Overview of OpenAI crawlers, OpenAI, read September 26, 2026: developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots.
Searching the web with ChatGPT, OpenAI Help Center, read September 26, 2026: help.openai.com/en/articles/9237897-searching-the-web-with-chatgpt.
Perplexity Crawlers, Perplexity documentation, read September 26, 2026: docs.perplexity.ai/docs/resources/perplexity-crawlers.
Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler, Claude Help Center, read September 26, 2026: support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518.
Transparency Note for Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft, August 18, 2026, read September 26, 2026: support.microsoft.com/en-US/microsoft-copilot/transparency-note-for-microsoft-copilot.
Share of US Google searches that ended without a click, January to April 2026, SparkToro, published June 9, 2026.