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GEO vs AEO vs SEO: the Difference and What to Implement First

In short: SEO optimizes a site for ranking in search results, AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) — for direct answers to questions, and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) — for generative answers produced by language models that cite sources. They are not rival approaches but three layers of one system.

Comparison

	SEO	AEO	GEO
Where the result shows	A list of links in search results	A direct answer: featured snippet, voice assistant	An LLM answer: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, AI Overviews
Unit of optimization	A page targeting a query	A question–answer pair	A fact, a definition, an entity
Key format	Content + links	A concise direct answer (40–60 words)	Quotable phrasing + entity markup
Success metric	Rankings, clicks	Answer-box impressions	Share of mentions and citations in answers
Time to effect	Months	Weeks to months	Weeks to months, retrieval-dependent

What they share

One technical base: indexability, speed, valid HTML, no crawler blocks.
One content: a well-structured page works for all three layers at once.
One authority: links and mentions from external resources boost both rankings and the odds of being cited.

Rollout order

Step 1 — SEO base. Indexing, sitemap, canonicals, speed, mobile. Without it models simply will not see the site: generative search relies on the same indexes.
Step 2 — AEO extractability. Every page answers one clear question; the answer sits in the first paragraph; FAQs carry FAQPage markup.
Step 3 — GEO citability. An entity graph (Organization, Person, Service with @id), llms.txt, consistent facts across all pages and languages, and answer monitoring.

A common mistake

Companies try to "do GEO" while skipping the first two steps: they add llms.txt to a site that renders slowly via client-side JavaScript and has no markup. It does not work: a model will not cite what it could not read. A machine-readability audit shows what machines actually see on your site.