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SEO, AEO and GEO: what is the difference in practice?

SEO helps people find your pages through search engines. AEO focuses on providing answers to questions, while GEO focuses on how a business appears in AI-generated answers. The work often overlaps, and providers use the names differently. Ask what will actually change on your site rather than comparing services by their labels alone.

Take a repair shop. For a search such as “dishwasher repair Bristol”, people need a relevant local service page. For “why is my dishwasher not draining?”, they need a clear explanation with safe next steps. For “which repair service covers my postcode and offers evening appointments?”, they need accurate service areas and availability. The underlying facts may belong on the same website.

Let the problem guide the next step

If a page cannot be crawled or indexed, address that first. If visitors cannot work out what you repair or where you travel, improve the service information. If the answer to a common question is buried in promotional copy, make it easy to find. These changes can serve more than one search format.

There is no special schema that guarantees inclusion in Google's AI features. Nor can you mark a paragraph as the answer that every service must select. Clear writing and appropriate structured data help describe a page; selection remains outside your control.

What to ask an agency

Ask which pages the agency will change, which customer questions it will address and how it will record the results. Search visits, citations and inquiries from suitable customers should be reported separately. “More AI authority” does not explain what will be measured. A guaranteed date for a citation is also questionable, because the provider does not control source selection.

Sources and further reading

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Published: · Reviewed by the geo-rank.ai editorial team · Our methodology