GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the work of getting your business cited and recommended in AI answers: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. SEO is the work of ranking in Google’s ordinary results. If you want the definition of GEO on its own, start with what GEO is. This post compares the two.

The short answer: for Google’s own AI features, most of the work is the same job. Google says so in its guide to optimising for generative AI search, which calls it “still SEO”. The two split in three places: which pages get cited, what AI reads besides your website, and what you measure. Our own data on AI citations and AI traffic shows where those splits matter.

Where GEO and SEO are the same job

When a question triggers an AI Overview, Google relies on its core ranking systems to retrieve relevant pages from its index, then rewrites the useful parts into an answer with links back to the sources. For more complex questions it runs several related searches at once, which Google calls query fan-out, and draws on all of them.

Both steps sit on Google’s normal search systems. In Google’s words, “optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.” A page Google can’t crawl, index or trust can’t be cited. The foundations are the ones SEO has always needed: a technically sound site, content written for the person asking, and backlinks and mentions from sites people trust.

The same guide ruled out several tactics sold as GEO. You don’t need an llms.txt file or other AI text files, and there’s no special schema markup for AI. We went through the full list in what Google’s AI search guide confirms and debunks.

Where GEO and SEO split

Ranking first isn’t the entry ticket. Fan-out means one AI answer can draw on pages from several searches, so it can cite a page sitting well down the ordinary results. We pulled every citation of our blog that Ahrefs Brand Radar recorded in Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode from late March to late September 2026. The page cited most was our website cost guide, which sits well down the ordinary results for the main cost searches. The full results are in which pages AI cites.

AI reads more than your website. Assistants build their picture of a business from reviews, Google Business Profile, directory listings, trade publications and social channels as well as your own pages. Google’s guide names Business Profile and Merchant Center as inputs that can help. You can rank well in the blue links and still watch a competitor get recommended in the summary above them. Our guide to checking what AI says about your business covers how to find and fix that, and can you pay to be included in AI answers covers the publications AI leans on.

You measure it differently. SEO reports rankings, clicks and enquiries. GEO adds citations, mentions and the visits AI assistants send. Search Console now has a report for impressions inside Google’s AI features, but impressions aren’t visits or enquiries. We cover how to turn the Search Console AI performance report into customers.

DISTL Headshots DZuks 2026 July 23 1 “As specialists we research how competitive your industry is, as well as the specific services you offer. That information alongside your current budget determines the best arena we can play in and win, the more we win the more your business grows, and our strategy grows with you.” – Jakeb Munn, SEO Specialist

What our own data says about GEO vs SEO

Two things we’ve measured change how we weigh GEO against SEO.

AI visitors are few, but they convert. We manage more than 100 GA4 properties across our clients. In 2026, AI-referred visitors converted above the site’s own average on roughly four in five of them: around 1.6 times the average on B2C sites and 2.4 times on B2B sites. GA4’s default setup caught only about half of those AI visits, and filed the rest under referral, organic or unassigned. The details and the GA4 fix are in what we found across 100 websites.

Comparison posts rarely get cited for service businesses. A lot of GEO advice says to publish “versus” pages. Our head-to-head posts, this one included, didn’t appear in Google’s AI citations in any month we pulled. The questions that led AI to our blog were about money and doubt: what a website costs, whether SEO is dead. For a local service business, the first page worth building for GEO is the one that answers what it costs.

That’s one agency’s sites and Google’s AI only, so treat it as a starting point and check your own.

GEO vs SEO side by side

Factor	SEO	GEO
Where you show up	Google’s ranked results	Answers in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews and AI Mode
What people type	Short keyword searches	Full questions with context, often followed up
What gets you picked	Relevance, authority and a page Google can crawl	The same, plus a page that answers the question plainly enough to quote
Signals beyond your site	Backlinks	Backlinks, plus reviews, listings, publications and mentions
What a win looks like	A top position for the searches that matter	Being cited or recommended, sometimes from well down the results
What you measure	Rankings, clicks and enquiries	Citations, AI-referred visits and enquiries, branded search
Where to check	Search Console performance report	The assistants themselves, Search Console’s AI report, a GA4 AI channel

Read the table as one job with an extra layer. Almost everything in the SEO column feeds the GEO column.

How to run SEO and GEO together

Quality and quantity both still count, but quantity now means covering the questions your buyers ask, not publishing a page for every wording of them. Google’s guide says creating pages for query variations “primarily to manipulate rankings or generative AI responses” violates its scaled content abuse spam policy.

Fix the SEO foundations first. Indexable, crawlable, fast pages. If Google can’t index a page, its AI can’t cite it.
Answer the question you’d rather not. Write down what prospects ask just before they request a quote, usually about cost, and publish a straight answer: the range and what moves it. Keep the quote for the conversation.
Write what only you can. Google’s guide contrasts commodity content, like “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers”, with first-hand accounts of a specific decision. Your jobs, your numbers and your mistakes are what an AI can’t make up, so it has to cite them. AI can help with the draft; how we use AI sets out where a person takes over.
Keep your business consistent wherever AI reads. The same name, services and details on your site, Google Business Profile, listings and social profiles. A clear brand voice and market position give AI a reason to choose you over similar pages.
Measure both. Rankings and enquiries for SEO. AI-referred visits, branded search and Search Console’s AI report for GEO. Add an open “How did you hear about us?” box to your enquiry form; it often tells you more than any AI visibility tool.

GEO or SEO: which comes first?

SEO first, for almost every business. It’s the foundation Google’s AI draws on. GEO is the layer on top: answering the questions buyers take to AI, making sure you’re described accurately off your own site, and measuring what AI sends you.

Generative engine optimisation only works on top of a solid SEO foundation. For some clients we hold off on GEO altogether, because fixing their technical setup and core content will do more for them first. When we do add it, the research that decides which pages should rank also decides which questions to answer for AI.

Want to know where you stand in both? Talk to our SEO team about an SEO and GEO review.

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GEO vs SEO: quick questions

Is GEO replacing SEO?

No. Google’s AI features retrieve pages through its core ranking systems, so GEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it. A page Google won’t index can’t be cited.

Is GEO the same as AEO or AI SEO?

Mostly. AEO (answer engine optimisation), AI SEO and LLM optimisation are names for the same goal: being the source an AI answer cites or recommends. Some agencies use AEO to mean featured snippets and voice answers specifically.

Does GEO mean geographic or local SEO?

Not here. GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. Ranking in a particular city or region is local SEO, which still feeds AI answers through your Google Business Profile and reviews.