SEO, AEO and GEO: what's the difference, and how do you prepare for all three?

The short answer

SEO improves your ranking in search results, AEO makes your content the direct answer shown by search engines and voice assistants, and GEO makes generative-AI systems cite your site in their answers. All three rest on the same foundation: clear content, sound technical structure and structured data.

Why it matters now

A growing share of questions are answered without the user clicking any link. If your content isn't written as a clear answer, a competitor's answer is shown instead.

What all three share

• Speed and crawlability: server-rendered pages, an up-to-date sitemap and clear internal links.
• Structured data: Schema.org markup for your organisation, services, FAQs and articles.
• Trustworthy content: a named author, an updated date, sources and real examples.

What's different about AEO and GEO

Question-and-answer structure

Open each section with a question your customer actually asks, answer it in two or three sentences, then expand.

Explicit definitions

Write a clear definition for every term you use. Answer engines look for sentences that begin "X is…".

Consistency across languages

If your site is bilingual, write the English natively rather than translating literally, and link both versions with hreflang tags.

A practical example

A service page titled "App development" becomes a page that answers: What is it? When do you need it? How long does it take? What do you receive? — with an FAQ section marked up as FAQPage.

Next step

Review your five most important pages: does each open with a direct answer, and does each carry structured data? If not, start there.