Guide

GEO vs SEO.

Generative Engine Optimisation and Search Engine Optimisation are not the same job. Here is what changes, what stays the same, and how the two work together.

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SEO gets you ranked in the list of links. GEO gets you named inside the AI answer that now sits above that list. Both matter, but treating them as the same job is why a lot of businesses are losing ground.

The definitions

SEO, Search Engine Optimisation, is the practice of getting your pages to rank in a search engine's results, so people click through to your site. It has been the backbone of online visibility for two decades.

GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation, is the practice of getting your business named, recommended or cited inside the answers that AI systems generate, from ChatGPT and Perplexity to Google's AI Overviews. You may also see it called AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation. The names differ, the goal is the same: be the answer, not just a link near it.

SEO compared with GEO across seven dimensions
Dimension	SEO	GEO
Goal	Rank your page in the results	Be named or cited in the AI answer
Unit optimised	The page	The entity, fact and passage
What winning looks like	A high position and a click	A mention or citation, often with no click
Where it happens	The search results page	Inside ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews
Primary levers	Keywords, links, technical health, content	Entities, corroboration, structured facts, quotable answers
How you measure	Rankings, traffic, clicks	Share of AI answers, mentions, citations
Time horizon	Position holds until it moves	Answers can shift month to month

What stays the same

GEO is not a clean break from SEO. Most of the groundwork is shared, because both people and machines reward the same things:

A crawlable, fast, well-structured website.
Clear content that genuinely answers real questions.
Authority and reputation, including reviews and genuine mentions.
Accurate structured data that machines can read.

What is new with GEO

On top of that shared base, GEO adds a layer of work aimed at synthesised answers rather than ranked pages:

Entities over keywords. Models reason about who you are and how you relate to other things, not just which words are on a page.
Corroboration. Facts backed across several independent sources are trusted and repeated. Claims that live only on your site are not.
Passage-level answers. Clear, quotable statements are the raw material assistants lift into answers.
Cross-source consistency. Your facts need to match everywhere, or a model hesitates to repeat them.
Monitoring the answer. Because AI answers move, you track them over time instead of setting and forgetting.

So, is SEO dead?

No, and anyone saying so is oversimplifying. AI answers lean heavily on pages that already rank and are already trusted. Strong SEO makes you a better candidate to be cited, so it is the foundation GEO stands on. What has actually died is the idea that a top ranking is the finish line. Now the ranking helps you win the mention, and the mention is what the customer sees first.

How they work together

Think of it as one stack. SEO earns you a trusted, crawlable, well-ranked presence. GEO shapes that presence into clear entities, corroborated facts and quotable answers, then monitors how the assistants respond. Do the first without the second and you rank but go unmentioned. Do the second without the first and you have nothing solid for the models to trust. For the wider picture, see what AI visibility is.

Where to start

Start by seeing where you actually stand. A free scan shows how AI answers about your business today and where competitors are named instead of you, which tells you whether your first move is shoring up SEO foundations or getting on with GEO-specific work.

Questions

Common questions

Is SEO dead?

No. SEO is the foundation GEO is built on. AI answers frequently draw from pages that already rank well and are trusted, so strong SEO makes you more likely to be cited by AI, not less. What has changed is that ranking is no longer the finish line.

Do I have to choose between GEO and SEO?

No, and you should not. They share most of the same groundwork. GEO adds a layer focused on entities, corroboration and being quotable inside answers. The smart move is to do solid SEO and extend it with GEO.

Is GEO just SEO rebranded?

No. There is real overlap, but the target is genuinely different. SEO optimises a page to rank in a list. GEO optimises facts and passages to be named or cited inside a synthesised answer, often with no click at all. Different outcome, different measurement.

How do I measure GEO?

By share of AI answers rather than rankings alone: how often you are named or cited across assistants, for which questions, against which competitors, and how that moves over time. That is exactly what an AI visibility scan and monitoring track.

Where should I start?

Start by seeing where you stand. A free scan shows how AI answers about you today and where competitors are named instead, which tells you whether your first priority is SEO foundations or GEO-specific work.

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