Guide / Search & discovery
SEO, GEO & AEO. Explained clearly.
The terms differ, but the goal overlaps: help people and systems find a reliable answer. Start with useful content and a website that makes it easy to understand.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation helps a website be found through search. It includes crawlable pages, clear technical structure, useful content, and links that connect related topics.
What is GEO?
Generative engine optimisation describes work intended to make content useful for AI-generated responses and discovery. Clear business facts, specific explanations, and trustworthy supporting information matter more than invented authority signals.
What is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation focuses on answering a question directly. A page can give a concise answer first, then provide the context a reader needs to understand or act on it.
How the three fit together
| Approach | Main focus | Useful page practice |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Finding a relevant page through search | Clear titles, useful topic pages, internal links, and crawlability |
| GEO | Useful information for generated answers | Consistent business facts, specific explanations, and supporting sources |
| AEO | Answering a question clearly | Direct answers, descriptive headings, and visible FAQs |
Start with the website people actually need
Create a useful page for each real service, explain what the service includes, and answer the questions that affect a customer’s decision. Connect those pages to genuine project examples. Keep important information available as text rather than only inside images or interactions.
What Google says about AI search
Google states that its established SEO practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode. It does not require special AI files or a separate type of structured data for those features. Useful text, internal links, crawlability, and structured data that matches the page remain practical foundations.
Source: Google Search Central: AI features and your website.
Questions, answered.
Does structured data guarantee an answer or citation?
No. Structured data can describe a page and its relationships, but search and AI systems choose what to show. Markup must describe the visible content accurately.
Should FAQs repeat the same keywords?
No. A FAQ should answer a real question clearly. Repeated keyword variants add little value if they do not address a different need.