Short answer: SEO (search engine optimisation) aims to get your pages ranked as links in search results. AEO (answer engine optimisation) aims to get your content quoted or cited inside answers from tools like ChatGPT, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews. Most of the work is the same. The differences are the result you chase, how you measure it, how quotable your content is and how much off-site mentions matter.
Key takeaways
- SEO targets a ranked link in a list of results. AEO targets a mention or citation inside a generated answer.
- Most of the work overlaps: crawlable pages, indexing, helpful content and authority. AI answer tools pick sources from search indexes, so weak SEO means weak AEO.
- The real differences are what counts as success, how you measure it, how directly each section answers one question, and how much other sites' descriptions of you matter.
- Google says optimising for its AI features is still SEO and needs no special files or markup. Treat AEO as a focus inside your SEO work, not a separate project.
AEO has become one of the most argued-about terms in marketing this year. Some people say it is a new discipline that needs its own budget. Others say it is SEO with a new label. Both camps have a point, and the honest answer depends on which part of the work you look at.
What do AEO and SEO each mean?
SEO is the work of making your pages easy for search engines to find, understand and rank, so that people click through from the results to your site. AEO is the work of making your content easy for AI tools to find, trust and quote, so that your brand or page appears inside the answer itself.
The "answer engines" in AEO are tools that respond with a written answer rather than ten links: ChatGPT with search, Microsoft Copilot, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. When ChatGPT uses search, its answers carry inline citations that link to the sources it drew on. Getting into those citations, or being named in the answer, is the AEO goal.
You will also see GEO (generative engine optimisation). It is used interchangeably with AEO, and nothing in this post changes if you swap the labels.
Where do AEO and SEO overlap?
They overlap in almost all the foundation work. Both need pages that search crawlers can reach, that get indexed, that answer a real question well and that sit on a site other sites trust. Without those, neither a ranking nor a citation is likely.
The reason is mechanical. For most questions about products, services and businesses, AI tools run a live web search and choose sources from what comes back. ChatGPT search relies on OpenAI's own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and on search partners. Copilot sits on Bing's index. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google's index, and Google states that a page only needs to be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet to be considered. There are no extra technical requirements.
So the shared list looks like this:
- Technical access: crawlable pages, clean indexing, content in the raw HTML rather than only after JavaScript runs. Our technical SEO services cover this layer.
- Content that matches what people search for, written with first-hand detail.
- Authority: links and mentions from relevant, trusted sites.
- A site structure that makes it clear what each page is about.
Google says this plainly in its guide to its generative AI features: optimising for them is still SEO, and you do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files, special markup or a special writing style. That is Google's view of its own products, not of ChatGPT or Perplexity, but in our experience the same foundations decide citations there too.
Where are AEO and SEO actually different?
They differ in four places: the result you are trying to win, how you measure it, how your content is shaped and how much off-site mentions count. None of these needs a different team, but each changes some decisions.
The target result
In SEO, success is a click. In AEO, success is often being named even when nobody clicks. If someone asks an assistant for "a Shopify agency for a small fashion brand" and your name appears in the answer, that is a win, even if they search for you directly later.
How you measure it
Measurement is the biggest practical difference. Rankings are fairly stable and well tracked. AI answers vary each time the same question is asked, so you judge a pattern over many questions and weeks, not one result. The tools are also younger. Google Search Console counts traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode inside the normal "Web" search type, with no separate filter. Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report, in public preview, that shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries. For SEO itself, the usual numbers still apply, which we cover in how to know if your SEO is working.
How content is shaped
AI tools lift passages, not whole pages. A section that opens with a direct, specific answer is easier to quote than one that builds up to its point in paragraph four. This is good SEO practice anyway, which is why it is a difference of emphasis. Google notes you do not need to break content into tiny chunks for its AI features. The aim is a clear answer under each heading, not fragments.
"There are many factors that can influence the timeline for a website project, and every business is different."
"A ten-page brochure site typically takes four to six weeks from brief to launch, most of it spent waiting for content and approvals."
Mentions on other sites
Backlinks matter in both, but AEO puts more weight on what other sites say, not just whether they link. Assistants summarise independent sources, so reviews, comparison articles and industry coverage that describe you consistently make it more likely you are named. A link with no description helps your rankings. A clear description on a trusted site helps the answer.
AI SEO services that build on your search foundations
We test the questions your buyers ask in ChatGPT, Copilot and Google, see who gets cited and why, then fix access, content and mentions in that order. No separate AEO retainer, and no promises about answers nobody controls.
See our AI SEO servicesIs AEO just SEO rebranded?
Partly. The foundations are the same work under a new name, and some agencies sell AEO as a separate service mostly because it is new. But the goal and the measurement are genuinely different, so the label is not empty.
A fair way to see it: AEO is to SEO roughly what local SEO is to SEO. It is a focus with its own success measures and a few specific tactics, built on the same base. Nobody would run local SEO on a site Google cannot crawl, and nobody should run AEO that way either.
If someone proposes llms.txt files, special schema or rewriting every page into short chunks as the core of an AEO plan, ask what evidence backs it. Google says none of these is needed for its AI features, and llms.txt neither helps nor harms visibility in Google Search.
Do you need to treat AEO and SEO separately?
For most businesses, no. Run one plan, with AEO as a set of priorities inside it. Splitting them usually means paying twice for the same technical and content work, or worse, chasing AI tactics on a site that does not yet rank.
What changes in a combined plan is mostly the order and the reporting:
- Add a fixed set of buyer questions you check in AI tools each month, next to your keyword rankings.
- Give priority to pages that answer shortlist questions ("best", "which", "vs" and "for my type of business" queries), and make sure each section opens with its answer. Our SEO content services work this way by default.
- Put more effort into consistent descriptions of your business on review sites, directories and industry press.
The exception is a business where AI answers already drive a large share of enquiries. Then it is worth reporting on AEO separately, even if the same people do the work. If you want the practical steps for getting cited, we cover them in how to rank in ChatGPT and AI search.
Frequently asked questions
In practice, yes. Both describe making content easy for AI tools to find and quote, and people use the terms interchangeably. Pick whichever your team understands and move on.
No. AI answer tools choose their sources from search indexes, so AEO depends on SEO rather than replacing it. In our experience, classic search results also still send most businesses far more visits than AI tools do.
Not reliably. If your pages are not indexed or rank poorly, AI tools rarely find them when they search the web. Mentions on other sites can get your name into answers, but your own pages still need to be findable to be cited.
Google says structured data is not required for its AI features and there is no special schema you need to add. Structured data is still useful for normal rich results, so keep it where it already helps your SEO.
What to do next
You do not need a new strategy to cover AEO. You need your SEO foundations in order and a few changes in emphasis.
- Write down ten questions your buyers ask and check them in ChatGPT, Copilot and Google. Note who is cited and whether you are.
- Check that your most important pages are indexed in both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, and that each section opens with a direct answer.
- For an outside view, ask for a free written SEO and AI search audit. We send it within 48 hours and tell you which fixes help both rankings and citations, whether or not you go on to use our SEO services.