AEO vs GEO: what's actually different, and what you do about it
Short answer: AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) are two names for one job: getting your pages quoted, cited and named in AI-written answers. The work you ship is the same set of changes, and you measure it across Google, ChatGPT and Perplexity. No one can guarantee a citation. Last updated 9 October 2026.
Search for the two terms and you find articles that treat them as separate disciplines and articles that say they're the same thing, and very few that tell you what to change on a page. This one does the third thing. First where the words came from, then a table of what each one changes on your site, then the single list to ship.
Where the two words come from
- GEO comes from research. A November 2023 paper from a group of university researchers, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (accepted to KDD 2024), used it for improving how visible a piece of content is inside answers written by generative engines. The authors report that how well their tactics worked varied by subject area.
- AEO is a marketing term, not a research one. "Answer engine" means a tool that returns a direct answer instead of a list of links, and AEO means being the source that answer uses.
Different origins, so some writers keep a distinction: AEO for being the one answer (a featured snippet, a voice reply, a cited line in an AI Overview), GEO for being worked into a longer AI-written summary. It's a fair way to think about the output. It doesn't change what you do to the page, as the next section shows.
What each one changes on a page
| If you think "AEO" | If you think "GEO" | What you ship |
|---|
| Page copy | Put a short, correct answer in the first paragraph under the question. | Make the passages quotable and carry plain facts that a summary can lift. | An answer-first opening paragraph on each page that should win a question, with the key facts in plain sentences. |
|---|
| Structure | Question headings, a table or list where the answer is a comparison or steps. | Clear sections a model can pull from one at a time. | Question-style headings, one table or list per page where it fits, and an FAQ for the follow-up questions. |
|---|
| Structured data | FAQ, Article and Organization markup. | The same, to describe who you are and what the page is. | Schema that matches the visible page, kept accurate. Google says no special schema is needed for its AI features, so treat it as description, not a lever. |
|---|
| Entity | Your name and product spelled one way, with a clear "what we are" line. | The same facts agreeing across your site and other sources. | One name, one canonical domain, Organization schema, matching directory and profile listings. |
|---|
| Citations from others | Get named on the pages the answer already cites. | Get named in the sources the model reads and learns from. | Find the lists and directories cited for your buyer questions, and earn a place on them honestly. |
|---|
| Access | Let search and answer crawlers fetch public pages. | The same. | Check /robots.txt, keep the answer in the HTML, and decide on training crawlers separately from search crawlers. |
|---|
| Measurement | Are you the source for a fixed list of questions? | Are you named in the generated answers to them? | One fixed question panel, asked on a schedule in each engine, reported as a rate with its sample size. |
|---|
The two middle columns are how people usually frame each term, not two official methods. The right-hand column is the work.
The verdict: one set of changes
Every row ends in the same action. If you do the right-hand column, you have done AEO and GEO. Spending a quarter deciding which acronym to pursue is time not spent fixing the pages.
There is also an SEO point under all of it. Google's documentation says that to appear in its AI Overviews and AI Mode a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations (page last updated 10 December 2025, checked 9 October 2026, Google Search Central). So the base is ordinary SEO, with answer-first writing and accurate facts on top. Other engines publish less about how they choose sources, so measure rather than assume.
What to do this week
- Write 20 to 50 buyer questions, some that name you and most that don't.
- Ask each in ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode and record who is named, what is said about you, and which sources are cited.
- Fix wrong facts first. Put the current price, plan or limit in plain words on a page you control.
- Rewrite the opening of the page that should win each missing question so it answers in two or three sentences.
- Clear technical blockers: robots rules, content that only appears after JavaScript runs, missing canonicals, broken links.
- Get named where the engines already look, using the cited sources from step 2.
- Ask again every week with the same questions and compare over several weeks, not one answer.
Each step is explained in what is AEO and how to do it.
Where Dinkum fits
Dinkum runs this list for you. It asks a fixed panel of buyer questions weekly across ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers, fixes the pages that state wrong facts, ships answer-first pages as pull requests you approve, and judges each change at 14 and 28 days against the rest of the site. It costs $2,000 a month for one site, month to month. If you're weighing agencies, read what an AEO agency should do and how to choose an AI SEO agency. There are no published client results yet, so we won't quote any.
Questions
Is AEO part of GEO?
Depends who you ask. Some treat AEO as the narrower job of being the single quoted answer and GEO as the wider one of showing up in generated summaries, so AEO sits inside GEO. Others use them as plain synonyms. The changes on your pages are the same either way.
Is AEO replacing SEO?
No. Answer engines mostly find pages through search, and Google says the same SEO fundamentals apply to its AI features. AEO adds answer-first writing, accurate facts, a consistent entity and mentions on the pages engines trust.
How do I use both?
Run SEO as the base: crawlable, indexed, useful pages. Add the AEO/GEO list above on top of the pages that matter, and track two things side by side: Search Console for clicks and impressions, and a fixed question panel for whether AI answers name or cite you.
Is GEO the same as AI search optimization?
In common use, yes. AI SEO, AI search optimization, AEO and GEO all describe making your site visible in AI-written answers.
Can anyone guarantee a ChatGPT or Perplexity citation?
No, and be wary of anyone who says so. You can make pages easy to fetch and quote and fix what AI gets wrong about you. The engines decide the rest.
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