Insight · SEO
AEO and GEO: how to get found in AI search.
Customers now find businesses in three places: search results, direct answers and AI assistants. SEO, AEO and GEO are the three matching disciplines, and all three rest on the same thing: clear, consistent, crawlable facts about what you do.
- Topic
- SEO, AEO & GEO
- Published
- Reading time
- 5 minutes
- Written by
- Kunaal Bhargava
Search has three front doors
And one foundation under all of them.
SEO: rank in search results
Search engines list pages for a query. SEO makes your service, product and location pages the clearest result for the words customers type.
AEO: be the answer
Answer engines and answer boxes quote a short reply. AEO writes that reply on your page, in the form of the question, in the first sentence.
GEO: be named by AI assistants
Assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity describe businesses from what they can read and trust. GEO keeps your facts clear, consistent and easy to cite.
The three share one foundation: plain, crawlable facts about who you are, what you do, where you work and what you have done. Get that right and each discipline becomes easier.
What AI assistants need from your website
Facts first, in text, the same everywhere.
- A clear statement of what you do, for whom and where, on the home page
- One page per service and per sector, each answering its own questions
- FAQs written in your customers’ words, answered in the first sentence
- The same name, address, phone and services on your website and Google Business Profile
- Structured data (schema) for your business, services, FAQs and case studies
- Real proof: case studies with the client, the work and what is in place
- Text, not text inside pictures, so it can be read
- A robots.txt that does not block the crawlers you want, and an llms.txt summary
Six first steps
In this order.
- Step 01
Write your facts down once
One paragraph that says who you are, what you do, for whom and where. Use it everywhere.
- Step 02
Fix the pages buyers need
A page for each service and sector, with a clear title, one H1 and a direct first paragraph.
- Step 03
Answer real questions
Collect the questions customers ask on calls and WhatsApp. Answer each on the right page, first sentence first.
- Step 04
Add structured data
Describe your business, services, FAQs and case studies in schema, matching what the page shows.
- Step 05
Align your Google Business Profile
Same name, phone, categories and services as the website; fresh photos and posts; replies to reviews.
- Step 06
Publish proof
Case studies and specific articles give search engines and assistants something concrete to cite.
In practice
From our own work.
For Momentos Footy, a football e-commerce brand, we run SEO, AEO, GEO and the Google Business Profile as one programme: keyword research and on-page SEO, question-focused product and category content, consistent brand information and a profile kept in step with the website.
This website follows the same rules: one positioning sentence used everywhere, structured data on every page, a page for every service and sector, FAQs answered in their first sentence, and an llms.txt summary for AI assistants.
How to tell it is working
Measure enquiries, not mentions.
Search Console shows which questions bring people to your pages. Once a month, ask two or three AI assistants the questions your customers ask, and note whether and how they describe you. Most of all, ask every new enquiry how they found you.
Judge it over months, on the quality of enquiries. At Ishwra, a digital agency in Chandigarh, India, SEO, AEO and generative engine optimisation (GEO) are part of our Digital Marketing & Growth service.
FAQ
AEO and GEO, answered.
Something we did not cover? Ask us directly and we will reply within 24 hours.
What is AEO?
AEO (answer engine optimisation) is writing short, direct answers to the questions customers ask, on your own pages, so search features and answer engines can quote them.
What is GEO?
GEO (generative engine optimisation) is making your business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to understand and describe: clear facts, consistent everywhere, in text they can read.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. AI assistants lean on the same signals as search engines: crawlable pages, clear structure and trustworthy facts. GEO and AEO build on SEO; they do not replace it.
Can I pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?
Ordinary AI answers are not a placement you can simply buy. They are earned by being clear, consistent and well described across your website, your Google Business Profile and the sites that mention you.
How long do AEO and GEO take?
Months rather than weeks, like SEO. Start with the steps in this article, then check every month what assistants say when you ask them your customers’ questions.
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO ranks your pages in search results, AEO makes your page the answer that gets quoted, and GEO makes AI assistants describe your business correctly. All three rest on clear, crawlable facts.