Two acronyms. Two different jobs. Here is what SEO and GEO each actually do, and whether your business needs to be thinking about both.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the practice of making your website more visible in search engine results pages, primarily Google.
When someone searches for a product, service, or question, Google ranks pages based on hundreds of factors: how relevant the content is, how trustworthy the site appears, how fast it loads, and whether other credible sites link to it.
SEO is the work you do to improve those signals so your pages rank higher and get more organic traffic.
What SEO gets you
Good SEO puts your business on the first page of Google when potential customers are actively searching for what you offer. It builds long-term visibility without paying for every click.
The main ranking factors are well documented. Google’s Search Central documentation is the authoritative source if you want to go deeper.
What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. It is the practice of optimizing your content so that AI tools reference, cite, or recommend your business in their responses.
Instead of a search results page, picture someone typing a question into ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews. These tools generate a direct answer. GEO is about making sure your business gets a mention in those answers.
A user asks ChatGPT: “Who are the best local accountants in Brisbane?” If your accounting firm has strong GEO signals, it might get named. If not, your competitors might.
What GEO gets you
GEO builds your visibility in AI-generated answers. It positions your business as a source that AI tools trust and reference when users ask relevant questions.
A 2024 study from researchers at Columbia University and Georgia Tech found that structured content, clear attribution, and demonstrable expertise significantly increased citation rates in AI-generated responses.
How are they different?
The clearest way to see the difference is side by side.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank in search engine results | Get referenced by AI tools |
| Where it shows up | Google, Bing, search result pages | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini |
| Method | Keywords, backlinks, technical site health | Content clarity, authority signals, structure |
| Timeframe | Weeks to months | Ongoing; AI models update at varying intervals |
| Who controls it | Google’s ranking algorithm | AI model training and retrieval systems |
| Overlaps with | Content quality, E-E-A-T, structured data | Content quality, E-E-A-T, structured data |
Short version: SEO gets you found on Google. GEO gets you mentioned by AI. Both matter, but they require slightly different approaches.
How do GEO and SEO overlap?
More than you might expect.
The foundations of both are the same: content that is accurate, clearly structured, and easy to read. Google and AI tools alike reward this.
A few signals that help with both:
- E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness): Google uses this framework to assess content quality. AI models lean on similar signals when deciding which sources to cite.
- Structured content: Clear headings, short paragraphs, and direct answers to specific questions help both search engines and AI tools parse your content.
- Schema markup: Adding structured data to your pages helps Google display rich results and gives AI tools clean, machine-readable signals about your business.
- An llms.txt file: A plain text file that tells AI crawlers what your site is about and where to find your best content. See our guide to llms.txt files explained for how to set one up.
If your SEO foundations are already solid, you have a head start on GEO. The content, authority, and credibility signals carry across.
Do you need both?
For most businesses, yes. But the urgency depends on where you are starting from.
Traditional search still drives the majority of clicks. Research from SparkToro and Datos consistently shows that most users still click through to websites from Google. SEO remains the higher-volume channel for now.
That said, AI search is gaining ground. More people are using ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to get direct answers without visiting a website. Leave GEO too long and you risk becoming invisible to that audience entirely.
The practical answer:
- If your SEO is already in good shape, start layering GEO in.
- If your SEO needs work, sort that first. Strong content and site authority help both.
- If you are starting from scratch, building for both at once is more sensible than tackling them separately.
Where to start
A good starting point is to audit what you already have. How does your site rank today? Is the content clearly structured? Do you have schema markup in place?
From there, you can map the gaps for both SEO and GEO and work through them in order of impact.
If you want to understand GEO more broadly before diving in, our overview of generative engine optimization for businesses is worth reading first.
