What each one actually means
The short answer: the same job with three different labels, plus a few specific bolt-ons depending on which label is being used.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the original discipline. The work of making a website rank well inside traditional search engine results pages, which mostly means Google. SEO covers technical foundations (crawlability, indexation, site speed), on-page optimisation (titles, headings, content depth, internal linking), off-page work (backlinks, brand mentions, digital PR), and the ongoing measurement and refresh work that keeps a site competitive. Defined in detail in the What is SEO pillar.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is a label that emerged around 2017 to cover the work of getting picked up by answer surfaces rather than just by ranked-link surfaces. Featured snippets in the Google SERP were the first big AEO target, followed by voice assistants (Siri, Alexa, Google Assistant), then Google Knowledge Panel answers, and now AI Overviews. The common thread: the user gets a direct answer, sometimes without ever clicking through. The optimisation work shifts from "rank in the top three" to "be the source the answer was lifted from".
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the newest label, coined around 2023 by academic and industry researchers to describe optimisation for generative AI clients specifically. The four big ones are Google's AI Overviews (which technically straddle AEO and GEO), ChatGPT Search, Perplexity and Google Gemini. The GEO work is everything from making the page parseable by an LLM through to building the entity and authority signals that lead the LLM to cite the page rather than a competitor.
The honest read: the three labels are not three different jobs. SEO is the bedrock; AEO and GEO are sharpened subsets of SEO that focus on specific answer surfaces. The agencies that draw a hard line between them are mostly drawing a line for sales purposes.
A short timeline of how we got here
Helpful for context, because the terminology confusion is partly historical.
- 1997 onward. SEO becomes a recognisable discipline as Google's SERP wins the search market. The work is mostly link-based ranking optimisation.
- 2014. Google starts showing featured snippets (the "position zero" answer box) at the top of certain SERPs. Optimising for these becomes a specialist subset of SEO.
- 2017. Voice assistants hit mainstream adoption. The AEO label appears in industry blogs to cover featured snippets plus voice answers. Mostly the same techniques: short, direct answers, clean question-and-answer formatting, structured data.
- 2022. ChatGPT launches. The first generative AI moment for search. Initial reaction is that SEO is dead. The actual outcome is that SEO becomes more important because the AI clients are pulling from the same web SEO already optimises.
- 2023. Academic papers and industry blogs start using "Generative Engine Optimisation" or GEO to describe the new optimisation work. Google launches the Search Generative Experience (SGE) in beta.
- 2024. Google's AI Overviews go live in the US. Perplexity reaches mainstream awareness. Bing Copilot expands. The four-AI-client set we now optimise for stabilises.
- 2025. AI Overviews launch in Australia. The question of how to optimise for AI search becomes practical rather than theoretical for Australian businesses.
- 2026. Most agencies have folded the AEO and GEO work back into their SEO retainers. The labels still get used by clients and on agency sales pages; the underlying work has converged.
Where they overlap and where they differ
The overlap is the bigger story. The differences matter at the margin.
What's the same across all three
- The site has to be crawlable and indexable. Every AI client and every search engine starts from a crawlable page. The technical foundations from the Technical SEO pillar are non-negotiable for SEO, AEO and GEO alike.
- Topical coverage and depth win. Whether the goal is ranking, snippeting or being cited, the page needs to cover the topic properly. The topical authority chapter covers the planning side, and content depth covers the page-level side.
- E-E-A-T signals carry weight. Named expert authors, transparent organisational identity, citable claims. The E-E-A-T explained chapter applies to all three.
- Schema confirms what the page is about. Structured data is now a confidence signal for AI systems the same way it is a rich-result signal for Google.
- Search intent drives the brief. Match the dominant intent and the page has a chance. Mismatch it and it does not matter what label you use. See search intent.
Where AEO adds something specific
AEO sharpens the page format for direct extraction. Specifically: a clear question-and-answer block near the top of the page that an answer engine can lift cleanly. A FAQ section with valid FAQPage schema. Headings that match the actual sub-questions the user might have. Definitions and numerical answers stated in single declarative sentences rather than buried in paragraphs. Most of this is just clean writing with a slight tilt toward extractability.
Where GEO adds something specific
GEO sharpens the entity layer and the citation-worthiness of the page. Specifically: Organization and Person schema with sameAs links that lock down identity. Citable claims with named sources rather than uncited assertions. Original information (case data, primary research, expert interviews) the LLM cannot regurgitate from elsewhere. An optional llms.txt file at the root of the domain. None of these are new ideas in SEO; GEO just elevates them from "nice to have" to "table stakes for being cited".
The side-by-side: what work each adds
The clearest way to see this is in a table. The column on the left is everything that lives in traditional SEO. The middle and right columns are the bolt-ons.
The shared SEO foundation (all three)
- Crawlable, indexable, fast site (Technical SEO pillar)
- Strong on-page structure (titles, headings, internal linking)
- Topical authority via pillar-and-cluster content
- Backlink profile from topically-aligned sources
- Google Search Console + GA4 tracking
- Regular content refresh and pruning
What AEO adds on top
- Direct-answer blocks formatted for extraction
FAQPageandHowToschema where applicable- Heading structure that mirrors common sub-questions
- Short, declarative definitions for key terms
- Voice-search-friendly conversational phrasing
What GEO adds on top of both
Organization,PersonandLocalBusinessschema locked down- llms.txt file at the root of the domain
- Named credentialled authors with real bios and
Personschema - Citable claims with named sources, especially on YMYL topics
- Original data, photos, research the LLM cannot fake
- Manual citation tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and AI Overviews
You can see why agencies bundle them. The bolt-ons take maybe 20 percent of the project hours in a properly-run SEO retainer. The other 80 percent is the foundation, which the same client would need regardless of label.
Which to prioritise for an Australian business
Three honest scenarios, three different answers.
If your traffic is heavily informational
Health content publishers, education sites, large publishers, B2B content marketers. The AI Overviews compression hits you first. Prioritise the GEO and AEO moves alongside the SEO foundation. Specifically: tighten entity identity, layer in Person schema for every author, make sure FAQ blocks parse cleanly, add llms.txt. None of this replaces SEO; all of it sharpens the SEO you already do.
If your traffic is commercial intent
E-commerce, SaaS, lead-gen B2B. AI Overviews still appear on some informational queries that feed your funnel, but the commercial keywords that drive revenue (people ready to buy or book) are far less affected. Prioritise the SEO foundation and the conversion content. Layer in GEO moves as cheap incremental work, not as the main focus. See the Content Strategy pillar and SEO services.
If your traffic is local intent
Most Perth trade, professional services, hospitality and healthcare businesses. The local pack and Google Maps are barely touched by AI search. Prioritise the SEO foundation, the Google Business Profile work, and the local citation layer. The AI-specific moves are still worth doing as cheap insurance, but they are not where most of your visibility lives. See Local SEO Perth.
Common mistakes
- Treating SEO, AEO and GEO as three labels for overlapping work, not three separate services.
- Fixing the SEO foundation before spending on AEO or GEO bolt-ons.
- Using each label in client conversations the way the client uses it. Pedantry wastes time.
- Layering AEO and GEO moves into the existing SEO retainer rather than running a parallel programme.
- Measuring AI referral traffic in GA4 so the small but high-intent channel is visible.
- Paying for a "GEO package" before the SEO foundation is solid. The package builds on nothing.
- Believing the "SEO is dead" pitch from an agency that wants to sell you GEO instead.
- Treating AEO and GEO as separate budgets when they share 80 percent of the work.
- Skipping the schema layer because "Google works it out". AI clients are less forgiving.
- Panicking about AI Overviews without measuring whether your traffic mix is even affected.
The biggest single failure mode is the panic-purchase pattern. A business that has not fixed its robots.txt in three years, has no Organization schema, has a generic About page with no named experts, and has never had a proper backlink profile suddenly buys a GEO service from a new agency because of an AI panic article. The GEO bolt-ons have nothing to attach to. The money gets wasted, the agency moves on, and the next AI article causes the next panic-purchase.
Perth and WA context
Three patterns we see across Perth and WA clients in 2026.
Most Perth trade businesses are SEO-priority. Plumbers, electricians, builders, landscapers. The bulk of the revenue comes from "plumber Perth" and "plumber Fremantle" style queries that hit the local pack and Maps. AI Overviews are rare on those queries. The right move is to keep the SEO foundation strong, run the Local SEO work properly, and add the GEO bolt-ons (schema, named authors, llms.txt) as inexpensive insurance. See trades SEO and SEO Fremantle for the local pattern.
WA mining and resources businesses are mixed. The commercial keywords (FIFO services, shutdown support, specific equipment) are still mostly traditional SERP results. The informational content used to capture top-of-funnel ("what is a planned shutdown", "FIFO roster types") is being eaten by AI Overviews. The right balance is heavy SEO foundation plus GEO moves on the informational content layer. See mining SEO and SEO Karratha.
Perth healthcare and legal are AEO and GEO priority. Both categories sit firmly in YMYL territory, where AI Overviews and the AI clients are visibly more conservative about source selection. Without strong E-E-A-T signals (named credentialled authors, transparent organisational identity, citable claims), pages get summarised but rarely cited. The right move is to invest heavily in the entity and E-E-A-T layer alongside the SEO foundation. See healthcare SEO and legal SEO.
For the wider context, the AI Search pillar covers the full stack of moves. The AI Overviews chapter covers the single biggest AI surface for most Australian businesses. The schema for AI chapter covers the structured-data layer that most sites get wrong first. For an entry-level diagnostic of where your site sits across all three disciplines, the free SEO audit tool pulls a unified view across SEO, AEO and GEO signals.