GEO vs AEO vs SEO for local businesses
The short answer
SEO means helping search engines understand your site and helping people find it. GEO and AEO are newer names for improving how often AI assistants and answer engines mention you. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in its AI features beyond being indexed and eligible to show a snippet.
By Reputant · Updated October 31, 2026 · 4 min read
What do SEO, GEO and AEO mean?
Google's SEO starter guide opens by saying SEO, short for search engine optimization, is about helping search engines understand your content and helping users find your site and decide whether to visit it.
GEO stands for generative engine optimization. The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Pranjal Aggarwal and five co-authors. The paper presents GEO as an approach to help content creators improve their content's visibility in generative engine responses.
AEO stands for answer engine optimization. Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI search says you may see the terms AEO and GEO used for work on visibility in AI search, and says optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO. We use AEO and GEO as two names for one idea here.
| Term | Plain meaning | Where the meaning comes from |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Helping search engines understand your site and helping people find it | Google's SEO starter guide |
| GEO | Improving how visible your content is in answers written by generative AI | The 2023 GEO research paper |
| AEO | Another name for GEO | Google's guide to optimizing for generative AI search, which says the term is in use |
What does Google say about optimizing for AI features?
Google's page on AI features and your website covers AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google Search. It says a page must be indexed and eligible to show in Search with a snippet, and that there are no additional technical requirements.
It also says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary, and that being eligible does not guarantee inclusion. In other words, for Google's own AI features, Google describes the same basics as for ordinary search.
That page speaks only for Google Search. ChatGPT and Claude are other companies' products, so it is not a rulebook for them.
What can a local business actually do?
This guide gives no split of effort between SEO and GEO, because no source supports one. What follows is our suggestion, built on the one thing Google does say: the basics come first.
- Keep your website and Google Business Profile accurate, so every place that lists you says the same thing.
- Keep important information as text on your pages. Google's AI features page says to make sure important content is available in text form.
- Claim the other listings people use, such as Bing Places and Apple Business Connect.
- Add LocalBusiness schema if you like, understanding that Google says no special structured data is needed for its AI features.
- Skip anything sold as a special file or secret setting until you have seen a source from the company whose assistant you care about. Our guide to llms.txt goes through one example.
How do I know whether any of it works?
Ask ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini the question a customer would ask, such as the service you offer and your town. Write down whether you appear and who else does. Change one thing, wait, and ask again.
Doing this by hand for every question gets tedious, which is the job of an AI visibility tracker. Reputant checks ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. It does not check Perplexity or Google AI Overviews.
For the full routine, read how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT. For why the answers differ, see how AI chooses local businesses.