SEO, AEO and GEO are three ways of being found by people who are looking for what you sell. SEO gets your pages into Google's regular results. AEO makes your page the answer Google shows or reads out, in AI Overviews, AI Mode, featured snippets and voice results. GEO gets your business named when someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity for a recommendation. Most small businesses need SEO first, because the other two are built on it, and then add AEO and GEO once Google can find and read the site.

The three overlap more than the acronyms suggest. The same clear, crawlable, honest pages help with all of them. What changes is where you show up, what you check, and how you measure it.

What is SEO?

SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of getting your pages into Google's index and showing them for the searches your buyers type. Google's own starter guide describes it as helping search engines understand your content and helping people decide whether to visit your site.

In practice, SEO means:

• Making sure Google can crawl and index every page that matters, which you can confirm with a site: search and the URL Inspection tool.
• Writing a clear, unique title and description for each page, so a page called "Bridal makeup in Austin, at your home" can rank for that search.
• Readable URLs, one version of each page, and sharp images with descriptive alt text.
• Useful, original, up-to-date content, and links from other sites that send real visitors.
• Watching results in Google Search Console, which Google offers free.

Google is direct about the limits: there are "no secrets here that'll automatically rank your site first in Google", and changes can take a few hours or several months to show.

What is AEO?

AEO (answer engine optimization) is the work of making your page the one Google uses to answer a question directly, instead of just listing it. That answer can appear in three places:

• AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google's AI-written summaries, with links to the pages behind them. Google says that to be a supporting link, a page must be "indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", and that there are no extra requirements or special optimizations needed.
• Featured snippets. The boxes where Google shows a short answer from your page above its title. Google says you can't mark a page as a featured snippet; its systems decide whether a page would make a good one.
• Voice. Google has said featured snippets are especially helpful for people searching by voice, and that it cites the source page in spoken results.

AEO work is mostly about how a page is written. Each service page answers the questions buyers actually ask, in plain words, near the top: what it costs, how long it takes, who it is for, where you work. A sentence like "We do bridal makeup at your home anywhere in Austin, and you can book online" can be lifted straight into an answer. "We pride ourselves on excellence" cannot.

Google also uses what it calls query fan-out: AI Overviews and AI Mode may run several related searches across subtopics to build one response. A site that answers the follow-up questions too has more chances to be one of the links.

What is GEO?

GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of getting your business named and cited when someone asks an AI assistant such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude or Perplexity a question like "who does the best bridal makeup in Austin?" The answer is a short written recommendation with a handful of names, not a page of ten links, so being left out is costly.

The term comes from a 2023 research paper, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari and colleagues, first posted on arXiv on November 16, 2023. The authors were at Princeton University, IIT Delhi and working independently, and the paper was published at KDD 2024. It reported that changes to how content is written could raise its visibility in AI answers by up to 40%. In its tests, adding quotations, statistics and citations to sources worked best, and keyword stuffing did not help.

GEO work has two halves:

1. Let the AI tools read your site. ChatGPT search finds sites through OpenAI's crawler, OAI-SearchBot, and OpenAI says "Sites that are opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." ChatGPT search also may share queries with third-party search providers such as Bing, so your Bing presence matters too.
2. Make the rest of the web agree with you. AI answers that use search cite other websites, not only yours, so reviews, directories, press and listings count. If your site says "bridal makeup in Austin" and your Google profile, Instagram bio and directory listings say the same, you are easier to name.

Wording matters more than most owners expect. In our research across 7 AI assistants and 41 buyer questions, a brand was named in 47% of answers when the question used its category and 7% when it did not. That is why a GEO setup starts by writing your category the way buyers say it.

How do SEO, AEO and GEO compare?

Two measurement notes. Google says traffic from AI features is included in Search Console's Performance report under the "Web" search type, not shown separately, so you also need to check answers by hand. Microsoft's AI Performance report, a public preview since February 2026, shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing's AI summaries, though Microsoft says the counts do not show placement or ranking. OpenAI says robots.txt changes take about 24 hours to reach its search systems.

What does each cost to set up?

If you do it yourself, the tools are mostly free: Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, your Google Business Profile, and the AI assistants themselves. The real cost is time. In our experience, a basic SEO pass on a small site takes a few days, rewriting service pages as answers takes a few more, and running your test questions takes about an hour a month.

If you hire it out, the setup work is similar in size for each: an audit, fixes to the site, rewritten pages, listings brought into line, and a baseline test. At Project 66 Studio:

We confirm the final price before any work begins. Be wary of anyone who ties a price to a guaranteed position or a guaranteed AI mention; nobody controls those.

Which one does a small business need first?

For most small businesses, the order is SEO, then AEO, then GEO. Here is why, and when to change the order.

1. Start with SEO if Google can't find you. Search your business name, then your main service plus your city. If your site isn't there, or your Google Business Profile is missing or wrong, nothing else will work yet. Google's AI features only link to pages that are already indexed.
2. Add AEO when you rank but don't get the answer. If you show up on page one but the AI Overview or featured snippet quotes a competitor, the fix is usually rewriting your pages so the answer is near the top in plain words.
3. Add GEO when buyers ask AI for recommendations. If your buyers are likely to ask ChatGPT "who should I hire for…", test it now. Ask 10 real buyer questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity and count how often you are named.

Some businesses should start with GEO. A software company whose buyers research in ChatGPT, or a speaker whose bookers ask AI for shortlists, may lose more from being absent there than from ranking eighth on Google. If you can only fix one thing, fix the one where your buyers already look.

Doing all three at once usually costs less than doing them one at a time, because the audit, the page rewrites and the listings work overlap. That is why our combined setup is $990 rather than three times $490.

A client example: after we built the new site for Young Fashion Show, a youth fashion show in Chicago, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, ChatGPT named the show in 34 of 41 real buyer questions (29 before launch) and Google AI Overviews in 16 of 41 (9 before). Google visitors who applied went from 1 in 74 to 1 in 12.

How can you check where you stand today?

1. Write 10 questions your buyers would type or say, in their words, with your city or category in them.
2. Search each on Google. Note whether you rank, whether there is an AI Overview or featured snippet, and who it cites.
3. Ask the same questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. Note who is named and which sites are cited.
4. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and make sure it doesn't block Googlebot, Bingbot or OAI-SearchBot.
5. Repeat monthly with the same questions and compare counts. Single answers change from day to day; the count over many questions is what tells you something.

Our 10-point check for ChatGPT readiness covers step 4 and the rest of the technical side, and how to get recommended by ChatGPT covers what to change once you have your baseline.

What can't anyone promise?

Nobody can guarantee a Google ranking, a featured snippet, an AI Overview link or a mention in ChatGPT. Google says indexing and serving "isn't guaranteed", and each AI company decides what its assistant says. Answers change from day to day and from person to person, and a competitor with years of reviews and press will often be named first. Good work removes the reasons you would be left out, makes your pages easy to quote, and gives you a dated record of whether it is working.

How can Project 66 Studio help?

We set up one of SEO, AEO or GEO for $490 once, all three for $990 once, or run all three for $299/mo; we confirm the final price before any work begins. Try the free AI check in the plan builder on our pricing page to see where you stand, then start a project and tell us which questions you want to be the answer to.

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Questions people ask

Is GEO the same as AEO?

They overlap but are not the same. AEO is about being the answer inside a search engine, such as Google's AI Overviews, featured snippets and voice results. GEO is about being named by AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity, which also depends on reviews, listings and mentions on other sites.

Does SEO still matter if people use ChatGPT?

Yes. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode only link to pages that are indexed and eligible to show in Google Search with a snippet, so SEO is the base for AEO. ChatGPT search may also share queries with third-party search providers such as Bing, so being findable in regular search engines helps there too.

Do I need special markup or an AI file to appear in AI Overviews?

No. Google says there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no new machine-readable files or AI text files are required. Clear pages that are indexed and eligible for a snippet are what count.

How long does GEO take to work?

Technical fixes can show quickly: OpenAI says robots.txt changes reach its search systems in about 24 hours. Being named more often usually takes weeks to months, because it depends on reviews, listings and mentions that build up over time. Measure with the same set of buyer questions each month rather than one search.

Who coined the term generative engine optimization?

The term comes from the paper "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande. It was first posted on arXiv in November 2023 and published at the KDD 2024 conference. The authors reported that rewriting content could raise its visibility in AI answers by up to 40%.

How much does SEO, AEO and GEO setup cost at Project 66 Studio?

Project 66 Studio sets up one of SEO, AEO or GEO for $490 once, all three for $990 once, or runs all three as a monthly service for $299/mo. The final price is confirmed before any work begins. No one, including us, can guarantee rankings or AI mentions.

Read next

• We asked 7 AI assistants 41 buyer questions. Here's what decides who gets named
• Is your website ready for ChatGPT? A 10-point check
• How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT, Google AI and other assistants

Sources

1. SEO Starter Guide, Google Search Central (read 27 Oct 2026).
2. AI features and your website, Google Search Central (read 27 Oct 2026).
3. Featured snippets and your website, Google Search Central (read 27 Oct 2026).
4. A reintroduction to Google's featured snippets, Google (The Keyword) (read 27 Oct 2026).
5. Search Console overview, Search Console Help (read 27 Oct 2026).
6. Overview of OpenAI Crawlers, OpenAI (read 27 Oct 2026).
7. ChatGPT search, OpenAI Help Center (read 27 Oct 2026).
8. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv:2311.09735), arXiv (read 27 Oct 2026).
9. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (full text, v3), arXiv (read 27 Oct 2026).
10. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (publication record), Princeton University (read 27 Oct 2026).
11. Introducing AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools Public Preview, Bing Webmaster Blog (read 27 Oct 2026).