For twenty years, getting found online meant one thing: rank on Google. That game has splintered into three. If your whole strategy is still spelled S-E-O, you're optimising for a shrinking slice of how people find businesses now.

The short version: SEO gets your pages ranked in search results. AEO gets your content chosen as the direct answer in featured snippets and AI Overviews. GEO gets your brand named and cited inside the paragraphs AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity write. The goal never changes. You want to be found, and now three kinds of machine decide whether you are.

You don't need a separate agency and budget for each one. You need one set of foundations done properly, then a few specific moves per engine.

SEO. Search Engine Optimisation

The game you know. You publish pages, earn links, and climb the ten blue links so a human clicks through. It still matters, but more searches now end without a click, because the answer appears before the links do. Similarweb found the share of news searches ending with no click through to a news site grew from 56% to nearly 69% between May 2024, when Google launched AI Overviews in the US, and May 2025.

Don't let the headlines convince you SEO is dead. The other two stand on it. Google says its AI Overviews and AI Mode may use a "query fan-out" technique, running several related searches behind the scenes to build one response, and that a page must be indexed and eligible for a normal search snippet before it can show up as a supporting link. Put bluntly, a site Google can't crawl has no way into the AI answer.

SEO in 2026 comes down to four fundamentals:

  • Technical health. Pages load fast, work on a phone, and get crawled and indexed without errors.
  • Search intent. The page matches what the searcher is trying to do, whatever keyword they happened to type.
  • Useful depth. You answer the question fully, from experience. Thin pages written to hit a word count don't count.
  • Authority. Links and reviews from credible sources tell search engines other people trust you.

AEO. Answer Engine Optimisation

The goal here is to be the answer. Google's featured snippets flip the usual result and show the descriptive text first. AI Overviews box off a summary above the links, and a voice assistant reads one response aloud. AEO means engineering your content so yours is the one they lift.

Answer engines are lazy in a very specific way. They want a clean, self-contained answer they can use without rewriting. The content that wins AEO tends to look like this:

  • Question-shaped headings. Subheadings that match how people ask, like "How much does a website cost in Australia?"
  • The answer first. One or two plain sentences directly under the heading. Detail comes after.
  • Lists and steps. Numbered processes and short bullets are easy for a machine to extract and for a person to scan.
  • Structured data. Schema markup labels what each part of a page is, from an FAQ to your organisation details. Google says it uses structured data to understand the content of the page.
  • FAQ sections. Questions your customers have asked you, answered directly.

GEO. Generative Engine Optimisation

This is the newest front. The name comes from a 2023 research paper by a team from Princeton and IIT Delhi. When someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini a question, the tool generates a paragraph and names a handful of sources. GEO is the practice of getting your brand into that generated answer, cited and recommended, before the buyer ever opens a search tab.

With GEO the machine is building an opinion as much as picking a page. It pulls together what it can find about your brand, from your own website and reviews to forum threads and press coverage, then summarises. So your reputation across the web counts as much as your own content does.

The moves that matter most:

  • Be a clear entity. The same name and the same description everywhere your business appears, so AI can tell who you are. More on that in become an entity.
  • Write quotable content. Clear definitions, numbers from your own work and opinions strong enough to cite. We broke down the style in write content AI can't help but quote.
  • Get mentioned elsewhere. Reviews on third-party sites and guest spots on podcasts give AI tools independent evidence to lean on.
  • Cover the comparisons. Buyers ask AI "what's the best X for Y." Say honestly who you're right for and who you're not, and the model has something to work with.
SEO gets you ranked. AEO gets you answered. GEO gets you generated. The buyer of 2026 touches all three before they touch your website.
Get found across all three engines

Why you can't pick just one

  • They share a spine: Clear, structured content and real authority feed all three at once.
  • The traffic is shifting: It hasn't vanished. Every zero-click answer and AI recommendation is a moment your competitor can own.
  • Reputation takes time to build: Reviews and mentions pile up slowly. Our view: the business that starts this year will be hard to catch next year.

Picture a buyer now. They might ask ChatGPT for a shortlist, Google the names it gives them, read an AI Overview on pricing, then click through to two websites to compare. That's GEO, then SEO, then AEO, then SEO again, in one purchase. Neglect any stage and you drop out of the running without ever knowing you were in it.

One piece of content, built for all three

You don't need three versions of everything. Structure one great page so all three engines can use it:

  1. Pick one question. Something your customers ask before they buy. Your sales inbox is the best keyword tool you own.
  2. Answer it in the first two sentences. Plain, direct, no warm-up.
  3. Then go deep. Explain how it works and what it costs, then cover the trade-offs. Depth earns rankings.
  4. Use clear headings. Each subheading should work as a question or a clear label, so machines can pull sections independently.
  5. Add proof. Your own experience, examples from past jobs, and a named author with credentials a reader can check.
  6. Mark it up. Add article and FAQ schema, and keep your organisation details consistent. One caveat: Google stopped showing FAQ rich results in May 2026, so FAQ markup now labels your content for machines without changing how your listing looks.
  7. Link it up. Connect it to related pages on your site so search engines understand the topic cluster.
  8. Keep it current. Update it when things change, and show the date.

A worked example: the Adelaide physio

Say you run a physiotherapy clinic in Adelaide. Right now your website is a homepage and a services page. It ranks for your clinic name and not much else.

You start with one page: "How many physio sessions do you need for lower back pain?" The first two sentences give a straight answer. It depends on the cause and severity, and here is what a typical course of treatment looks like at your clinic. Below that you explain the factors, what happens in each session, the warning signs that need a GP, and what patients can do at home. Your principal physio is named as the author, with their qualifications. The page has FAQ schema and links to your back pain service page.

Then you work on the web around you. Your details match on your Google Business Profile and the health directories. Patients leave reviews that mention the problem you treated, and a local health podcast has you on as a guest. Over time, that page has a fair chance to rank, to be lifted into an answer box, and to get your clinic named when someone asks an AI tool for a good back pain physio nearby. One page, three engines.

Look at what the clinic skipped. No fifty thin pages targeting every suburb. No bought links, no churned-out AI posts. It picked the questions patients ask, answered them better than anyone nearby, and made sure the rest of the web backed up its claims.

How to measure it

Most businesses fall down here, because the old metrics don't capture it all. Track these:

  • Rankings and clicks in Google Search Console, for SEO.
  • Impressions without clicks. Google counts appearances in AI Overviews and AI Mode inside the normal Performance report, so rising impressions with flat clicks can mean you're being seen in answers.
  • AI referral traffic in your analytics. ChatGPT and Perplexity visits appear in GA4 as referrals from chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai. Treat the number as a floor, because some AI visits get filed under Direct.
  • Manual AI checks. Once a month, ask the major AI assistants the questions your buyers ask and record whether you're mentioned, and how. We explain why in your customers are asking AI about you.
  • "How did you hear about us?" Add AI assistants as an option on your enquiry form.

Mistakes to avoid

  • Chasing tricks. Hidden text and keyword stuffing are on Google's spam policy list, and sites that break it can rank lower or disappear from results. Fake reviews are worse. In Australia, the ACCC says creating them is against the law.
  • Treating GEO as separate from SEO. They share foundations. Fix the basics first.
  • Burying the answer. Three paragraphs of intro before the point gets you skipped by humans and machines.
  • Ignoring your reputation off-site. AI tools read what others say about you as well as what you say.
  • Mass-producing AI content. A generic page adds nothing an AI tool can't already say itself, so it has no reason to cite you.

Master all three letters

The alphabet of getting found has three letters now. Master all of them, or watch the answer be about someone else.

This is what our digital marketing team does every day: technical SEO, answer-ready content and the entity and reputation work that gets brands named in AI answers. If you're not sure how you show up across all three, start by asking an AI assistant about your category and seeing whose name comes back. Then let's talk about making it yours.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between AEO and GEO?

AEO, answer engine optimisation, is about getting your content chosen as the single direct answer in places like featured snippets and Google's AI Overviews. GEO, generative engine optimisation, is about getting your brand mentioned and cited inside the answers tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity write. AEO targets extracted answers. GEO targets generated ones.

Is SEO still worth doing now that AI answers questions directly?

Yes. SEO is the foundation for AEO and GEO. Google's own guidance says SEO best practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and a page has to be indexed before those features can link to it. Dropping SEO would weaken your chances of appearing in AI answers.

How do I know if ChatGPT or other AI tools mention my business?

Ask them. Type the questions your customers ask, such as the best provider for your service in your city, into the main AI assistants once a month and record whether you're mentioned and what they say. Also check your analytics for referrals from chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai, and ask new enquiries where they first heard about you.

How long does AEO and GEO take to work?

There's no fixed timeline. Structural fixes like clear answers and schema can be picked up once Google recrawls the page. Building the reputation that makes AI tools recommend you takes longer, usually months of steady reviews and mentions. Treat it as a compounding investment.