More and more abbreviations are popping up in the world of online findability. Two of them are often confused: AEO and GEO. They look alike, they partly overlap, but they are not the same. Anyone who understands the difference immediately understands what the whole shift in search is about.
What is AEO?
AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. It is about optimising for answer engines: systems that answer a direct question rather than show a list of links. Think of a featured snippet in Google, a spoken answer from a smart assistant, or the short answer at the top of the search page. The goal of AEO is simple: making sure your content is the answer.
What is GEO?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It is about optimising for generative AI: systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity that compose a complete, freely worded answer from multiple sources. The goal of GEO is for you to be recognised and cited as a trustworthy source within that composed answer.
The core difference in one sentence
AEO wants you to deliver the answer. GEO wants you to be the source the answer rests on.
A practical example
Someone asks: “What does a buying agent in The Hague cost?” With AEO, your goal is for your clear, factual explanation to appear as a ready-made answer. With GEO, your goal is for ChatGPT, while telling a broader story about buying agents, to mention your firm as an example or source. One is about the answer itself, the other about the authority behind the answer.
Why you need both
In practice, AEO and GEO reinforce each other. Content that works as a direct answer is often also suited to being a trustworthy source. Clear structure, factual statements and structured data serve both goals. At SiteBoosting we therefore treat them as two sides of the same coin: being findable in a world where the search engine no longer refers on, but answers itself.
