What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO aims to rank pages in search results. GEO aims to get your business mentioned and cited inside AI-generated answers from tools like ChatGPT and Gemini.

Is AEO the same as GEO?

They overlap. AEO focuses on being the direct answer to a question; GEO focuses on being cited or recommended by generative AI tools.

Does GEO replace SEO?

No. AI tools lean heavily on content that already ranks and on trusted sources, so good SEO is the foundation for GEO.

How do I know if ChatGPT mentions my business?

Track a fixed set of buyer questions in AI tools each month and record whether and how your brand appears.

What Is GEO and AEO? Do Indian Businesses Need It?

By Deep Bhardwaj, founder and senior SEO consultant · Updated October 2026

GEO (generative engine optimisation) is making your business easy for AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to find, trust and cite. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is structuring content so it can be lifted as a direct answer, in featured snippets, voice search or AI Overviews. Both build on normal SEO rather than replacing it.

SEO vs GEO vs AEO

	SEO	AEO	GEO
Goal	Rank in search results	Be the direct answer	Be mentioned and cited by AI assistants
Where it shows	Google, Bing results	Featured snippets, People Also Ask, voice, AI Overviews	ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, AI Overviews
Main levers	Content, technical, links	Question-led content, short clear answers, FAQ schema	Clear entity facts, consistent listings, mentions on trusted sites, structured data

What actually helps with GEO and AEO

Answer first. Put a 40–60 word direct answer at the top of each page, then the detail.
Consistent facts. The same business name, address, phone, founding year and services everywhere: your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories.
Structured data. Organization, Person, Service, FAQPage and Article schema.
Mentions on sources AI tools read. Industry lists, reviews, news and community discussions.
Published specifics. Prices, timelines and processes give AI assistants concrete facts to quote.
An llms.txt file summarising who you are and your key pages.

Do Indian businesses need it?

If your buyers research before they contact you, such as B2B, healthcare, education, real estate, SaaS or professional services, yes. Start with strong SEO, then add GEO work. See our AI SEO services.

How AI assistants choose which businesses to mention

AI assistants answer questions by combining what they learned in training with pages they retrieve from the web at the time of the question. When someone asks "best SEO company in Delhi" or "which clinic in Faridabad does IVF", the assistant looks for sources it trusts, such as directories, review sites, lists, news articles and company websites, and names businesses that appear consistently across them. Businesses with clear facts, many independent mentions and well-structured pages are easier to pick out and cite.

A practical GEO and AEO checklist

Write down your key facts: name, address, phone, founding year, services, areas served and prices. Use them identically everywhere.
Add an answer under each main question on your important pages, in two or three plain sentences.
Use question-style headings that match how buyers ask.
Add structured data: Organization, LocalBusiness or Service, FAQPage, Article and Person.
Get listed and reviewed on the directories and review sites that AI answers cite in your sector.
Earn mentions in industry lists, news and community discussions on Reddit and Quora.
Publish an llms.txt file summarising who you are and your key pages.
Allow AI crawlers in your robots.txt unless you have a reason to block them.

How to measure AI visibility

Pick 20 to 50 questions your buyers ask, such as "best SEO company in India" or "how much does SEO cost in India". Run them every week in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Mode. Record whether your business is named, where it appears in the answer, which sources are cited and whether the facts about you are correct. Over a few months this shows which changes move your visibility. You can also watch for AI Overview queries in Google Search Console.

Common GEO mistakes

Different addresses, phone numbers or founding years across the web
Pages full of marketing claims with no concrete facts to quote
Blocking AI crawlers by accident
Ignoring third-party sites and focusing only on your own website
Expecting results without first fixing basic SEO

Where to start

For most Indian businesses the quickest wins are fixing inconsistent business details, adding clear answers and schema to the five most important pages, and getting listed on the directories AI tools already cite in your category. Our longer articles cover the topic in more depth: what GEO is and why it matters and the GEO playbook.

What Is GEO and AEO?