Does GEO replace SEO?

No. Google says its generative AI search features rely on its core Search ranking and quality systems, and its guide of July 2026 treats work on those features as SEO.

Are GEO and AEO the same thing?

They are neighbouring labels. Google describes AEO (answer engine optimization) and GEO (generative engine optimization) together as terms for work on visibility in AI search experiences.

GEO vs SEO: differences, evidence, what to measure

Q: Must a page rank in Google's top 10 to be cited in an AI Overview?

No. In a March 2026 study of 863,000 results pages, Ahrefs found that 37.1% of the URLs cited in AI Overviews were among the first ten organic results for the same query. The rest ranked lower or outside the top 100.

SEO aims for visibility in search results. GEO (generative engine optimization) aims for visibility in answers written by AI, through linked citations and mentions of a brand. Most of the work overlaps: Google says that optimizing for its AI features "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO".

In our view the two differ mainly in what you measure, and GEO adds a review of what other sites say about you. Facts checked on 6 November 2026.

What do SEO, GEO and AEO mean?

SEO (search engine optimization) covers a site's technical state, its content and the links pointing to it. The aim is to appear in the results of search engines and earn visits.

GEO was named in a research paper by authors from Princeton and IIT Delhi, published in 2023 and presented at the KDD conference in 2024. The aim moves from a position on a page to a presence inside a generated answer.

AEO (answer engine optimization) is a neighbouring label. Google describes AEO and GEO together as terms for "work specifically focused on improving visibility in AI search experiences". The vocabulary has not settled: of the 34 Belgian and French agency sites in our survey, 27 use GEO and 5 use AEO.

How do SEO and GEO differ?

	SEO	GEO
Where you appear	A list of results	A generated answer with some links
Target	A position and a visit	A citation or a mention
Work on your site	Technical, content	The same, plus access for AI robots
Work elsewhere	Links, reputation	The same, plus a review of what is written about the brand
Measures	Rankings, clicks, conversions	AI impressions, citations, mentions on a set of test questions
Official reports	Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools	Newer reports from Google and Bing, nothing comparable from most assistants

Is GEO just SEO under a new name?

Google describes optimization for its generative AI features as SEO. Its guide, updated on 10 July 2026, says these features are "rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems" and draw on pages from the Search index. A page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet to appear as a supporting link. The guide also lists tactics you can ignore.

Other assistants have their own systems, and citations do not simply copy rankings. In a study of 15,000 prompts published in August 2025, Ahrefs reported an average overlap of 11.9% with Google's top 10, across five categories of citation. Perplexity's overlap was the highest, at 28.6%.

The link has loosened inside Google too. In March 2026, on 863,000 results pages, Ahrefs found that 37.1% of the URLs cited in AI Overviews were among the first ten organic results for the same query. Its earlier study, from July 2025, gave about 76%. Ahrefs suggests that query fan-out plays a part: Google splits a question into related searches and cites pages that rank for those. The two studies are not a clean comparison, because Google moved to Gemini 3 and Ahrefs changed its parsing in between.

In our view GEO adds two tasks to SEO work: tracking a new kind of visibility, and reviewing what other sites publish about the brand.

Will GEO replace SEO?

Nothing in Google's documentation points that way. The company says the best practices for SEO "continue to be relevant", and its AI features depend on the same index and ranking systems. Anyone with SEO work under way should continue it. A budget moved from SEO to GEO would take away the foundations that AI features in Google rely on.

What do AI answers do to traffic?

The studies associate Google's AI Overviews with fewer clicks on results. These figures describe samples and do not predict the outcome for one site.

Ahrefs compared 300,000 keywords between December 2023 and December 2025. An AI Overview correlated with a 58% lower desktop click-through rate for the top result, compared with what the trend on other informational keywords predicted. The same method on March 2025 data gave 34.5%
Pew Research matched the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025 with search results collected in April. People clicked a result on 8% of visits to a page with an AI summary, and on 15% without one. They clicked a link inside the summary on 1% of visits
An Ahrefs study from April 2025 reports that 99.2% of its sampled AI Overview keywords had informational intent

Visits sent by assistants remain few. Mission Growth compiles shares of 0.2% to 1.08% of website visits, from different panels and periods. Reports on how well these visits convert use different populations, so we do not quote a figure.

How do you measure SEO and GEO separately?

What you want to know	Where to look
Position and clicks in search	Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools
Impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode	The generative AI report in Search Console
Citations in Copilot	The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools
Visits from assistants	A segment by referring site in your analytics
Being named in an answer	A set of test questions, run regularly
Enquiries and sales	Your CRM or your analytics

Compare the margin you can attribute to the work with what it costs. Our guide to citations explains how to set up the test questions.

Which one does your project need?

Your site has technical problems or thin content. Start with SEO
You rank well and informational traffic is falling. Check whether those searches now show an AI Overview, and which pages it cites
Your buyers ask assistants for recommendations, as they may for software or professional services. Add test questions and a review of what is written about you elsewhere
You serve a local area. Work on local SEO and your Google Business Profile first. Google names Business Profiles and Merchant Center as ways to appear in AI responses and in other results

Take a booking software publisher with a pricing page and a blog, as an illustration. The shared work covers page speed, content and internal links. The GEO share adds a check of the robots allowed to read the site, ten buyer questions tested each month, and a review of the comparison articles that assistants cite on its category.

Check the label before you buy. Of the 34 agency sites in our survey, 27 mention GEO and 12 mention an audit of AI visibility, and a mention on a page says little about the service. This is why SeoGeoMap lists a GEO speciality only when the expert's own site has a service page or a client case about it.

To compare providers, see the SEO and GEO experts in France and in Belgium, or filter by AI visibility audit. Our guides cover prices and how to choose an agency.