AEO and GEO vs SEO: what they mean, how they differ, and what Google, Bing and OpenAI say

If you have searched for "AEO meaning" or "GEO full form in SEO", you have probably found as many definitions as agencies selling the service. The terms are new, people use them loosely, and some of the advice attached to them goes beyond what the search companies actually say. This guide sticks to the definitions and to what Google, Microsoft (Bing and Copilot) and OpenAI have published, checked on 26 October 2026, and says clearly where something is our own advice.

What AEO and GEO mean

AEO stands for answer engine optimisation. An answer engine is any tool that replies to a question with an answer instead of a list of links: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot or an AI Overview at the top of Google. AEO is the work of making sure that, when such a tool answers a question about your field, it has clear and correct facts about your business to work with.

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. The term comes from a research paper, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", by researchers from IIT Delhi and Princeton University with two independent researchers, first posted in November 2023 and published at the ACM KDD conference in August 2024. The paper describes generative engines as systems that answer queries by "synthesizing information from multiple sources", and GEO as a way to help content creators be visible in those answers. Microsoft now uses the term in Bing's Webmaster Guidelines, where GEO "focuses on content eligibility for grounding and reference in AI responses". Grounding means building an AI answer on web pages it retrieves; Bing calls the pages it uses "grounding results".

In practice the two words describe the same job, and you will also see "AI SEO", "LLM SEO" and "AIO" used for it. What matters is what the work involves, not which label is on it.

AEO and GEO vs SEO: how they differ

Bing's guidelines open with a section called "SEO Fundamentals Still Apply to Grounding and AI Experiences", and Google says the same for AI Overviews and AI Mode. So the useful question is not which one to choose, but what changes when the goal is an AI answer rather than a ranking:

One practical difference is that an AI answer can be wrong about you even when your website is right. It may draw on an old copy of a page, a directory listing or a competitor's comparison. That is why consistency across your website, Google Business Profile and listings matters more here than it does for rankings alone.

What Google says about AI Overviews and AI Mode

Google's page "AI features and your website" is short and direct. It says: "There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary." It adds that you don't need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup, and that there is no special schema.org structured data to add. To be eligible, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.

The best practices it lists include the ordinary ones:

• Allow crawling in robots.txt and in any CDN or hosting setup in front of your site.
• Make content easy to find through internal links.
• Give visitors a good page experience.
• Put important content in text, not only in images or video.
• Make sure your structured data matches the visible text on the page.
• Keep your Merchant Center and Business Profile information up to date.

Google also says how to limit what it shows: the nosnippet, data-nosnippet and max-snippet controls and noindex apply to AI features too. Traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is counted in Search Console's Performance report, inside the "Web" search type, together with the rest of your search traffic.

What Bing and Copilot say

Bing's Webmaster Guidelines cover Bing search, Copilot and AI answers, and they are more specific than Google's about what helps a page get selected and cited. Its content guidance includes:

• Facts and definitions are explicit, so the content can be verified on its own ("Ensure Content can be Verified Independently").
• People, organisations, products and places are named clearly and consistently, without ambiguous references.
• Each URL is focused on a single topic, with the title, headings and content pointing the same way.
• Essential information sits near the top of the page, without a long introduction first.
• Content is kept accurate and up to date, and IndexNow is notified when a page is added, changed or deleted.
• Structured data accurately reflects the visible content. Bing notes it "may support clearer grounding but does not guarantee visibility".

Two settings matter for Copilot in particular. NOARCHIVE "prevents content from being used in Copilot responses and grounding results". NOCACHE limits Copilot to the URL, title and snippet, so Bing advises against it on content intended for Copilot or grounding.

Bing also names the tactics it treats as abuse. Its keyword-stuffing rule is called "Keyword Stuffing and Artificially Engineered Language" and says content should not be made "to manipulate ranking systems or trigger citations or AI responses". A separate rule covers prompt injection: content designed to manipulate the language models behind Bing or Copilot "may result in reduced visibility or removal". Hidden instructions to AI tools and text written for machines rather than people are risks, not shortcuts.

What OpenAI says about ChatGPT search

OpenAI runs separate crawlers for separate jobs, and its two crawlers, OAI-SearchBot and GPTBot, each have their own robots.txt setting. OAI-SearchBot "is used to surface websites in search results in ChatGPT's search features", and sites that block it "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers", though they can still appear as navigational links. GPTBot is the crawler for training OpenAI's models; blocking it tells OpenAI not to use your content for training. OpenAI says each setting is independent, so a site can block GPTBot and still allow OAI-SearchBot. If you want to appear in ChatGPT search answers, OAI-SearchBot is the one to leave open.

A practical AEO and GEO checklist

This is the checklist we use, on our own site and on client sites. Most items build on the guidance above; the other assistants' crawlers, the schema types, the buyer-question check and the order are our own advice.

1. Crawler access. robots.txt and your hosting allow Googlebot, Bingbot and OAI-SearchBot (and PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot, if you want Perplexity and Claude to find you). Test with each crawler's user agent: a firewall or bot-protection setting can block one without anyone noticing.
2. Snippet controls. No noindex, nosnippet, noarchive or nocache on pages you want in AI answers.
3. One set of business details. The same name, phone number, address, service areas and founding year on your website, Google Business Profile and every directory listing.
4. Answer-first pages. Each important page states its main fact in the first lines: what you do, where, for whom and from what price. One topic per page.
5. Structured data that matches the page. Organization or LocalBusiness, Service and FAQPage markup, and nothing in it that the visitor can't see. It helps machines read the page; it doesn't guarantee rich results or AI citations.
6. Current facts everywhere. When prices or services change, update every page that mentions them, notify IndexNow (Bing) and ask Google to recrawl the key URLs in Search Console. AI answers can repeat an old copy of a page for weeks.
7. A fixed set of buyer questions. Ten or twelve questions your customers really ask, put to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google every month, with the answers recorded: were you named, linked, and described correctly?

For the full version, with technical, on-page, off-page and local SEO, measurement and the myths to drop, see our SEO, AEO, GEO and AIO checklist for 2026.

Two things are not on the list. You don't need an llms.txt file to appear in Google's AI features: Google says no AI text files are needed. Some sites publish one anyway as a plain summary; if you do, keep it accurate and in step with your pages. And no checklist can force an assistant to mention you: assistants choose their own sources, and their answers change from week to week.

How to measure AEO and GEO

There is no single "AI ranking" report, so measurement has three parts. First, Search Console: Google counts AI Overviews and AI Mode within the Performance report's "Web" search type, so watch impressions and clicks for the pages that answer your buyers' questions. Second, Bing Webmaster Tools: its AI Performance report, in public preview since February 2026, shows how often your pages are cited in Copilot answers. Third, a fixed question set: ask the same questions in the same way every month and record for each assistant whether your business is mentioned, whether it is linked, which competitors are named and whether the facts are right. Keep the questions the same, or the month-on-month comparison means nothing.

What AEO and GEO work costs with us

Our AI Search Visibility service starts with a one-time audit at ₹20,000: an agreed set of buyer questions asked to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI answers, a review of your structured data and business listings, and a prioritised fix list. The monthly plan at ₹25,000 adds two answer-first pages a month, ongoing structured data and listing fixes, and monthly re-checks of the same questions with a report. It works best on top of sound SEO; all our prices are on the pricing page.