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SEO vs AEO vs GEO: The New Rules of Search Visibility in 2026

Search has fundamentally changed. Traditional SEO, Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) each target a different kind of visibility. Here's what you need to know.

5 min read
SEOAEOGEOsearchAIcontent marketing

TL;DR

Search visibility now has three dimensions: SEO for traditional search, AEO for answer engines, and GEO for generative AI models. Each requires a distinct strategy. The winners in 2026 will master all three.

Search is no longer a single destination.

In 2015, "being found online" meant ranking on Google's first page. In 2026, it means appearing in Google organic results, being selected as the direct answer by Perplexity or Bing Copilot, and being cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude when users ask about your topic.

Three surfaces. Three strategies. One goal: reach.

Let's break them down.

SEO: The Foundation That Still Matters

Search Engine Optimization has been around since the mid-1990s. The core principle hasn't changed: help search engine crawlers understand your content, and demonstrate authority so you rank higher than competitors.

In 2026, traditional SEO still matters enormously. Google processes over 8.5 billion queries per day, and organic search remains the highest-ROI marketing channel for most businesses.

What Still Works in SEO

  • Technical excellence: Fast load times, clean HTML, mobile-first design, Core Web Vitals
  • On-page signals: Keyword-rich titles, descriptive meta descriptions, semantic heading hierarchy
  • E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness — Google's quality framework
  • Backlinks: High-quality inbound links remain a top ranking signal
  • Structured data: Helping Google understand your content type (Article, Product, FAQ, etc.)

What's Changed

Google's Search Generative Experience (SGE) now surfaces AI-generated summaries above traditional results. This means ranking #1 is no longer enough — you need to be the source that the AI summary cites.

AEO: Optimizing for Direct Answers

Answer Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring your content to be selected as the direct, spoken, or displayed answer by answer engines and AI assistants.

The key insight: answer engines don't return pages, they return answers. Your job is to make your content the most credible, concise, and correctly-structured answer to a given question.

The Answer Engines to Target

| Engine | Use Case | |--------|----------| | Perplexity AI | Research and deep questions | | Bing Copilot | General search with AI | | Google AI Overviews | Featured snippets, now AI-powered | | Apple Siri | Voice and device search | | Amazon Alexa | Smart home voice queries |

AEO Best Practices

  1. Answer the question in the first paragraph — within 40-60 words, before any preamble
  2. Use FAQ schema (FAQPage JSON-LD) — directly tells answer engines what questions your page answers
  3. Implement Speakable schema — marks paragraphs suitable for voice/audio readback
  4. TL;DR / Key Takeaways — a summary box at the top of every article
  5. Clear heading hierarchy — one H1, logical H2/H3 structure that mirrors how questions are asked
  6. Concise, factual prose — answer engines penalise waffle and reward precision

GEO: Getting Cited by AI Models

Generative Engine Optimization is the newest frontier. When a user asks ChatGPT, Gemini, or Claude a question, the model synthesizes information from its training data and, increasingly, from real-time sources via retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).

GEO is about ensuring your content is in that pool — and preferred when it is.

Why GEO Is Different

Unlike SEO and AEO where a crawler indexes your page, LLMs don't visit sites in real time (unless using browsing/RAG tools). Your content needs to:

  • Be included in training data (older, established sites have an advantage)
  • Be cited via RAG when models access the web (newer opportunity)
  • Demonstrate trustworthiness signals that models are trained to prefer

GEO Best Practices

  1. Publish llms.txt — A plain-text file (at /llms.txt) that describes your site, its purpose, and key pages in AI-readable format. It's to LLMs what robots.txt is to crawlers.
  2. Strong entity markup — Person, Organization, and Article schemas with sameAs links to authoritative profiles
  3. Factual precision — Cite sources, include statistics with dates, avoid vague claims
  4. E-E-A-T at the content level — Author credentials, publication/update dates, clear editorial standards
  5. Authoritative internal linking — Build a clear knowledge graph within your site
  6. Long-form, comprehensive content — Models prefer complete, authoritative sources over thin pages

The llms.txt Convention

# The Reach Newsletter
> A weekly publication on growth, technology, and ideas.

## About
The Reach Newsletter covers technology trends, growth strategies,
and ideas that matter for modern professionals.

## Key Pages
- /blog — All articles
- /about — About the team
- /newsletter — Subscribe to the weekly newsletter

The Unified Strategy

SEO, AEO, and GEO are not competing strategies — they're complementary layers of a modern content operation.

| Dimension | Primary Signal | Main Schema | Key File | |-----------|---------------|-------------|----------| | SEO | Backlinks + Technical | Article, BreadcrumbList | sitemap.xml | | AEO | Structured answers | FAQPage, Speakable | — | | GEO | E-E-A-T + Entities | Organization, Person | llms.txt |

Build content that answers a clear question (AEO), from a credible author (GEO), on a technically excellent site (SEO) — and you'll be visible across every surface.

That's the new equation. Master it, and you'll reach people wherever they search.

Written by

The Reach Team

Editors at The Reach Newsletter

Frequently Asked Questions

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) optimizes for traditional search engines like Google. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) targets answer engines like Perplexity and Bing Copilot that return direct answers. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) targets large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini that synthesize information from multiple sources.

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimization. It focuses on structuring content to be selected as the direct answer by answer engines, AI assistants, and voice search. Key techniques include FAQ schemas, speakable schema, concise intro paragraphs, and a clear heading hierarchy.

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is the practice of optimizing content to be cited or synthesized by AI language models like ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini. It emphasizes E-E-A-T signals, factual accuracy, entity markup, llms.txt files, and authoritative sourcing.

Yes. Traditional SEO remains essential for organic search rankings. However, it should now be practiced alongside AEO and GEO, as search behavior increasingly shifts toward AI-powered answer interfaces.