If you’ve got your finger on the digital pulse, you’ll notice that online search processes are changing rapidly. For years, SEO revolved more around ranking Google’s familiar list of blue links. But now? People talk to search engines conversationally, expecting an instant answer, and they often receive a neatly summarised response from an AI system instead of a webpage.
That shift is one of the most notable in the field in recent years, and it has introduced three new approaches you’re going to hear more and more about. Namely: Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO), and AI SEO. These sit alongside traditional SEO, so it’s not a replacement, but rather an evolution.
These are the layers that determine whether AI systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, or Siri can use your content while responding to users. In other words, it’s vital to nail your answer engine optimisation.
If you’ve been wondering, “What is GEO SEO anyway?” or stumbling over how your business fits into all this, then our guide will walk you through the fundamentals.
How has search behaviour shifted over the past few years?
You’ve likely noticed a change in your own search habits. Instead of typing “best restaurants Auckland,” as used to be common, people now query in full sentences. Things like “Where should I go for dinner in Auckland tonight?” are becoming commonplace in search queries.
As a result, instead of scrolling through ten links, searchers often trust the first summarised answer they hear or read. AI systems are stepping in as search intermediaries, in a sense. Instead of placing the burden of search on the searcher, AI engines sift through massive volumes of content and return a single, distilled response.
This means being “findable” means something a bit different these days. It doesn’t necessarily mean ranking #1 on a Google results page (although this can still help significantly). It now means ensuring your website content is clear and authoritative enough for AI systems to select it for their answers. That’s where generative engine optimisation, answer engine optimisation, and AI SEO come into play.
What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?
So, what is GEO SEO all about, anyway? It’s all about helping generative AI models (think ChatGPT, Gemini, or Copilot) understand, trust, and reference your content. While traditional SEO models focus on search engine algorithms, GEO focuses on how AI engines scrape and parse meaning.
When an AI answers someone’s question, it scans countless online sources and chooses the ones it considers reliable. GEO ensures your content is structured in a way that AI systems can confidently pull from.
Unlike SEO, which relies principally on keywords for context, Generative Engine Optimisation experts apply GEO, which prioritises clarity, credibility, and contextual richness. Generally speaking, generative models prefer content that feels genuine and complete. If you can make your site “AI-readable” as well as user-friendly, then you massively increase your odds of being cited or summarised inside AI-generated responses. This means your business shows up at the top of the page.
Is Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) different?
GEO is about getting AI systems to select your content for their summarised answers, while AEO is about being chosen when search engines or voice assistants want a clean, direct answer.
This practice focuses on structuring your content so it can be pulled into featured snippets, voice answers, Q&A boxes, and similar formats. These are all the places a user might jump to if they skip the AI summary at the top of the SERP, so they are very useful places to show up as a business.
As more people ask their phones questions like, “Who’s the best plumber near me?” or “How do I renew my passport?”, the value of AEO continues to climb. Great AEO focuses on creating conversational, precise, and helpful content that can bridge the gap between long-form SEO and real, everyday questions.
What about AI SEO?
AI SEO is more about the tools an SEO agency might use while optimising. It refers to using artificial intelligence tools to improve the effectiveness of SEO. These tools analyse patterns in search behaviour to identify what competitors are doing well and help teams find content gaps.
This is a huge help because, instead of manually sifting through data, AI can give you insights upfront so you can focus on executing them. In this way, AI can do a lot to speed up the process of building an online presence strategy:
- Analyse huge keyword sets
- Predict ranking opportunities
- Identify trends that actually suit your business
- Streamline technical audits
- Suggest improvements based on real-time user behaviour
The real unlock happens when all of these disciplines fit together.
How GEO, AEO, and AI SEO fit together:
Adopting all three techniques at once is useful, but the most important thing is to strengthen the foundation of your traditional SEO before jumping in. Without a strong technical performance, a clear on-page structure, and trustworthy content, none of these new layers can truly do their job.
Once the base is solid, your GEO, SEO, and AEO team can shift to a multi-disciplinary approach that focuses on all these different aspects of visibility. GEO will make your content more recognisable to generative models, AEO will help your content to become the direct answer that users receive, and AI SEO will help your team recommend what to create and how to structure it.
The future is coming at us fast, faster every day, and new techniques that focus on ways to use AI will undoubtedly keep cropping up. The key to using them well is to prioritise a genuine understanding of the tools and techniques, then to create content that matches what’s required.
Leaning into buzzwords won’t help, but prioritising clarity, expertise, and credibility will ensure your content rises to the top (literally). Plus, having a qualified team on your side to help makes all the difference.
Ready to optimise for the next generation of search?
If you want your business to stay visible as AI reshapes how search works, then now is the time to dig into your digital strategy.
At The Web Guys, our team of generative engine optimisation specialists are delivering website design and performance marketing campaigns that generate insane results for our clients. Get in touch to request a free audit now and access the future today.
