AEO and GEO: Get AI to Cite Your Brand
We work your digital presence so ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overview name you when your customer asks who does what you do. AEO, GEO, LLMO, and AI SEO are different names for this same work.
What is AEO, and how is it different from GEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the evolution of SEO for the era of AI. While SEO focuses on appearing in search result lists, AEO focuses on being cited in the answers generated by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overview. These systems don't show lists of links. They give direct answers and cite sources.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) names that same work from the generative engine's side, and it is the term with the strongest academic backing: it comes from the 2023 paper that coined it (Princeton and coauthors, published at KDD 2024). The industry has not agreed on a definition that separates them. As of early 2026 the academic literature still doesn't distinguish the two, and in commercial practice they are used interchangeably. We do one discipline and name it with both acronyms so you find it with whichever one you use.
AEO, GEO, LLMO, AIO: five names for the same work
Every few months a new acronym shows up for the same thing. Here is what each one means, who uses it, and why our method doesn't change when the name does.
- AEO Answer Engine Optimization
- Getting cited in direct answers: Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, voice assistants, and chatbots. It's the name HubSpot gave its own product.
- GEO Generative Engine Optimization
- Getting cited in generative engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini. It's the term with academic backing and the canonical title of the Wikipedia article.
- LLMO Large Language Model Optimization
- The same work named from the model instead of the search engine. Used mostly in technical and engineering circles.
- AIO AI Optimization
- An umbrella label for any AI-oriented optimization. The least precise of the five, and the easiest one to sell smoke with.
- AI SEO Google's position
- Google's 2026 documentation argues that optimizing for generative AI is optimizing for the search experience, which means it is still SEO.
In practice they share most of the same tactics. If an agency quotes you three separate services for three of these acronyms, it is billing you three times for the same work.
Key Benefits
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AI Visibility
Appear when AI assistants answer questions about your industry
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Established Authority
Being cited by AI positions your brand as a reference source
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Competitive Advantage
Get ahead of competitors who aren't optimizing for AEO or GEO yet
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SEO & Content
AEO improvements also benefit your traditional SEO
Our Method
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AI Visibility Audit
We measure how often ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overview cite you today, and where the gaps are against your competitors
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Content Strategy
We design content that answers the questions your audience asks AIs
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Technical Optimization
We implement advanced schema markup and structured data
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Monitoring and Adjustment
We track mentions in AIs and adjust strategy based on results
Frequently Asked Questions
SEO optimizes for traditional search result lists. AEO and GEO optimize to be cited as a source inside an AI-generated answer, and between those two there is no agreed difference. Good SEO helps, but AEO and GEO require additional tactics around structure, original data, and citation measurement.
In practice, yes. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) describe the same work: getting an AI engine to cite your content. Some agencies split them by claiming AEO covers direct answers and voice search while GEO covers generative models, but that distinction isn't supported by the academic literature, which as of early 2026 still hasn't established a difference between the two terms.
LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) is another name for AEO and GEO, framed from the language model's side rather than the search engine's. It's used mostly in technical circles. The work is identical: structured content, citable original data, and measurement of mentions across ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini.
The same one. AEO and GEO name the same discipline, so hiring them separately means paying twice for the same work. What is worth checking before you hire is how the agency measures: how many times each query is run, on which platforms, on which days, and what counts as an owned citation versus a third-party one. Without that, any AI visibility percentage is noise.
You can't directly control AI answers, but you can influence them. By being the most authoritative and well-structured source on your topics, you increase the probability of being cited correctly.
Absolutely. Business professionals increasingly use AI to research solutions, compare vendors, and make decisions. Being cited as an authority in AI answers can directly influence B2B purchasing decisions.
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