# GEO vs SEO: what is actually different, and what is the same?

Canonical: https://whatisgeo.app/geo-vs-seo/
Publisher: Adapt Progress Evolve Limited
Updated: 2026-10-18

> GEO and SEO share most of their foundations: Google and Bing both say SEO basics are what make pages eligible for their AI answers. What changes is the goal (being cited, not only ranked) and how you measure it.

Short answer: if a page cannot be crawled, indexed and understood, it will struggle in both classic search and AI answers, so the SEO basics come first. GEO adds a different target on top of them. You want to be named, quoted or described accurately inside an answer, and you need a different way to check whether that is happening.

Most pages on this topic blend three kinds of claim. Here each one is labelled: **documented** (a platform's own documentation says so), **research** (a named study, with its limits) or **our recommendation** (sensible practice, nothing more). For the wider background, start with [what GEO is](/#what-is-geo).

## The short answer: mostly the same foundations, a different goal

Same plumbing, different target. A page still has to be reachable by crawlers, indexed and useful. What changes is what success looks like. In classic search you want a position on a results page and a click. In a generative answer you want to be one of the sources the engine draws on, ideally with the facts about your business stated correctly, even if the reader never clicks.

## What SEO aims at, and what GEO aims at

SEO aims at ranking. Your page competes with others for a query, the engine shows a list, and the reader chooses.

GEO aims at inclusion. A generative engine takes a question, gathers sources and writes an answer. Bing's guidelines describe GEO as focusing "on content eligibility for grounding and reference in AI responses" (documented). In practice the engine does more of the choosing, and the reader may never see the full list of sources.

## GEO vs SEO side by side

| | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| Main goal | Rank for a query | Be cited or described in an answer |
| What success looks like | A position, a click, a conversion | A mention, a citation, an accurate description |
| Technical foundations | Crawlable, indexed, useful pages | The same |
| Content emphasis | Matching intent, depth, structure | The same, plus clear facts that are easy to quote |
| Crawler decisions | Mainly search crawlers | Search, training and user-triggered agents, controlled separately |
| Measurement | Rankings, traffic, conversions | Asking buyer questions and checking the answers, plus search data |

The middle rows barely change. The differences sit at the top and bottom: what you want, and how you check whether you got it. For how an AI answer is put together, see [how AI answers happen](/#how-it-works).

## What each platform says about eligibility

Everything in this section is documented behaviour. Where a platform says nothing, we leave the gap.

**Google (AI Overviews and AI Mode).** To be shown as a supporting link, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet", and "there are no additional technical requirements." Google adds that specific optimisation "isn't required" for these features, while existing SEO fundamentals "continue to be worthwhile". It also notes that the two features may use different models and techniques, so the links they show will vary.

**Bing (Copilot).** Bing's guidelines say its search and Copilot experiences "rely on the same core crawling, indexing, and ranking foundation as traditional search", and that SEO best practices also support eligibility for AI answers and citations. They also flag that some page controls affect Copilot: for example, NOCACHE limits Copilot to the URL, title and snippet.

**OpenAI (ChatGPT).** OAI-SearchBot surfaces sites in ChatGPT's search features, while GPTBot crawls content that may be used to train its models. Each robots.txt setting is independent, so you can allow one and block the other. OpenAI says sites that opt out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though they can still appear as navigational links.

**Perplexity.** PerplexityBot surfaces and links websites in Perplexity's search results and, according to Perplexity, is not used to crawl content for AI foundation models. Perplexity-User fetches pages when a user asks a question, and Perplexity says it "generally ignores robots.txt rules" because the user requested the fetch.

**Anthropic (Claude).** Anthropic lists three bots. ClaudeBot collects content that may be used for model training. Claude-User fetches pages when people ask Claude questions. Claude-SearchBot indexes content to improve search results. Anthropic says its bots honour robots.txt, and that blocking Claude-User or Claude-SearchBot may reduce your visibility in Claude's search answers.

**A caveat for all of them.** robots.txt is defined in RFC 9309, and the RFC is explicit that its rules "are not a form of access authorization." Crawlers are asked to follow them; nothing forces them to. Setup details are in [crawler access](/#crawler-access).

## What the research says (and its limits)

The main academic reference is Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", accepted to KDD 2024 (research). The authors define GEO and build GEO-bench, a benchmark of 10,000 queries. Each query comes with the text of the top five Google results, and a language model writes an answer from those sources.

In their tests, adding citations, quotations from relevant sources and statistics made a source more visible in the generated answers, and they report gains of up to 40% on their own visibility measures. Keyword stuffing, a classic SEO tactic, gave little or no improvement. They also ran the methods on Perplexity.ai.

The limits matter. These results come from a benchmark the authors built, metrics they defined and engines as they behaved when tested. The paper itself says effectiveness varied by domain. Live AI products change their retrieval and answer style over time, so treat the findings as evidence of where to experiment. They are no guarantee of results on any live platform today.

## Where GEO and SEO overlap

Mostly everywhere. Both need pages that can be crawled and indexed, content that answers the question properly, and a site that is technically sound and clear about who is behind it. Google's AI features page lists ordinary SEO work as still worthwhile: allowing crawling in robots.txt and at your CDN, internal links, page experience, important content in text form, and structured data that matches the visible text (documented).

If your SEO is weak, GEO work will not make up for it.

## Where GEO adds work

This section is our recommendation. It goes beyond documented platform requirements.

1. **Make key facts easy to quote.** State what you do, who for, where, and the details buyers ask about, in plain sentences a system can lift cleanly.
2. **Decide which crawlers you want.** OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic each separate search, training and user-triggered agents. Choose on purpose, then check your robots.txt and firewall rules match.
3. **Check how AI describes you.** Ask the questions a buyer would ask and read the answers for errors or omissions.
4. **Measure beyond rankings.** A ranking report will not tell you whether you appear in an answer.

None of this is exotic. It is an extra layer on top of normal SEO.

## Does GEO replace SEO?

No. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode need nothing beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet. Bing says Copilot runs on the same foundation as its search. OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic all point site owners to robots.txt, the same access layer SEO has always relied on. Nothing in the documentation we read suggests the foundations stopped mattering.

What nobody can guarantee is a particular outcome. Bing puts it plainly: "SEO does not guarantee rankings or traffic, and GEO does not guarantee grounding or citations in AI experiences." Google likewise says it cannot guarantee that content will be crawled, indexed or served. If someone promises you a guaranteed place in AI answers, ask for their source. The home guide's [GEO vs SEO section](/#geo-vs-seo) has the short version.

## GEO, AEO and 'search everywhere' optimisation: are they different?

Mostly they are different labels for overlapping work. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is generally used to mean getting your content used as the answer to a question. "Search everywhere optimisation" is generally used to mean being findable on many platforms beyond one search engine. GEO is about generative answers specifically. No standards body defines any of these terms, so do not worry about which label someone prefers. Ask what they would change on your site.

One related question comes up often: is Google Ads part of SEO? No. Ads are paid placements. SEO concerns unpaid results, and Google states it does not accept payment for crawling, indexing or ranking.

## How to measure each one

SEO measurement is mature: rankings, organic traffic and conversions. Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is counted within the "Web" search type in Search Console's Performance report, so your existing reports already include it (documented). Bing notes that content can appear as impressions, citations or grounding references in Copilot, and that "a decline in clicks does not always indicate a loss of visibility" (documented).

For the AI side, our recommendation is to keep a fixed list of buyer questions, ask them in the AI tools your customers use, and record what comes back. Is your business named? Is it described correctly? Which sources are cited? Repeat this on a schedule, because answers vary between runs and change over time. More on this in [measuring progress](/#measurement).

## What to do first

This sequence is our recommendation:

1. Fix the SEO fundamentals: crawlable, indexed, snippet-eligible pages with useful content.
2. Write your key facts clearly, in text, where crawlers can reach them.
3. Decide which search, training and user agents to allow, and set robots.txt to match.
4. Ask AI tools your buyers' questions and note what they say about you.
5. Track those answers alongside your search data, without relying on rankings alone.

For a fuller plan, see [getting started](/#getting-started).

## From the same studio

These are made by the studio that publishes this guide.

- [visibilitytoai](https://visibilitytoai.com/): Once the foundations are in place, it checks whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity actually name and cite your company for your buyers' questions.

## Questions people ask

### What is the difference between GEO and SEO?

SEO aims to rank pages in search results. GEO aims to get your content cited or accurately described in AI-generated answers. The technical foundations are largely shared; the goal and the way you measure it differ.

### Is GEO replacing SEO?

No. Google says pages need no additional technical requirements for AI Overviews and AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet, and Bing says Copilot relies on the same crawling, indexing and ranking foundation as its search. GEO builds on SEO.

### Do I need to do GEO if my SEO is already good?

Good SEO covers most of what the platforms document. Our recommendation is to add a few things on top: make key facts easy to quote, choose which AI crawlers to allow, and regularly check how AI tools describe your business.

### What is AEO vs GEO vs SEO?

SEO targets rankings in search results. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO both target being used in answers rather than a list of links. No standards body defines these labels, so ask anyone using them what they would actually change.

### Does Google treat AI Overviews content differently from normal ranking?

Google documents no extra requirements: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, and existing SEO fundamentals still apply. Google also notes that AI Overviews and AI Mode may use different models and techniques, so the links they show vary.

### Is Google Ads part of SEO?

No. Google Ads is paid advertising, while SEO concerns unpaid results. Google states that it does not accept payment for crawling, indexing or ranking.

## Sources

- [Google Search Central: AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)
- [Bing Webmaster Guidelines](https://www.bing.com/webmasters/help/webmaster-guidelines-30fba23a)
- [Google Search Central: In-depth guide to how Google Search works](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/how-search-works)
- [OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots)
- [Perplexity: Perplexity crawlers](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots)
- [Anthropic Help Center: Does Anthropic crawl data from the web, and how can site owners block the crawler?](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/8896518-does-anthropic-crawl-data-from-the-web-and-how-can-site-owners-block-the-crawler)
- [RFC 9309: Robots Exclusion Protocol](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9309)
- [Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735)
- [Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (full text, v3)](https://arxiv.org/html/2311.09735v3)