SEO vs GEO: what's the difference, and should you work on both?

For twenty years, being visible online meant one thing: ranking well on Google. Today, a share of searches ends without a single click, right inside an AI-generated answer. Hence a new acronym: GEO.

SEO: getting picked by Google

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) covers everything that helps a page climb Google's results: a technically clean site, pages that answer a specific intent, and links from other reputable sites.

GEO: getting cited by AI

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is about being cited when someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews a question. These tools don't list ten links: they write an answer and cite two or three sources.

What doesn't change

• Clear, useful and accurate content is still the foundation.
• AI largely relies on the same signals as Google: well-structured pages, recognized sources, up-to-date information.
• A slow or poorly indexed site is penalized everywhere.

What changes

• You need direct, easy-to-quote answers: one sentence that answers, then the details.
• Mentions of your brand elsewhere on the web matter more.
• Structured data helps AI understand who you are; an llms.txt file can help too.
• You have to measure differently: not just a ranking, but whether you're cited, and next to whom.

Where to start

Start with the shared foundation: technical SEO and content. Then check whether AI cites you on your market's questions, and compare yourself with the competitors it recommends. That's what the free audit measures, with Gemini for the AI part.