GEO vs SEO: the same work, a different scoreboard

SEO gets your pages ranked in Google's results. GEO (generative engine optimization) gets your brand named and your pages cited inside AI answers, in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. The work overlaps a lot. The results don't: of 87 pages ChatGPT cited for 30 buyer questions, 2 were in Google's top 10 for the same question.

What is the difference between GEO and SEO?

Both are about being found when someone asks a question. They differ in who picks the answer and what you count.

GEO goes by other names too: AEO (answer engine optimization), LLM SEO, AI search optimization. They name the same job, which our guide to LLM SEO covers model by model.

Do AI answers cite the pages that rank in Google?

Mostly not, for ChatGPT. On September 30, 2026 we asked 30 buyer questions, such as "best CRM for small business" and "best applicant tracking system for startups", in two places at once: the ChatGPT app with web search, from the US, and Google US, reading its top 10 and its AI Overview. Then we compared the pages.

Three things stand out.

ChatGPT reads a different web from Google's first page. It runs its own searches through its own index, reads one to six pages and stops. Only one of the two overlaps was a page ranking in the top 3.

Google's AI Overviews sit closer to Google's results, and still aren't the same. A quarter of the pages they cited ranked in the top 10 for the question. The other three quarters came from deeper in the results or from the searches Google runs behind the scenes, which it calls query fan-out in its guide to AI features.

The same brand, a different page. For "best accounting software for small business", Google's top 10 had Xero's and FreshBooks' accounting software pages. ChatGPT named both brands but cited Xero's US home page and FreshBooks' pricing page. Being the right brand isn't enough; the page that states the fact the answer needs is the one that gets cited. For ChatGPT, one citation in five was a pricing page.

Reddit is the odd one out. It sat in Google's top 10 for 28 of the 30 questions, and ChatGPT didn't cite it once. That matches what others saw across ChatGPT: Reddit's share of its citations fell from 3.8% to 0.5% in mid-August 2026, according to Promptwatch data reported by Semrush. Google's AI Overviews still cite it.

Why don't the pages match?

Each system decides what to read in its own way.

ChatGPT searches with OpenAI's own crawler behind it. According to OpenAI's crawler docs, OAI-SearchBot is what decides whether your pages can appear in ChatGPT's search answers. It rewrites the question into its own searches, reads a few pages, and quotes the ones that answer the question most directly. A page that ranks fourth in Google but isn't in OpenAI's index, or buries the answer, won't be quoted.

Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode are built on Google's index. Google says they have no extra requirements: a page has to be indexed and eligible to show a snippet. Because they fan out into related searches, they cite pages that rank for those related searches, not only the one typed.

Claude, Gemini and Perplexity each have their own crawlers and indexes again. In our own answers for two products, 91% of the sites cited were cited by one AI model only. A ranking in one place doesn't carry over.

What stays the same?

More than the GEO hype suggests. Google's guide to optimizing for its generative AI features says it plainly: it's still SEO. No llms.txt, no chunking content for AI, no special rewrites.

The things that get a page into any answer:

• It can be crawled and indexed. By Googlebot, and by the AI companies' search crawlers: OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot. Blocking them in robots.txt takes you out of those answers.
• The facts are in the HTML. OpenAI's and Anthropic's crawlers download JavaScript files but don't run them, according to Vercel's crawler data (December 2024). A price or a table that only appears after scripts run doesn't exist for them.
• It answers the question in a sentence that can be quoted alone. The first line of a section, not the fifth paragraph.
• It states facts other pages don't. Prices, limits, dates, measured results. A model citing a source needs something to cite.
• Other sites mention you. The "best X" lists, directories and reviews that AI answers read are the same ones SEO has always chased links from.

GEO is mostly SEO with a different scoreboard. The work is familiar. What changes is that you can't read the result from Search Console or a rank tracker.

What should you do differently for GEO?

1. Measure it separately. A top 3 ranking told us almost nothing about whether ChatGPT would cite the page. Ask the questions your buyers ask, on each AI model, on a schedule, and count how often you're named.
2. Look at what the answer cites, not what ranks. For each question you lose, the cited pages are the work plan: the lists you're missing from, the competitor pages the model trusts.
3. Publish the page that states the fact. Pricing, comparisons, "X vs Y", limits and integrations. ChatGPT pulled 18 of its 87 citations from pricing pages.
4. Get onto the third-party pages AI answers read. In our run, the ChatGPT citations that weren't a vendor's own site were mostly comparison articles and "best X" lists.
5. Treat each AI model as its own channel. They cite different sites. A win in ChatGPT says little about Gemini or Perplexity.
6. Count citations and clicks separately. The page an answer cites isn't always the page people click through to, a split Aleyda Solis's AI search checklist builds a step around. ChatGPT tags its source links with utm_source=chatgpt.com (all 87 in our run), so its visits can be filtered in analytics; some AI apps send no referrer, and their visits land in "Direct".

GEO vs AEO vs SEO: is AEO different from GEO?

Not in practice. AEO (answer engine optimization) started as optimizing for featured snippets and voice answers, then took on AI answers. GEO was coined for generative AI answers. Today both describe getting named and cited in AI answers, and agencies use whichever their clients recognise. SEO is the part both sit on.

When isn't GEO worth your time?

When SEO basics aren't done. If your pages aren't indexed, load slowly or don't answer anything clearly, fix that first. It helps both scoreboards at once.

When your buyers don't ask AI. A local trade where everyone phones for a quote gets more from Google Business Profile than from ChatGPT.

When you want a guarantee. Nobody controls what a model says tomorrow, and answers change run to run. Anyone promising "rank #1 in ChatGPT" is guessing with your money.

How we checked

• Questions: 30 buyer questions for B2B software categories (CRM, payroll, help desk, SEO tools and others), the same text in both places.
• ChatGPT: the ChatGPT app with web search, from the US, on September 30, 2026, read through cloro. We counted each answer's source links. One run per question; ask again and the sources can change.
• Google: Google US, the same day, top 10 organic results and the AI Overview's source links, read through cloro.
• Matching: a page counts as the same when its address matches without tracking parameters and www.. A site counts as the same by its domain.
• Other sources: Vercel's AI crawler data (December 2024) for JavaScript, Aleyda Solis's AI search checklist (updated September 26, 2026) for citations vs clicks.
• Not measured: Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Mode in this run, and any question outside software buying.

If you want the same numbers for your own brand, that's what an AI visibility tool is for. Picked asks your buyers' questions every day on the AI models in your plan (Claude less often), shows which pages each answer cited, and writes the article for a question you lose. To see where you stand first, run the free AI visibility checker. How ChatGPT picks its sources is in ChatGPT citations.

Frequently asked questions

Can GEO replace SEO?

No. GEO sits on top of SEO: AI answers read pages that search crawlers can find, and Google's own AI Overviews are built on its index. Drop SEO and you drop the pages AI answers could cite. What GEO adds is a second scoreboard, measured per AI model.

Is SEO dead now with AI?

No. Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode cite indexed pages, and ChatGPT reads pages that crawlers can find. What changed is that ranking alone no longer tells you whether AI answers name you. In our 30 questions, 2 of 87 pages ChatGPT cited ranked in Google's top 10.

What is the difference between GEO and AEO?

In practice, none. AEO (answer engine optimization) began with featured snippets and voice answers; GEO (generative engine optimization) with AI-written answers. Both now mean getting your brand named and your pages cited in AI answers.

Do I need separate content for GEO and SEO?

Usually not. The same page can rank and be cited if it answers the question in its first line and states facts other pages don't. What differs is which pages matter: AI answers lean on pricing, comparison and "best X" pages more than Google's top 10 does.

How do you measure GEO?

Ask the questions your buyers ask on each AI model, on a schedule, and record whether your brand is named, in what position, and which pages are cited. Answers change run to run, so ask more than once and read the trend over weeks. Then count visits: ChatGPT's source links carry utm_source=chatgpt.com.