What is GEO (AEO)? Why is it important?

# Your Website Needs More Than SEO I have been getting asked a lot about GEO and AEO recently, so I thought I would write a quick post about this. Simply put, you need to optimize your website for Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). It is no longer enough to just focus on traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO). ## What Each One Targets **SEO** is about ranking high in traditional search engines like Google and Bing. It targets backlinks, keywords, metadata, mobile optimization, and localization. **GEO** is about being sourced and referenced in AI-powered searches by ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, and others. It targets contextual depth on your website, FAQ content, citations, and brand mentions in forums like Reddit. **AEO** is about appearing in Google's Featured Snippets, Google's AI Search Response, and voice assistant answers. It targets being the direct, specific answer to a question. Think organized content, FAQ schema, semantic search, NLP-friendly copy, and brand mentions in forums like Reddit. ## How They Work Together Use SEO to build a strong foundation. Use AEO to win attention in answer-rich platforms. Adopt GEO to show up in AI-driven search experiences. ## AI Is Changing How People Find You AI is quickly influencing the way that we make decisions. A lot of this has to do with us starting to trust AI. Our assumption as consumers is that AI is not going to be biased and will give us the best option for our situation. The more we talk to our AI platform of choice, the better it understands what we want and need. I have been getting reached out to by many people that have found us through Claude and ChatGPT. I always ask them what made them want to reach out, and the answers are usually the same: > "Claude said you would be able to help, and ByteSavy was the first one that showed up." Behaviours are quickly changing and your business needs to get discovered by AI. If you need help with GEO or AEO, feel free to reach out and we can get your website GEO/AEO ready.