SEO vs AEO vs GEO: What Each One Actually Does
A practical distinction between search optimization, answer optimization and generative-search readiness.
SEO
Search engine optimization covers crawlability, indexability, technical quality, relevance, internal linking and the page signals used by conventional search systems.
AEO
Answer engine optimization focuses on making useful answers easy to identify, extract and understand: descriptive questions, concise answers, semantic structure and enough context to verify the answer.
GEO
Generative engine optimization is best treated as readiness for systems that synthesize answers from multiple sources. Useful measurable signals include crawlability, clear entities, evidence, source support, authorship, structured content and citation-worthiness.
The important limit
No static website checker can truthfully tell you that ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google will rank or cite a page without directly observing those systems. GeoAIRanking labels its scores as readiness scores for this reason.