AI SEO, GEO and AEO: three labels, one goal
The terminology is still settling, and providers use it to sound new. In practice:
- AI SEO or AI search optimisation is the broad term: being visible wherever AI systems answer questions.
- Generative engine optimisation (GEO) usually refers to tools that write a synthesised answer, such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Gemini.
- Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is older and covers direct answers in general: featured snippets, voice assistants and now AI Overviews.
The goal behind all three is the same. When a finance director in Birmingham asks an assistant "which agencies specialise in ecommerce accounting", or a patient in Glasgow asks "is composite bonding worth it", you want your company to be named, cited and described accurately. Our guide what is AI search optimisation explains the background in plain terms.
Where AI answers come from
AI assistants build answers from two broad sources. The first is what the model learned during training, which is fixed at a point in time and hard to influence directly. The second is live retrieval: the assistant searches the web, reads a handful of pages and composes an answer, often with links. Most of the commercial opportunity sits in that second route.
Retrieval leans on search indexes, and the pages it chooses tend to share some traits. They answer the question early and plainly. They are well structured, with headings that match how people ask. They make clear who is speaking and why that person or company is credible. And the company behind them is described consistently elsewhere on the web, in directories, press, associations and reviews.
For Google's own AI features, Google states that the same SEO best practices apply and that no special markup is needed to appear, as set out in its documentation on AI features and your website. That is why AI SEO without solid SEO underneath rarely works. Our SEO agency page covers that foundation.
What our AI search optimisation work includes
Entity clarity
AI systems need to understand what your company is, what it does, where and for whom. We align your website, structured data, Google Business Profile, Companies House name and key directory listings so they tell one consistent story.
Answer-first content
We rework key pages so the direct answer comes first, followed by depth: trade-offs, conditions, costs, steps. Content that names its author and cites primary sources gives both readers and AI systems a reason to trust it. Our SEO content writing follows the same standard.
Earned mentions
Being discussed on respected third-party sites, such as trade bodies, industry publications and genuine press coverage, is one of the strongest signals that you are worth citing. That overlaps with our approach to link building.
Crawler access
Several AI companies use separate crawlers for search and for model training, and your robots.txt can treat them differently. We check that the crawlers you want can reach your pages, and that the choices you make about training use are deliberate rather than accidental.
Technical readiness
Content hidden behind scripts, tabs that never render, or pages that load slowly are harder for any crawler to read. We check this as part of a wider SEO audit.
Measuring AI visibility honestly
AI answers differ between sessions, accounts, locations and model versions. One screenshot of your company in a ChatGPT answer proves very little, and neither does one screenshot without it. We therefore measure with repetition: a fixed set of buyer questions, run several times per assistant on a regular schedule, with every result logged.
| Measure | How we test it | Limit to keep in mind |
|---|---|---|
| Mention rate | Share of repeated runs in which your company is named | Varies by assistant, session and phrasing |
| Citation rate | Share of runs in which your pages are linked as a source | Some assistants show few or no links |
| Accuracy | Whether services, locations and facts about you are correct | Errors can persist until sources change |
| Competitor share | Which rivals are named for the same questions | Small samples can mislead; we use trends |
| Referral traffic | Visits from AI assistants in your analytics | Not every assistant passes referral data |
What AI SEO cannot do
- It cannot guarantee a recommendation. No one controls what an AI assistant says. Providers who promise placement in ChatGPT are selling something they do not own.
- It cannot make up for a weak offer. Assistants summarise what the web says about you. If reviews and coverage are thin, the answer will be thin too.
- llms.txt is not a ranking switch. A small text file that points AI systems to key pages can be useful housekeeping, but there is little public evidence that major assistants rely on it. We add one where it costs little, and do not sell it as a strategy.
- Volume does not equal visibility. Publishing large amounts of generic content to cover every question tends to dilute trust rather than build it.
How to appear in Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT
For both, the practical checklist is shorter than the hype suggests:
- Make sure the page is indexed and ranks reasonably for the underlying search.
- Answer the question in the first paragraph, in plain words, then go deeper.
- Use headings phrased the way people ask, and keep one topic per page.
- Show who wrote or reviewed the page and why they are qualified.
- Cite primary sources such as legislation, regulators or official guidance where relevant.
- Keep company facts identical across your site and your profiles elsewhere.
- Earn mentions on sites your buyers already trust.
None of this is exotic. It is careful SEO and editorial work, done consistently.
Who AI SEO matters most for
AI search is most important where buyers research before they contact anyone: B2B companies with long sales cycles, professional services such as legal and accountancy, private healthcare, and considered purchases where people compare options at length. For an emergency locksmith, the map pack still matters far more.
For UK companies in regulated sectors there is an extra reason to care: if assistants describe your services inaccurately, the most effective correction is clear, authoritative information on your own site and on trusted sources, not a complaint to the assistant.