17 Clear Differences Between SEO and GEO

Search is changing. Fast.

For years, marketers lived and breathed SEO. Optimising content to climb Google’s rankings. But with the rise of AI-powered assistants, a new discipline is emerging: GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation).

Here’s the reality: SEO gets you found by search engines. GEO gets you recommended by AI. In this post, you’ll discover 17 clear differences between GEO and SEO.

And how each one reshapes the way your brand shows up online.

Let’s dive in:

1. GEO Optimises for AI Recommendation, SEO Optimises for Rankings.

SEO’s mission has always been clear: get your site into the top search results. 

Every tweak from keywords to backlinks is about moving higher in the SERP. 

GEO flips that script. It’s not about position on a page anymore. 

It’s about whether AI recommends your brand to buyers. 

That means thinking less about where you rank, and more about whether you’re cited as part of the solution a model gives.

2. GEO Targets Natural Language, SEO Targets Keywords

Traditional SEO is built around keywords, short-tail, long-tail, and variations designed to match typed queries. 

GEO is different. It optimises for how people actually talk to AI systems, which means handling conversational phrasing, multi-turn context, and natural language patterns.

Research backs this shift. 

A Survey of Conversational Search notes that conversational systems rely less on keyword matching and more on interpreting natural, multi-turn dialogue (Mo et al., 2024). 

Similarly, recent user studies show that blending web search with AI chat encourages more exploratory, question-based queries (Mayerhofer et al., 2025).

The bottom line? 

GEO strategies must anticipate questions like “What’s the most reliable coffee machine for a small apartment?” instead of just optimising for “best coffee machine 2025.”

3. GEO Focuses on Brand Visibility Across the Web, Not Just Your Site

SEO tries to funnel users to your website, where rankings and clicks are the currency. GEO plays a different game: it recognises that AI models pull from a distributed knowledge base— forums, Reddit threads, Wikipedia, news outlets, and niche blogs. 

To show up in AI-generated answers, your brand needs broad visibility across the web, not just on your domain.

Evidence supports this. In a study of AI search results, researchers found that LLMs often synthesise answers from third-party sources, with platforms like Reddit showing up disproportionately in citations compared to traditional websites 

This suggests that brand mentions, even unlinked ones across diverse communities, can influence whether AI includes you in its responses.

In practice? That means creating content that drives discussions, publishing on external platforms, and ensuring your brand appears in the ecosystems that AI trusts.

4. GEO Relies on Mutual Information, SEO Relies on Keywords and Links

SEO has long been about keywords, backlink profiles, and structured signals.

GEO shifts that focus: AI-generated answers surface signals across the web where mutual information—consistent associations between your brand and topics—matters more than keyword density alone. 

When multiple sources reference your brand in context, AI models are more likely to pull in your content or name.

5. GEO Content Is Designed to Be Cited, SEO Content Is Designed to Be Crawled

SEO’s priority is simple: make sure Googlebot can crawl and index your site. 

That’s why things like site maps, internal links, and crawl budgets matter so much. 

GEO flips that. 

The real question is: Will our brand be recommended?’ 

AI doesn’t just need to find your page. It needs to trust it enough to insert your words into an answer. 

That means being written about or writing in clear, referenceable ways that convey authority and lend themselves to quotability.

6. GEO Values Mentions in Third-Party Sources, SEO Values Backlinks

In SEO, backlinks are the gold standard. 

A link from an authoritative site can move rankings overnight. GEO, however, cares less about the hyperlink itself and more about the **mention**.

 If your brand name shows up in Reddit threads, industry forums, or news articles, AI models are more likely to recall and include it in answers. 

Even an unlinked mention can boost your visibility inside generated responses. In other words, presence is power, whether or not it comes with a clickable link.

7. GEO Prioritises Trustworthiness, SEO Prioritises Relevance

SEO is about matching relevance: does your page satisfy the search query? 

GEO raises the bar. For AI to surface your content, it must not only be relevant but also trustworthy. 

Models are less likely to cite content or recommended brands from sources that appear biased, low quality, or unverified. 

That means credibility, transparency, and authority signals matter more than ever. 

In practice, this shifts the focus from ranking tricks to building a reputation as a reliable voice AI engines can safely quote.

8. GEO Deals With Probabilistic Models, SEO Deals With Ranking Algorithms

SEO is governed by algorithms: inputs like backlinks, content quality, and technical health feed into ranking formulas that decide who lands on page one. 

GEO operates in a fuzzier world. Large language models generate answers probabilistically, weighing signals across countless examples in their training and retrieval layers. 

There’s no single ranking factor to optimise for. Instead, it’s about improving the odds that your brand appears in the mix by being consistently present, clear, and relevant wherever AI looks for evidence.

9. GEO Success Is Measured by Recommendation, SEO by SERP Position

For SEO, success is easy to measure: are you ranking in the top three results? 

GEO shifts the metric entirely. 

The win isn’t where you rank, it’s whether you’re named, quoted, or included in an AI-generated response. 

A brand could dominate SERPs but still be invisible in AI answers, or vice versa. 

That means GEO measurement looks at recall, presence, and answer inclusion, not just traditional traffic or click-throughs. 

The goal: to show up in the conversation itself.

10. GEO Optimises for AI Recommendation, SEO for Indexation and Rankings

SEO’s foundation is crawlability: making sure search engines can index your content and display it in results. 

GEO requires a different lens. It’s about ensuring AI systems can retrieve and then recommend your brand when generating answers.

That means going beyond sitemaps and robots.txt files to focus on entity clarity, structured references, and distributed mentions.

If an AI can’t reliably recall your brand from its memory or form specific search terms, it won’t matter how well-indexed your site is; you’ll stay invisible.

Being on page 1 is not important when the LLM absorbs 3 pages at once for numerous search terms.

11. GEO Treats AI as a Reasoner, SEO Treats Engines as Rankers

SEO views search engines as rankers. Systems that score pages and sort them from most to least relevant. 

GEO reframes the challenge.

AI systems don’t just rank; they ‘reason’. 

They select evidence, weigh trust signals, and generate a synthesis. To optimise for that, your content must be structured so it fits into an argument or explanation, not just a list of keywords. 

The stronger the reasoning path that includes your brand, the more likely it is to be surfaced.

12. GEO Emphasises Brand Disambiguation, SEO Emphasises Domain Authority

In SEO, building domain authority is the holy grail. The stronger your site’s reputation, the easier it is to rank. 

GEO introduces a new wrinkle: brand disambiguation. 

AI models must clearly recognise your brand as distinct from others.

If the model can’t separate your performance attributes from those of a competitor or unrelated entity, you may be left out of the answers altogether. 

That means reinforcing your brand identity and performance across multiple contexts so AI knows exactly who you are and what you stand for.

13. GEO Uses the Homepage as Verification, SEO Uses It for Ranking

In SEO, the homepage is often optimised for broad keywords, acting as a traffic magnet. 

In GEO, the homepage plays a different role: it serves as a verification node. 

When AI models assess the credibility of your brand, they often look to the homepage for signals of legitimacy — such as clear branding, authority markers, and up-to-date information. 

It’s less about pulling clicks and more about reassuring AI systems that you are who you claim to be.

14. GEO Starts With Prompts, SEO Starts With Keywords

SEO begins with keyword research: head terms, long-tail variations, and search volume metrics. 

GEO starts somewhere else… with prompts. 

People interact with AI in natural conversation, not by typing disjointed keywords. 

That means brands must anticipate the exact kinds of questions, instructions, and clarifications users give to AI systems. 

Instead of “best running shoes for marathons” 

GEO asks: What’s the best running shoe for a first-time marathon runner?

Optimising for these conversational prompts is what gets your brand included in generated answers.

15. GEO Recognises LLM Memory, SEO Assumes Real-Time Crawling

SEO assumes search engines are working with fresh crawls and indexes. 

That’s why updating content regularly can move rankings. 

GEO faces a different reality. Large language models don’t always pull from the live web. They often cite from memory(their training data) or combine that with retrieval layers. 

That means your content strategy must work on two levels: ensuring evergreen visibility in datasets models are trained on, and maintaining freshness in sources AI might retrieve in real time.

You can’t assume that AI will use the web for every search.

16. GEO Adds Synthetic Mention Engineering, SEO Doesn’t

SEO relies on familiar levers: backlinks, keyword optimisation, and technical site health.

GEO introduces new tactics that don’t exist in the SEO playbook, like synthetic mention engineering… (cough, cough self-referencing listicles).

These strategies involve deliberately placing brand mentions in places where AI models are likely to encounter them, seeding your brand into the evidence pool they draw from. 

The goal isn’t just visibility, but memorability: shaping how AI recalls and cites your brand when generating answers.

17. GEO Prepares for Multi-Turn Interactions, SEO Prepares for Clicks

SEO is designed around a single event: the click from a search results page to your site. 

GEO prepares for a different journey, multi-turn AI interactions.

Users refine their questions, challenge answers, and continue the conversation with AI assistants. 

To stay present, your brand must be structured for persistence across these evolving dialogues. 

It’s not enough to win once; you need to remain relevant through multiple turns of questioning, ensuring your authority carries forward in the conversation. 

Final Thoughts

It’s very tempting to think that SEO and GEO are one and the same. 

The truth is, they’re just not. 

GEO itself is more linked to PR. 

And that’s the reality of GEO. 

Whereas SEO was all about rankings and sold as a  “buy now, get success six to twelve months later”.

Generative engine optimisation delivers value for brands from the get-go. 

It is a purposeful building of your digital footprint to ensure that AI mentions you.

If you need assistance, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Thanks for reading!