AEO and GEO explained: how to get your business into AI answers

Ask Google a question today and there’s a fair chance you’ll read an AI-written summary before you see a single link. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot or Perplexity for “a good IT company in Parramatta” or “an accountant near me who does SMSFs” and you’ll get a short answer that names a handful of businesses. If yours isn’t one of them, you’ve lost that customer before they ever reached your website.

Two terms have emerged to describe the work of getting into those answers: AEO and GEO. Both are useful ideas, and both are surrounded by more hype than they deserve. Here’s what AEO and GEO actually mean, how they relate to ordinary SEO, and what a small business can do about them this month.

What is AEO (answer engine optimisation)?

AEO is about making your content easy for search engines and assistants to lift as a direct answer. It grew out of featured snippets and voice search, and it now applies to AI summaries too. In practice it means:

• Writing pages around the real questions customers ask, and answering each one clearly in the first sentence or two of a section.
• Using clear headings, short paragraphs, lists and FAQ sections so the answer is easy to find and quote.
• Adding structured data (schema markup) so machines understand what your business is, where it operates and what it offers.

Think of AEO as being quotable. If someone asks “how long does a bathroom renovation take?”, your page should contain a clear, honest answer that a search engine or assistant could repeat accurately in one or two sentences.

What is GEO (generative engine optimisation)?

GEO is about earning a place in the answers that generative AI writes. Tools like ChatGPT and Gemini build answers from what they’ve learned and what they can find on the web, so they tend to recommend businesses that are clearly described, consistently mentioned and genuinely credible. GEO focuses on:

• Original expertise. First-hand experience, real examples and specific advice, not generic content that could describe any business.
• Consistent business information. The same name, services, location and description across your website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles.
• Reputation and mentions. Reviews, industry listings, local media and partner websites that talk about you.

If AEO is being quotable, GEO is being recommendable.

Why AEO and GEO matter now

Fewer searches end with a click than ever before. SparkToro’s analysis of US Google searches found that 68% ended without a click in the first months of 2026, up from about 60% in 2024. A field study of more than 1,000 people found that when Google showed an AI Overview, outbound clicks to websites fell by 38%.

That sounds alarming, but it cuts both ways. AI answers have to come from somewhere. The businesses whose information is clear, trustworthy and well organised are the ones that get cited, named and recommended, and the people who do click through from an AI answer are often ready to buy.

How are AEO and GEO different from SEO?

They overlap far more than the new acronyms suggest. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible to show in Search, and that ordinary SEO best practice still applies. In other words, there’s no shortcut that skips the fundamentals, and anyone selling a special file or secret technique for AI answers deserves a sceptical look.

The simplest way to think about it: SEO gets you found, AEO gets you quoted, and GEO gets you recommended. A good strategy does all three together, and most of the work counts towards all three at once. Our article on SEO in 2026 covers the search side in more detail.

A worked example

Imagine a plumbing business in Western Sydney. A homeowner asks an AI assistant: “Who can fix a burst pipe in Parramatta tonight?” To be named in that answer, several things need to line up:

• A page on the business’s website that clearly says it offers emergency plumbing in Parramatta and nearby suburbs, with after-hours availability stated plainly, not buried in a footer.
• A Google Business Profile with the same name, phone number, service area and hours as the website.
• Recent reviews that mention emergency jobs and the local area, in customers’ own words.
• Structured data that tells machines it’s a plumber, where it operates and how to contact it.
• Mentions elsewhere, such as a local directory, a trade association listing or a community page, that confirm the same details.

None of that is exotic. It’s simply being clear, consistent and credible in every place an AI might look. Most businesses that don’t appear in AI answers have one or two of these pieces missing or contradicting each other.

Seven practical steps for AEO and GEO

1. List the questions customers ask before they buy, from “how much does it cost?” to “do you service my suburb?”, and answer each one on your website.
2. Lead with the answer. Put the direct answer at the top of each section, then the detail and the caveats.
3. Show real expertise. Add examples, local knowledge, photos of your work and the names of the people doing it.
4. Add structured data for your organisation, services, FAQs and articles. On WordPress, plugins such as Rank Math make this straightforward. Keep it consistent with what’s visible on the page.
5. Fix your listings. Make your Google Business Profile complete and identical in its details to your website and directories.
6. Earn genuine reviews and mentions. Ask every happy client for a review and look for relevant local and industry listings.
7. Check how AI describes you. Ask the major assistants your customers’ questions, note whether you appear, and track it over time.

How to measure AEO and GEO

Rankings alone no longer tell the whole story. Track a short list of signals each month:

• Whether you’re named when the major assistants are asked your customers’ key questions.
• Whether the description of your business in those answers is accurate, including services, location and prices.
• Impressions and clicks in Google Search Console. Google includes traffic from its AI features in the overall Performance report.
• Calls, forms and bookings, which remain the measure that matters most.

Keep the same list of questions month to month so you’re comparing like with like. AI answers vary from person to person and day to day, so look for trends rather than reacting to a single answer.

Common mistakes

• Writing for robots. Pages stuffed with questions and keywords read badly and don’t earn trust from people or AI.
• Inconsistent details. An old address on one directory, a different phone number on Facebook and a business name with extra keywords on Google all muddy the picture.
• Chasing tools instead of fundamentals. An llms.txt file is a sensible small extra, but it won’t make up for thin service pages or a lack of reviews.
• Ignoring your own website. Social profiles and directories matter, but your website is the one place you fully control. Make it the clearest source of truth about your business.

How long does it take to see results?

Some changes show up quickly. Fixing an inaccurate Google Business Profile or adding a clear answer to an important page can be reflected in search results and some AI answers within weeks. Building the reputation that gets you recommended, through reviews, mentions and genuinely useful content, takes months, in the same way SEO always has. Plan on a three-to-six-month horizon, and measure monthly so you can see the trend.

Where to start this week

1. Write down the five questions customers ask most often before they buy.
2. Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Google each of those questions, adding your suburb, and save the answers.
3. Check your Google Business Profile against your website: name, phone number, hours, services and service area should match exactly.
4. Pick the one service page that matters most and add a clear, two-sentence answer to each of those five questions.

That’s an afternoon’s work, and it gives you a baseline to measure everything else against.

What AEO and GEO can’t do

No one can guarantee that ChatGPT or Google will recommend your business. AI answers vary between people and change often. Be wary of anyone promising a “number one spot in ChatGPT”. What you can do is become the clearest, most credible option in your area, and measure how often you show up.

Sources: Google Search Central: AI features and your website · Search Engine Land: zero-click searches study, 2026 · Search Engine Journal: AI Overviews field study, 2026