(Insight) SEO · 8 min · 2026-08-12
SEO vs AEO vs GEO: what each one actually optimises
They share foundations. They are measured differently. None of them can be guaranteed.
SEO earns visibility in traditional organic search results. AEO makes your content easy for answer systems to select as a direct answer. GEO improves your eligibility to be understood, cited, and surfaced by generative AI experiences.
The unit of work is different
- SEO works a page and its query set.
- AEO works a question and its canonical answer.
- GEO works an entity and its facts.
That is why a single 'AI SEO' slide usually fails. You cannot treat a citation the way you treat a ranking, and you cannot treat a featured snippet the way you treat an indexation fix.
What you can measure
- SEO: clicks, impressions, CTR, average position, indexation state.
- AEO: query-level behaviour and whether your passage is used.
- GEO: citation presence, cited URL, excerpt used, share of voice on a stored query set.
No tool can guarantee a ranking, a snippet, or an AI citation. Record a baseline. Declare a window. Report the verdict you got.
Work in order: eligibility first, then selectability, then citability. iSEOup runs all three from one domain boundary so the agent cannot wander.