SEO, AEO, GEO and LLMO: the new language of search explained

If you have started seeing SEO, AEO, GEO and LLMO thrown around and wondered whether you have fallen behind, you have not. These are four names for the ways your business gets found online, and they build on each other rather than replacing each other. Here is what each one means in plain English, and why it matters for a local business.

SEO is still the foundation

SEO, or search engine optimisation, is the original discipline and the base everything else sits on. It is the work of getting your website to show up when someone types a question into Google, then earning the click through to your site.

It works at the page level. You give each service its own clear page, named the way your customers actually describe it, on a fast site Google trusts. A plumber gets a page for boiler repairs and another for bathroom installations. A solicitor gets one for each area of law. Get this right and you rank for the searches that bring in real enquiries. Get it wrong and nothing built on top of it works either.

AEO and GEO: being chosen inside AI answers

More and more searches never reach a list of blue links. Someone asks a question and gets a single answer, either from Google's AI Overview at the top of the page or from a tool like ChatGPT. Two of the new terms describe how you stay visible in that world.

AEO, answer engine optimisation

AEO is about being the source an AI or voice assistant lifts straight into a direct answer. It works at the fact level rather than the page level. Instead of ranking a whole page, you are making sure a specific answer on your site, a price, a definition, a clear step-by-step, is clean enough to be quoted. Often the customer reads it without clicking anything at all, so being the quoted source is the whole game.

GEO, generative engine optimisation

GEO is broader. It is the work of getting tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to mention and recommend your business when someone asks them for a good local option. AEO sits inside GEO as one part of it. Where SEO wants the click and AEO wants to be the answer, GEO wants the recommendation, being the business the AI names when someone asks who to trust.

LLMO: the technical groundwork

LLMO, large language model optimisation, is the least glamorous of the four and one of the most important. It is the behind-the-scenes work that makes your content easy for an AI to read and understand correctly, through structured data, clear signals about what each page is about, and precise wording.

The point is simple. An AI can only recommend a business it genuinely understands. If it cannot tell exactly what you offer and where, it will skip you, or worse, describe you wrongly. LLMO removes that guesswork so the machine reads your business the way you would describe it yourself.

How the four fit together

These are not four strategies you choose between. They stack. Strong SEO is the foundation, and AEO, GEO and LLMO build on the same groundwork, useful content, accurate and consistent details, clear answers and clean technical structure. A site built properly for search is already most of the way to being visible in AI answers too.

The real difference is intent. SEO wants the click. AEO and GEO want to be the trusted source, even when the searcher never lands on your site. That shift matters because being invisible on Google except for your own name now also means being missing from the AI answers your customers increasingly rely on. If you want to see where your business stands across both, our AI search visibility service is the place to start.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO gets your page ranking in search results so people click through to your site. GEO gets your business mentioned and recommended inside answers from AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini. SEO wants the click, GEO wants the recommendation. The two rely on much of the same underlying work.

Do I need to choose between SEO, AEO, GEO and LLMO?

No. They stack rather than compete. SEO is the foundation, and the other three build on the same content and technical groundwork. Doing your SEO properly already carries you a long way toward being visible in AI answers, so it is rarely a case of picking one.

Is my existing SEO work now wasted?

Not at all. The things that win traditional rankings, genuinely useful content, accurate details and clean structure, are the same things AI tools look for when deciding who to cite. A well-built site keeps working, and the AI layer builds on top of it.

Why does AI search matter for a local business?

A growing share of people now ask an AI for a recommendation instead of scrolling through Google. AI Overviews already appear on a large share of searches. If AI tools do not know your business exists or trust it enough to bring it up, you are missing from conversations your future customers are having every day.

Ready to find out where you stand?

The businesses that get ready for AI search early are the ones it will keep choosing. If you are not sure whether your site shows up when someone asks an AI for a local recommendation, we can check. Take a look at how Frively builds AI visibility into your site and start with a free assessment.