Learning hub
SEO, AEO and GEO, explained.
Search used to end with ten links. Now it often ends with an answer that names two or three businesses. Here is what changed, how AI chooses its sources, and how to become one of them.
- What changed
- Answers, not links. AI reads the web and replies with a few names.
- Why it matters
- There is no page two. You are in the answer or you are not.
- What decides it
- Clear, well-supported pages that AI can quote with confidence.
Three disciplines
SEO, AEO and GEO. Each builds on the last.
Three names for one goal: being the business people find when they ask about what you do.
- 01
SEO: rank in Google
Search engine optimization earns a place in the list of results: crawlable pages, the right topics and links from other sites. AI reads the web through search, so this is still the foundation.
- 02
AEO: get quoted
Answer engine optimization makes your page the source an AI quotes when it answers a question directly, in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT or Perplexity.
- 03
GEO: get recommended
Generative engine optimization shapes what AI says about your business when it recommends one: consistent facts, mentions on trusted sites, content worth citing.
How AI chooses
From question to answer, in four steps.
An AI assistant searches the web, keeps the sources it can trust and quote, and names the businesses those sources agree on.
What to do
Six things that move the answer.
None of this is a trick. It is the steady work of being the clearest, best-supported answer to your customers’ questions, week after week. Citeca covers all six in one plan, and you can read the detail on the blog.
- Start with the answer
- Back it up elsewhere
- Measure every week
FAQ
Common questions.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is the work of making your pages the source an AI assistant quotes when it answers a question directly, in Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and similar tools. Success is a mention or citation inside the answer, not a position in a list of links.
Still deciding? Read the documentation — it is the same detail we give customers, before you pay for anything.
7-day free trial
See where you stand
with AI on day one.
Connect your site and Citeca checks ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini for your customers' questions, emails you the results and starts writing your first articles.
7 days freeNo setup callCancel anytime