What is AI SEO (AEO and GEO)? A Plain-English Guide

The search box is being replaced by a conversation

For twenty years, being found online meant ranking on Google. That is changing fast. More and more people now ask ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google's own AI for a recommendation - 'what is the best dermatologist in South Delhi', 'which agency should I use for restaurant marketing' - and act on the answer without ever seeing a traditional results page.

AI SEO is how your business becomes the answer those assistants give. It is the natural next chapter of SEO, and it is wide open right now.

AEO and GEO, without the jargon

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) is about structuring your content so AI can lift a clear, correct answer straight from your site - concise definitions, well-formed FAQs, clean headings. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is about being the brand the AI names and cites when it composes a recommendation - which depends on how much trusted, consistent information about you exists across the web.

You do not need to obsess over the labels. What matters is the goal: when someone asks an AI about your category, your business should come up, favourably and accurately.

See how our aiseo service can help, or book a free strategy call.

How AI SEO actually gets done

The building blocks: an llms.txt file that summarises your business for AI models, robots settings that welcome AI crawlers, rich structured data (schema) that describes who you are and what you do, consistent business information across the web, and content written in the clear, factual way language models trust and quote.

It sits on top of solid traditional SEO. You cannot skip the fundamentals - fast site, good content, real authority - but layering AI SEO on top is what wins the new surface.

Starting before your competitors do

The businesses that will dominate AI recommendations in a few years are the ones building visibility now, while it is cheap and uncontested. Waiting until it is obvious means competing with everyone who waited too.

We run one of India's early AI SEO programmes - and we practise it on our own site first. If you want to see what AI assistants say about your brand today and how to improve it, ask us for a free AI visibility check and we will respond within one working day.