SEO vs AEO vs GEO: What They Mean and How to Audit Your Store
Three terms, one goal
SEO (search engine optimization) helps search engines find and understand your pages. AEO (answer engine optimization) makes your pages easy to quote as a direct answer. GEO (generative engine optimization) builds the trust and clarity that AI assistants need before they will mention you.
They are not rivals. Good SEO is the base, AEO adds answer-ready content, and GEO adds proof that your business is real.
What each one looks at
| Layer | Typical checks |
|---|---|
| SEO | Title and description length, one clear H1, canonical link, mobile viewport, image alt text, working internal links |
| AEO | FAQ or how-to markup, question-style headings, machine-readable reviews |
| GEO | Organization markup, About and Contact pages, freshness signals, product data |
Running a free GEO audit
Our free AI visibility checker reads your site the way a crawler does. It reports which AI bots can reach you, then gives separate SEO, AEO and GEO scores with a plain fix for each issue. These are readiness scores. They are not rankings or counts of AI mentions.
How to use the results
- Fix anything marked FIX first, since these usually block understanding.
- Then work through CHECK items.
- Re-run the checker to confirm each change.
FAQ
Is GEO different from SEO?
It builds on it. SEO gets you found, and GEO helps AI trust and name you.
Does a high score guarantee AI will recommend me?
No. A high score means fewer technical barriers. Whether you are mentioned still depends on the assistant and the question.
Want to see it on your own store?
Send us your website and we will send you a demo of an AI agent using it faster.
Keep reading
How to Get Recommended by AI Shopping Agents
AI shopping agents recommend stores they can read and trust. Here are five practical steps to become one of them.
Shoppers now ask ChatGPT and Perplexity what to buy. Here is what decides which stores get named, and what you can do about it today.
AI assistants talk about your brand whether or not you watch. Here is what to monitor and how often, without special tools.