AEO vs SEO: What Actually Changes When AI Answers the Question

Traditional SEO is built around ranking a page in a list of links. Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) are built around a different question entirely: when an AI system answers a query directly, does it know your business exists, and does it get the facts right?

That shift changes the engineering work. Clear entity information and structured data that matches your visible content matter more, because assistants and voice search need to understand who you are and what you offer. Question-led content stops being blog filler and becomes the material answers are built from.

Most local businesses are lightly optimised for classic Google and almost entirely absent from the AI layer. That gap is where we spend a lot of our search engineering time, not because traditional SEO stopped mattering, but because it stopped being the only thing that matters.

It's worth being honest about limits. Nobody can guarantee a mention in an AI-generated answer, and anyone who does is selling certainty that doesn't exist. What you can do is make sure the foundations are sound and the facts are accurate. For the full picture, start with what AEO and GEO are, then read what to do about it now.