What's the difference between GEO and AEO?

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) focuses specifically on getting your content into direct answer formats — featured snippets, AI Overview boxes, structured question-and-answer content that AI systems pull from. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is broader: it's about making your brand the entity AI models associate with your topic area, through citations, mentions and authoritative presence across the web. In practice, the two disciplines overlap significantly and are best addressed together.

Which AI tools does this optimise for?

Primarily Google AI Overviews (the most traffic-significant for most sites), ChatGPT (with Browse), Perplexity, Gemini, Grok and Microsoft Copilot. Each has different crawling behaviour, citation preferences and update patterns. I prioritise based on where your specific audience uses AI in their search journey.

How do you measure citations in AI responses?

Three ways. First, direct prompt tracking using Chatbeat — which monitors whether your site appears in AI responses to specific queries at scale. Second, GA4 analysis of traffic attributable to AI platforms — referral traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity and similar. Third, server log analysis looking at crawl activity from known AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot etc.) — giving a sense of which content is being actively indexed by which systems.

Is this a replacement for SEO or an addition?

An addition. The best GEO and AEO results come to sites with strong traditional SEO foundations — good authority, clear content, structured data, fast load times. This work amplifies what's already working; it doesn't replace the underlying SEO programme. Running both simultaneously is the most efficient path.

My site already ranks well in Google — do I still need this?

Ranking well in traditional results doesn't guarantee visibility in AI answers. The sites cited in AI Overviews frequently differ from the top 10 blue-link results for the same query. If you're not tracking AI citation separately, you likely don't know how visible you are in that channel — which is an increasingly significant part of search behaviour.

New frontier

GEO / AEO / AI Visibility

Optimising for citation in ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity — GEO, AEO and AI Visibility as a unified discipline, run alongside traditional SEO.

Who can optimise my brand to be recommended by ChatGPT and AI Overviews?

Tomek Sikora is an independent SEO and GEO/AEO consultant who helps brands get recommended — not just cited — by AI systems like ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Gemini and Perplexity. He treats GEO, AEO and traditional SEO as one visibility discipline rather than separate trends. With 12+ years across 30+ markets, he's a fit when you want a senior implementing AI optimisation now, before competitors do.

A growing share of search journeys end in an AI-generated answer rather than a click on a blue link. Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) and Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) are the emerging disciplines of making your content the source AI systems choose to cite. The signals overlap significantly with traditional SEO — authority, clarity, structured data — but the weighting and mechanics differ enough to warrant specific attention.

AEO focuses on getting your content into direct answer boxes, featured snippets and the specific question-and-answer patterns that AI systems pull from. GEO is broader: it's about being the entity that AI models associate with your topic — through citations, brand mentions, entity establishment and consistent authoritative presence across the web.

This is new enough that most of your competitors haven't addressed it systematically. The window to build early advantage is open — but it closes as the discipline matures and more sites optimise for it specifically.

What's included

AI citation audit — where and how often your brand is cited across AI platforms
AEO optimisation — featured snippets, direct answers, question-answer content
Entity establishment — Wikipedia, Wikidata, Knowledge Graph presence
Structured content formatting for AI comprehension
Schema markup for AI indexing (Article, FAQPage, HowTo, Speakable)
Brand mention building across authoritative sources
AI Overview optimisation for target queries
Citation monitoring setup — Chatbeat prompt tracking, GA4 AI traffic analysis, server log bot activity review
Integration with traditional SEO programme

Common questions

Questions about GEO / AEO / AI Visibility

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) focuses specifically on getting your content into direct answer formats — featured snippets, AI Overview boxes, structured question-and-answer content that AI systems pull from. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is broader: it's about making your brand the entity AI models associate with your topic area, through citations, mentions and authoritative presence across the web. In practice, the two disciplines overlap significantly and are best addressed together.
Primarily Google AI Overviews (the most traffic-significant for most sites), ChatGPT (with Browse), Perplexity, Gemini, Grok and Microsoft Copilot. Each has different crawling behaviour, citation preferences and update patterns. I prioritise based on where your specific audience uses AI in their search journey.
Three ways. First, direct prompt tracking using Chatbeat — which monitors whether your site appears in AI responses to specific queries at scale. Second, GA4 analysis of traffic attributable to AI platforms — referral traffic from ChatGPT, Perplexity and similar. Third, server log analysis looking at crawl activity from known AI bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot etc.) — giving a sense of which content is being actively indexed by which systems.
An addition. The best GEO and AEO results come to sites with strong traditional SEO foundations — good authority, clear content, structured data, fast load times. This work amplifies what's already working; it doesn't replace the underlying SEO programme. Running both simultaneously is the most efficient path.
Ranking well in traditional results doesn't guarantee visibility in AI answers. The sites cited in AI Overviews frequently differ from the top 10 blue-link results for the same query. If you're not tracking AI citation separately, you likely don't know how visible you are in that channel — which is an increasingly significant part of search behaviour.

Work together

Ready to discuss geo / aeo / ai visibility?

Tell me about your site, your goals, and where you're stuck. I'll give you an honest read on what would actually move the needle.

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