SEO vs GEO vs AEO: What’s More Effective in 2025?

17.06.2025

Inna Myroshnichenko

The digital marketing niche is quickly developing and it sometimes seems that we can’t keep up with the new industry trends or updates.

It all started in 2017 with the introduction of the Transformer mechanism, which became the  foundation of almost all modern language models, including GPT.

In 2018, Google first integrated BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) into its search algorithm — a major step toward better language understanding in search. The model interprets the meaning of words in the context of a sentence, not just as standalone terms.

In 2020, OpenAI introduced GPT-3. At the time, there were no comparable models available to the public — it was a breakthrough, as AI started writing like a human: poems, articles, code.

The biggest leap occurred in 2022 when OpenAI launched ChatGPT, making AI accessible to everyone. Many people now use it for various purposes — from work to everyday tips and idea generation.

In 2023, GPT-4 was released, even more refined and accurate. New AI tools also emerged: Claude (Anthropic), Gemini (Google), Perplexity, You.com. AI became integrated into browsers, messengers, search engines and more.

In 2024, Google introduced SGE (Search Generative Experience) — a test model where search results include AI-generated answers. This year also saw the rise of a new competitor to traditional SEO: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Now, everyone wants to appear in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and others.

2025 is the year of adaptation to generative search. This year will reveal who managed to stay relevant and adapt to new trends. Those unable to integrate AI into their processes will likely be left behind.

So, what’s relevant in 2025?

1. Google’s Generative Search has exited its testing phase, and more people around the world are now seeing AI Overviews in search results. These are now a part of the interface and search listings. This may change user behavior — people might not continue searching beyond the AI response, making traditional SEO less relevant in some niches.
2. GEO becomes part of SEO strategy. Clients now want to see their websites not only in Google’s top results but also in generative outputs from ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
3. The E-E-A-T approach (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) is becoming more important. ChatGPT and Gemini prefer expert content with verifiable sources.

We can conclude that today’s marketing strategy now follows this formula: SEO + AEO + GEO. Below, we’ll explore what you need to do to appear in generative responses and the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO.

Classical SEO: Key Features 

Goals of Classical SEO: To rank a website at the top of search engine results for targeted keywords, thus increasing organic traffic to the site.

What type of business is it suitable for? Classical SEO is suitable for all types of businesses — from large eCommerce stores and service websites to B2B and B2C projects in any niche.

How to reach the top of search results? Here are the key stages to achieve the desired result:

1. Create an SEO Strategy. A well-structured SEO strategy enhances the visibility of a website in search engines. It must include niche and competitor analysis.
2. Conduct a Technical Audit. Fix errors identified during the audit. These may include: page loading speed, microdata markup setup, elimination of 404 errors, redirects, duplicates, correct configuration of robots.txt and sitemap.xml files, mobile-friendliness, availability of HTTP, proper multilingual settings, canonical tags, logical site structure, SEO-friendly URLs etc.
3. Semantic Core Collection and Clustering by Pages. Optimize pages based on targeted keywords by: writing meta tags for pages, creating keyword-rich content, optimizing headings with relevant keywords, setting up internal linking, writing ALT tags for images.
4. Local SEO Optimization. If your business has a physical location or serves clients in a specific region, local SEO is crucial. To rank well locally, create and optimize a Google Business profile, optimize your website for your location using city or district-specific keywords. This is particularly important for service-oriented local businesses like dental clinics, cafes, beauty salons or service centers.
5. External Link Building. Building high-quality crowd and outreach backlinks to your website remains a critical part of any SEO strategy. External links are still considered one of the key ranking factors by Google. The more high-quality backlinks pointing to your site, the higher your potential ranking. However, low-quality or spammy links can harm your site, causing ranking drops or even penalties from Google, which negatively impacts your organic traffic.

AEO and GEO Features

AEO (Answer Engines Optimization) refers to optimization for systems that provide short, direct answers to user queries (e.g., AI Overviews, voice search).

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the optimization of content for generative search systems and AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Perplexity. These systems generate responses to user queries using information from open sources — including content from websites.

As a result, more and more users are receiving answers to their queries directly from AI — without clicking on links in the traditional search results. Traditional SEO is gradually losing part of its influence, as a significant number of people simply turn to ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini or other tools without opening search result pages.

The main task of an SEO specialist in these new circumstances is to ensure that the website is included among the sources from which AI draws information to generate responses. In this case, the brand can be mentioned directly in the AI-generated answer or linked as the original source. This builds trust, increases brand recognition and opens a new channel for audience engagement.

(image demonstrates AI Overviews answers)

(chatgpt answer)

What Businesses Benefit from AEO and GEO?

As of May, Google has announced the global expansion of AI Overviews, making this feature available in over 200 countries and in more than 40 languages. Its relevance is rapidly growing, as more and more users are gaining access to it. AI Overviews helps users quickly find answers without having to visit websites.

So, who should already be optimizing their site for AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)? We tested various queries in AI Overviews and found that this feature is especially useful for:

• medical websites,
• legal services,
• service-based companies,
• local businesses.

For example, when searching for “nanny near me,” the user receives a curated list of resources with the option to choose a qualified nanny.

(AI Overviews for the “nanny near me” query)

Instead, GEO-optimization (adaptation for AI assistants) is better suited for expert blogs, e-commerce sites, media outlets or brands. For example, in response to the query “where to buy quality summer dresses?”, ChatGPT generated a list of brands and included links to the relevant websites.

(Chatgpt answer for the  “Where to buy a summer dress?” query)

How to Get Featured in Generative Search? 

Currently, there is no distinct formula for getting your content into AI-generated answers, but there are several steps that can significantly increase your chances:

1. Create Well-Structured Content: Use a clear hierarchy with headings (H1–H3), and ensure the content directly answers user queries. Consider formats like: FAQs, tables and bullet lists, conclusions at the end of articles, “Top 10” posts, “Best X for Y”, comparisons. 

2. Structured Data (schema.org) — A Must-Have: Use schema markup appropriate to your content type:

• FAQPage — for FAQ
• Article — for blog posts
• BreadcrumbList — for breadcrumb navigation
• Organization — for company or brand pages
• …and others depending on your site’s content

3. Build Backlinks & Outreach: Link-building and outreach remain important — but go beyond traditional SEO metrics. Focus on website authority, trustworthiness, niche relevance. 

4. Invest in Brand Development: LLM-generated answers often reference well-known brands. Building brand recognition helps increase visibility in AI answers.

5. Establish Trust with E-E-A-T (Experience — Expertise — Authoritativeness — Trustworthiness): Focus on your reaal cases – identify the authors and their qualifications (certificates, social media links), reviews and detailed company info.

6. Create an llms.txt File: Just like robots.txt, llms.txt is a new file format designed for LLM crawlers. You can manually create it and place it in your site’s root directory or use tools like the LLMS Full TXT Generator plugin for WordPress.

(llms.txt file sample image)

How to Choose Keywords for Generative Search? 

Selecting keywords for generative search differs from traditional SEO. However, you can still try to identify keywords using one of two methods:

1. Which keywords already appear in AI Overviews? To find out, go to ahrefs.com, open the Keywords Explorer and enter an approximate search query. Then select SERP Features → AI Overviews  in the filters to see which queries are already triggering Google’s generative responses.

2. AI-generated responses frequently include pages that directly address the query. Therefore, it makes sense to choose practical, question-based or long-tail keywords made up of several words. In Ahrefs, there are dedicated sections for this, such as “Questions,” where you can quickly find such queries. For example:

• “how to set up GA4 for a website”
• “best plugins for WooCommerce”
• “Tilda vs Webflow comparison”
• “SEO audit example for an online store”

How to Track AI Traffic? 

It’s very difficult  now to track traffic from AI bots or from AI-generated answers in tools like AI Overviews. However, I believe we will soon see tools that can differentiate each traffic source. For now, we can only make assumptions about which queries are appearing in generative search or how many clicks they are receiving.

Traffic from AI Bots 

Traffic from bots can be detected using Google Analytics and further visualized in Looker Studio with a detailed report. For example, in Looker Studio, connect Google Analytics, create a table with the Session Source and all relevant metrics you want to track, and then apply a filter with the following regular expression:

.*chatgpt.com.*|.*perplexity.*|.*edgepilot.*|.*edgeservices.*|.*copilot.microsoft.com.*|.*openai.com.*|.*gemini.google.com.*|.*claude.ai.*|.*deepseek.*.

This filter makes it possible to highlight traffic from AI tools like ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude etc. 

(Generative search traffic report in LookerStudio)

(Generative search traffic report in GA4 through the Explore section)

AI Overviews Traffic 

When it comes to Featured Snippets, we can’t precisely determine the volume of traffic, as it is counted as organic. However, we can roughly estimate the traffic from AI Overviews: we can see which queries our site appears for in generative answers (using Ahrefs), and then check in Search Console whether we hold top positions and whether we receive clicks for those queries.

Comparison Table (SEO vs AEO vs GEO)

To better understand the differences between SEO, AEO and GEO, let’s look at them side by side in the comparison table using key criteria. This will help illustrate how these approaches differ in goals, formats, metrics and tools.

As shown in the table, each of the three approaches has its own unique strengths and areas of application. SEO remains the foundation, AEO adapts to modern search and GEO opens the door to future user interaction through artificial intelligence.

LuxSite will help you promote your website: we offer both classic SEO and AI SEO services to make sure your site appears not only in search results but also in AI Overview, ChatGPT, Gemini, and other AI assistants.

Conclusion: Thus, classical SEO remains an important part of the strategy, but it is no longer the only tool. AEO and GEO are coming to the forefront, focused on new user behavior patterns — the search for quick answers and interaction with AI assistants.

A successful strategy in 2025 is the synergy of SEO + AEO + GEO. This combination enables coverage of all user touchpoints with search — both classical and generative.

Those who adapt will win. Those who keep using outdated approaches risk being overlooked by the new audience.