AEO vs SEO: what changes when an AI gives the answer
Instly Scout's short answer: SEO works on where your pages rank in search results, and AEO (answer engine optimisation) works on whether AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your business in the answer they write. Most of the groundwork is the same. The result, the crawlers and the way you measure it are not.
AEO vs SEO, side by side.
The same website, two different results to aim for.
| SEO | AEO | |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | A high place for your page in search results | Your business named, or your page cited, in the answer an AI engine writes |
| Where it shows | Google and Bing results pages | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode |
| Who reads your site | Search crawlers such as Googlebot | The same, plus each AI engine's own search crawler: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot |
| What a win looks like | A position, such as third on page one | Named in, say, 4 of 20 answers to your buyers' questions, on a date |
| How you measure it | Search Console and rank trackers | Put the questions to the engines and count the answers that name you |
| What moves it | Relevant pages, links and a sound technical site | The same, plus direct answers, your name where an engine quotes, and mentions on the pages the engines read |
SEO is the floor.
Google's own guidance on AI features says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that "there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode". To be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. (Google Search Central, AI features and your website.)
The same guidance lists the fundamentals that carry over: crawling allowed in robots.txt and by your CDN or host, content easy to find through internal links, a good page experience, and important content in text form.
Four things SEO does not cover.
Let the answer engines' crawlers in
ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude each run a search crawler of their own. OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Perplexity recommends allowing PerplexityBot for its search results, and Anthropic says blocking Claude-SearchBot may reduce your visibility in Claude's search results. The training crawlers, GPTBot and ClaudeBot, have their own robots.txt entries, so training is a separate choice.
Answer the question, and name yourself
An engine writes one answer and names a few businesses in it. Scout's method: one page per buyer question, a direct answer at the top, and your name in its first sentence, so the text an engine lifts carries your name.
Be on the pages the engines read
On Scout's 28 Sep 2026 reading of questions about AI visibility tools, 82% of the pages the engines cited were independent articles, 15% vendor sites and 3% social. The tools named were the ones those pages wrote about. (Who AI engines name for AI visibility tools.)
Measure it as a count, with a date
Rank trackers report positions. For AEO, put your buyers' questions to the engines and count the answers that name you: named in X of Y answers, on a date. A citation label under an answer is not the same as being named in it.
Four names, one job.
All of these mean getting a business named in AI answers.
- AEO, answer engine optimisation: optimising for engines that write an answer instead of listing links.
- GEO, generative engine optimisation: the term comes from a 2023 research paper by Pranjal Aggarwal and five co-authors, accepted to KDD 2024. On the paper's own benchmark, its methods raised visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40%. (GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, arXiv 2311.09735.)
- LLM SEO and SEO for AI: other names for the same work.
What a provider calls it matters less than what it measures. Ask which engines, which questions, and what counts as a result.
Two instruments, never one number.
AI readiness: can an engine read and cite you?
Scout's audit gives a 0-100 AI readiness score built from 13 technical checks and four on-page signals; the report says how many were measured. It covers crawler access, structured data, the sitemap, titles and headings.
AI answer check: does an engine name you?
Five buyer questions put to ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude, each through its provider's API with web search on, counted as named in X of Y answers, with the date.
Our own two numbers. instlyscout.com scored 90/100 on AI readiness (Scout report, 29 Sep 2026), and was named in 0 of 20 answers to five questions about AI visibility tools on 29 Sep 2026. A ready site is not the same as a named one. More in how to measure and improve AI search visibility.
What the tools do.
Tools in this category do one or more of three jobs: track how often AI answers mention a brand, audit whether a site can be read and cited, or do the fixes. On Scout's 29 Sep 2026 reading, the tools the engines named most for AI visibility questions were Semrush, Profound, Scrunch AI, Otterly AI and Peec AI, each in 4 of 20 answers; Instly Scout was named in 0 of 20.
Scout does all three: a free scan of your homepage's technical signals, the $49.99 one-time audit, and a managed monthly program ($500 a month at the founding-customer rate, 3-month term) that does the fixes and measures whether they moved. Compare it: best AI visibility and AEO audit tools, AEO tools, 13 technical checks on 20 AI visibility tools, Scout vs Profound, Otterly, Peec and others and Scout vs SEO tools.
Yes, if your buyers use both.
Google's AI features draw on its Search index, so SEO is the floor for AI Overviews and AI Mode. ChatGPT, Perplexity and Claude read the web through their own crawlers and the pages they choose to cite. A ranking does not tell you whether you are named; only counting the answers does.
Short answers.
What is the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO works on where your pages rank in search results. AEO works on whether AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Claude name your business in the answer they write. The groundwork overlaps; the result, the crawlers and the measurement differ.
Is AEO replacing SEO?
No. Google says the best practices for SEO remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, with no additional requirements to appear in them. AEO builds on SEO: it adds the AI engines' own crawlers, answer-first pages and a count of the answers that name you.
Is GEO the same as AEO?
In practice, yes: both mean getting named in AI answers. GEO, generative engine optimisation, comes from a 2023 research paper accepted to KDD 2024, which reported visibility gains of up to 40% on its own benchmark.
What is LLM SEO, or SEO for AI?
Other names for the same work: making a site easy for large language models to read, cite and name. Ask what is measured, not what it is called.
How do you measure AEO?
With two instruments. AI readiness says whether an engine can read and cite your site; Scout's is a 0-100 score built from 13 technical checks and four on-page signals. The AI answer check says whether engines name you: your buyers' questions put to the engines, counted as named in X of Y answers, with the date.
Which robots.txt settings matter for AEO?
Allow the search crawlers: OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT search, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot, and Googlebot for AI Overviews and AI Mode. Training crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot have their own entries, so training is a separate choice.
The free scan is a technical readiness preview of your homepage, in seconds. It does not check whether AI names you; the AI answer check does that.
Sources, read 5 November 2026: Google Search Central, AI features and your website (last updated 10 December 2025); OpenAI, overview of OpenAI crawlers; Perplexity crawlers; Anthropic, how site owners can block its crawlers; Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv, v3 of 28 June 2024, accepted to KDD 2024). Scout's own readings: who AI engines name for AI visibility tools (28 and 29 September 2026). Prices: pricing.