SEO vs AEO vs GEO: What's the Difference?
SEO, AEO, and GEO are three layers of search optimization. SEO ranks your pages on Google and Bing. AEO wins featured snippets, People Also Ask boxes, and voice search answers. GEO gets your business cited inside AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. They are not competing choices; they are layers that build on each other. The Web Hunters runs all three as one service called SEO & AI Visibility, because modern buyers search across all three at once.
Book a CallSee where you stand across all three layers. Free.
Each Layer, and Where It Appears
SEO: Search Engine Optimization
The foundation. It ranks your pages in the standard list of results on Google and Bing through technical optimization, on-page content, and authority building. Appears in: the ten blue links, the local map pack, and image search.
AEO: Answer Engine Optimization
Targets the answer features that sit above the standard results using structured content, question-format headings, and FAQ schema. Appears in: featured snippets, People Also Ask, and voice search from Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
GEO: Generative Engine Optimization
Targets generative AI tools by building the content, entity authority, and citations that make AI models name and recommend your business. Appears in: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews.
Think of Them as a Stack. You Cannot Skip the Foundation.
SEO gets you indexed, ranked, and trusted. AEO captures the answer positions on top of those rankings. GEO uses that same authority to get you cited inside AI tools.
Strong SEO is what makes AEO and GEO possible, because both answer engines and AI models draw on content that traditional search already ranks and trusts.
All Three, in Order
If your SEO is weak, start there, because it powers the rest. Then layer AEO to win answer features and GEO to win AI citations. Running them together is far more effective than treating them as separate projects, which is exactly why we combined them into one service.
Get a Free AuditSimple Pricing. Serious Results.
Every plan includes technical, on-page, and off-page SEO. AI Visibility is built into Premium and Pro, not sold as an afterthought.
SEO Foundation
For businesses that need to rank on Google first
- 16 backlinks per month: 4 guest posts, 4 article submissions, 4 business listings
- 10 on-page optimizations per month: titles, metas, content, internal linking, image optimization
- Technical SEO: Search Console, broken links, robots.txt, site speed, schema markup, crawl errors
- 1 blog post per month
- Monthly report
14 day money back guarantee
SEO + AI Visibility
Everything in SEO Foundation, plus AI visibility
- 18 backlinks, 6 guest posts, 6 article submissions, 6 business listings
- 15 on-page optimizations per month
- 2 blog posts per month
- AI keyword and content gap analysis, topic clustering, AI content briefs
- FAQ-style content with structured data, AI visibility and entity audit, listings on trusted directories
- Monthly AI citation check across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews
14 day money back guarantee
Full Growth
Everything in SEO + AI Visibility, plus more
- 24 backlinks, 8 guest posts, 8 article submissions, 8 business listings
- 20 on-page optimizations per month
- 4 blog posts per month
- Comparison and guide-style content built for AI citation
- Priority support
14 day money back guarantee
Not sure which plan fits? Book a call and we will tell you honestly.
Questions We Get Before Every Project
Straight answers, no jargon. If yours is not here, ask us directly.
SEO ranks your pages in search results. AEO wins featured snippets and voice answers above those results. GEO gets you cited inside AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. They are three layers of the same goal: being found wherever people search.