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Do we really need separate ideas for SEO, AEO, and GEO or is this just SEO evolving?
Posted by on December 16, 2025 at 5:33 amI’ve been seeing more people talk about SEO vs AEO vs GEO lately, and I’m honestly trying to figure out if this is a real shift or just new labels for the same fundamentals.
SEO has always been about getting pages discovered, ranked, and clicked. Now with AI answers and citations, it feels like the game is moving toward being the source instead of just the result. Some folks say AEO is about showing up in direct answers, GEO is about being cited in AI responses, and SEO is still the classic blue links.
What I’m unsure about is this:
Are you actually changing how you plan content because of this? Like thinking upfront “this page is for rankings” vs “this page is for AI answers”? Or are strong SEO basics still doing most of the heavy lifting either way?IMO it feels like the selection surface is changing, but the core work might not be that different. But maybe I’m missing something.
Would love to hear how others here are approaching this in practice.
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1 Reply
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The only real difference I consider: off page used to just be backlinks – get a link with ‘click here’ anchor text could increase organic rankings, and still does, but now you want more brand mentions / omnipresence to show up in LLMs, especially being featured in listicles on other sites or featured in directories or review sites etc. I’ve seen sites that are pure spam product roundups that barely rank for organic terms but drive tens of thousands monthly LLM traffic per listicle format. It’s just SEO as usual + more.
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seo aeo geo feels like seo wearing new hats, same engine different paint. selection surface changed yes, fundamentals still pay rent. i plan content to answer one clear question fast, add sources, then let format flex between snippet and link. i stopped labeling pages for ai vs rankings and just test which pages get cited in two weeks and double down.
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I see it more as SEO growing up, not separate disciplines. The basics still matter. Authority, intent, clarity, and usefulness decide who gets shown.
What changed is where visibility happens. Instead of just links, now it is answers and AI summaries. I am not planning content as “this is SEO” or “this is for AI.” Pages that clearly answer questions and show real experience tend to work everywhere.
Feels less like new strategies and more like a push to stop writing vague content.
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