The digital marketing landscape is changing fast. While traditional search engine optimisation (SEO) long dominated visibility strategies, the emergence of AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google SGE calls for a new approach: GEO. Understanding the differences between SEO and GEO is now crucial to staying competitive.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims to improve a website's position in the results pages of traditional search engines such as Google or Bing. The goal is to attract qualified organic traffic by answering users' queries.
The pillars of SEO include:
- Researching and incorporating relevant keywords.
- Technical optimisation of the site (speed, mobile-friendly, architecture).
- Creating high-quality, high-value content.
- Acquiring backlinks from authoritative sites.
- Improving user experience (UX).
SEO relies on algorithms that analyse hundreds of factors to rank pages. Results are presented as a list of blue links, sometimes with enriched snippets (featured snippets).
What is GEO?
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is a recent discipline that involves optimising content so it is used as a source by generative artificial intelligences. These AI engines, such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, no longer simply list links: they provide synthetic, conversational answers, often citing their sources.
GEO aims to ensure your content is cited, referenced or recommended by these AIs. The key techniques include:
- Structuring content with machine-readable data (Schema.org).
- Using clear, factual and easily extractable language.
- Strengthening topical authority and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T).
- Earning citations on trusted sites, as AIs rely on credible sources.
- Creating entities and semantic relationships that language models can understand.
SEO vs GEO: the key differences
Although complementary, SEO and GEO present fundamental divergences. Here are the main differences between these two approaches:
- Target: SEO addresses traditional search engines; GEO targets AI engines and conversational assistants.
- Expected outcome: SEO seeks to earn a click through to your site; GEO seeks to be cited as a source in an AI-generated answer, even without a click.
- Metrics: SEO measures impressions, click-through rate (CTR) and rankings; GEO measures citations, mentions and presence in AI answers.
- Optimisation: SEO focuses on keywords, backlinks and technical structure; GEO emphasises semantic clarity, data structuring and source authority.
- Horizon: SEO is mature and follows known algorithms (even as they evolve); GEO is still emerging, with mechanisms that remain poorly documented.
In short, SEO aims to be found, GEO aims to be cited. Both are necessary for complete visibility.
Why is SEO alone no longer enough?
Search habits are changing. According to Gartner, by 2026 traditional search engine queries could decline by 25% in favour of AI assistants. What's more, featured snippets and instant answers are generating more and more zero-click searches. If your content isn't optimised to be picked up by AIs, you risk losing a significant share of visibility.
AI engines don't rank pages, they synthesise information. They rely on sources they deem reliable, often from authoritative sites, studies and structured databases. Not appearing in those sources means becoming invisible to a growing segment of users.
A concrete example: a user asks ChatGPT “What are the best SEO practices in 2025?”. If your blog post on the subject isn't cited, you miss out on an opportunity for brand awareness and indirect traffic.
How can you combine SEO and GEO?
An effective digital strategy must integrate both dimensions. Here are a few actionable tips:
- Create flawless content: in-depth, factual, well-sourced, with figures and examples. AIs favour rich, well-structured content.
- Use Schema.org markup: it helps search engines and AIs understand the context of your content (articles, FAQs, products, events).
- Build your topical authority: publish regularly on the same subject, earn backlinks from recognised sites, and be cited by other reliable sources.
- Think “entities” rather than “keywords”: AI engines reason in terms of entities (people, places, concepts). Mention relevant entities and link them to one another.
- Write direct answers: include concise paragraphs that clearly answer specific questions, as AIs extract them easily.
- Monitor your citations: use tools to see whether your brand or content is mentioned by AIs, and adjust your strategy accordingly.
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