Key takeaways
- Same foundation: Google says optimising for its AI search is still SEO. Pages that are indexed and already rank start with an advantage.
- More engines: ChatGPT and Perplexity use their own crawlers, and OpenAI says sites that block OAI-SearchBot won't appear in ChatGPT search answers.
- Being named matters: In an Ahrefs study of 75,000 brands, web mentions tracked AI Overview visibility three times more closely than backlinks.
- Fewer clicks per ranking: In Ahrefs' data, an AI Overview went with 58% fewer clicks for the top-ranking page, so track mentions as well as traffic.
Most AEO vs SEO guides treat them as two strategies: pick one, or budget for both separately. Google doesn't see it that way. Its own guide says that optimising for its AI search "is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO".
So the useful questions are narrower. If you already pay for SEO, what's missing? Do you need a second agency, new tools or a different kind of content? Get this wrong and you pay twice for overlapping work, or miss the part that actually changes what AI tools say about you.
This guide splits AEO vs SEO into what stays the same, what changes and what you can ignore, then shows where to put your budget first. It's based on what Google, OpenAI and Perplexity publish for site owners, plus two large studies by the SEO tool company Ahrefs.
AEO vs SEO: the short answer
SEO (search engine optimisation) gets your pages ranked in search results. AEO (answer engine optimisation) gets your brand named, and your pages cited, inside AI answers: Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT and Perplexity. AEO builds on SEO. Most of the work is shared, and a few parts are new.
| Aspect | SEO | AEO |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | Rank a page and win the click | Get your brand named or your page cited in the answer |
| Where it happens | Search results on Google and Bing | Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity |
| What earns it | Useful pages, technical health, links | The same, plus mentions on other sites and access for AI crawlers |
| How you measure it | Rankings, clicks, conversions | Share of buyer questions where you're named, pages cited, then clicks and conversions |
You'll also see GEO (generative engine optimisation) used for much the same work. The label matters less than knowing which parts are genuinely new.
What stays the same
For Google, almost everything. Google's documentation on AI features says there are "no additional requirements" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Its newer guide adds that SEO best practices "continue to be relevant".
- Indexing is the entry ticket: a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet before Google's AI features can link to it. If a page can't appear in normal results, it can't appear in AI answers either.
- Original content still wins: Google's guide to optimising for generative AI search asks for a unique point of view, such as first-hand experience, rather than a summary of what already ranks.
- Technical health still counts: pages need to be crawlable, with no JavaScript hiding the content, and work well on mobile.
- Ranking still helps: most AI answers search the web first and then write. So the pages AI tools choose to cite are often ones that already do well in search.
The practical upshot: if your SEO is weak, AEO won't rescue it. Fix the basics first.
What actually changes
Four things change: there are more engines to reach, being named starts to matter as much as ranking, each ranking earns fewer clicks, and you need a different scoreboard.
More engines, each with its own crawler
ChatGPT and Perplexity don't depend on Google's index. OpenAI's crawler documentation says sites that opt out of its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers". Perplexity runs its own crawler too, called PerplexityBot. A robots.txt file written years ago with only Google in mind may be blocking both without anyone noticing.
Being named matters as much as ranking
In an AI answer, the shortlist is the result. A buyer who asks for the best payroll software for a 50-person team may never scroll a list of links. That makes what other sites say about you more important.
In Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions had a correlation of 0.66 with visibility in Google's AI Overviews. The number of backlinks had 0.22. That's a correlation, not proof that mentions cause citations, but the gap is large. AEO pulls digital PR, reviews and community mentions into your search plan, not just your own pages.
Each ranking earns fewer clicks
Ranking first still matters, but it brings fewer clicks when an AI Overview sits above it. Ahrefs compared 300,000 keywords using Google Search Console data. For keywords that showed an AI Overview, the top result's desktop click-through rate (CTR) fell from 7.3% in December 2023 to 1.6% in December 2025. Ahrefs estimates it would have been about 3.7% without the AI Overview: a 58% gap.
The top result earns 58% fewer clicks when an AI Overview appears.
Average desktop CTR for position 1, keywords with an AI Overview. 300,000 keywords, Google Search Console data. Bars start at zero.
Source: Ahrefs, AI Overviews reduce clicks (2026 update), published 4 February 2026. The 58% uses Ahrefs' unrounded figures. Correlation, not proof of cause.
Google, for its part, says clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are "higher quality", meaning visitors spend longer on the site. Both can be true: fewer clicks, but better ones. Either way, traffic alone now undercounts how often buyers see you.
A different scoreboard
SEO has stable reports: rankings, impressions and clicks. AI answers change between questions, sessions and days, so a single test tells you very little. Measuring AEO means a fixed list of buyer questions, run through the main AI tools every month, with the brands named and pages cited logged each time.
For Google, add the Generative AI performance report in Search Console. Google also warns that "no third-party tool has access to our internal ranking or AI systems", so be wary of any tool that promises AI rankings.
What you can ignore
Most of the "AEO tactics" sold as new aren't needed for Google. Its guide to generative AI search is unusually blunt about it.
| Common advice | What Google says |
|---|---|
| Add an llms.txt file | Not needed: "Google Search itself doesn't use them." Keeping one for other services is fine. |
| Split pages into small chunks | "There's no requirement to break your content into tiny pieces." |
| Write a separate version for AI | "You don't need to write in a specific way just for generative AI search." |
| Add special schema for AI | Not required, and there's no special markup. Structured data is still worth having for rich results. |
| Buy mentions on list sites | Seeking inauthentic mentions "isn't as helpful as it might seem." |
These points come from Google. ChatGPT and Perplexity publish less about how they choose sources. A clear page that answers the question directly works for all of them, so there's no reason to build separate versions.
Where to put your budget first
Start with whichever half is weaker. For most businesses that's still SEO, because AI tools draw heavily on what already ranks.
| If this sounds like you | Start here |
|---|---|
| You barely rank for your main buyer searches | The SEO basics: technical fixes first, then pages that answer buyer questions |
| You rank, but AI tools name competitors instead | Check crawler access, then earn mentions on the sites being cited |
| You don't know what AI says about you | A baseline: run 10 to 20 buyer questions through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, and log who gets named |
| You've blocked AI crawlers on purpose | Decide crawler by crawler: you can block AI training and still allow AI search |
You don't need two agencies or two budgets, because the work overlaps too much. At Wincon, AEO is part of every SEO & AEO level rather than a separate add-on. See how our AEO service works, or compare the levels and prices.
FAQs
Will AEO replace SEO?
No. AEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it. Google says SEO best practices continue to be relevant for its AI features, and pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet to appear in them. ChatGPT and Perplexity also search the web before they answer, so pages that rank well start with an advantage. What changes is the work around it: access for AI crawlers, mentions on other sites and a new way to measure results.
Is AEO the same as GEO?
Mostly, yes. AEO (answer engine optimisation) and GEO (generative engine optimisation) are two names for getting your brand into AI-generated answers. Some people use AEO for answers that cite live web pages and GEO for what a model learned in training. The day-to-day work is largely the same: be easy to crawl, answer questions clearly and earn mentions on sites the AI tools trust.
Do I need a separate AEO agency?
Usually not. Most AEO work overlaps with good SEO: indexable pages, clear answers and authority from other sites. The extra parts are checking AI crawler access, tracking what AI tools say about you each month and earning mentions on the sites they cite. A capable SEO team can cover these. Two agencies working on the same pages tend to duplicate effort, so first ask your current agency what they already do for AI search.
Can one page rank on Google and get cited by AI?
Yes. Google's AI features draw on its normal search index, so a page that ranks is already a candidate. To improve its chances of being cited, put a short, direct answer under each heading, cover the obvious follow-up questions and use tables for comparisons. Keep key information in the page text rather than only in images or PDFs, and make sure AI crawlers aren't blocked.
How do you measure AEO results?
Agree a fixed list of 10 to 20 questions your buyers ask. Run them through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI features every month, and record which brands are named and which pages are cited. Track the share of questions where you appear over time. For Google, the Generative AI performance report in Search Console adds data on your pages. Keep tracking clicks and conversions too, because visibility only matters if it brings buyers.
Guy founded Wincon Marketing in Bangkok after nearly ten years in SEO, content and paid media, both agency-side and in-house. He moved early into AEO as AI assistants started answering buyers' questions, and now helps brands get found on Google and in AI answers.
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