5 Key Variations Regardless of the Similarities

In 30 seconds, right here’s what you might want to know in regards to the variations between website positioning and GEO:

• website positioning (Search Engine Optimization): Getting your web site to indicate up in Google searches. Objective: Get individuals to click on your hyperlink.
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): Getting AI chatbots like ChatGPT to say your model or info. Objective: Get AI to cite and point out you.
• Primary variations: website positioning brings guests to your web site. GEO places your model or content material instantly in AI solutions (no click on wanted). website positioning brings high-volume visitors that explores your web site. GEO will carry much less visitors to your web site instantly, however these guests could also be extra prone to convert.
• What to do: Begin with good website positioning (it’s nonetheless important), then add GEO ways like together with extra unique knowledge, preserving your most necessary content material up-to-date, or getting your model talked about extra throughout the net.
• Backside line: You want each. Consider website positioning as your basis and GEO as future-proofing your on-line presence.

Need the complete story? Learn on.

As you in all probability already know, Search Engine Optimization (website positioning) is the observe of enhancing your web site so it seems increased in Google, Bing, or different search engine outcomes when individuals seek for subjects associated to your corporation.

The purpose: get individuals to click on in your hyperlink within the SERPs and go to your web site.

How serps work

Search engines like google work in three essential steps:

1. Crawling. Applications referred to as net crawlers (or spiders) browse the web, following hyperlinks and gathering webpages.
2. Indexing. The collected pages are analyzed and saved in a large database referred to as the search index.
3. Rating. If you kind in a search, the engine appears via the index and makes use of an algorithm to type the outcomes, displaying essentially the most related pages first.

Briefly, whenever you seek for one thing, the search engine scans its index for matches, ranks them by relevance, after which reveals you the most effective outcomes on the search engine outcomes web page (SERP). AI search works otherwise—extra on that in a bit.

Key website positioning methods

• Key phrases analysis: Discovering and utilizing the phrases and phrases your prospects truly seek for.
• On-page website positioning: Creating useful, detailed info that solutions search intent.
• Off-page website positioning: Getting different respected web sites to hyperlink to yours.
• Technical website positioning: Making your web site free from crucial website positioning errors. Largely: making your web site straightforward for serps to crawl, secure for customers, easy to navigate, quick to load, and mobile-friendly.

GEO, quick for Generative Engine Optimization (also called AEO or LLMO), is the method of getting your model talked about, cited, and precisely represented in AI-generated solutions. That features outcomes from AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and Google’s AI Mode.

In different phrases, GEO is website positioning for AI search.

How AI search works

Key GEO ways

All of those are coated intimately in our GEO information, however right here’s the short model:

• Third-party mentions: Get your model talked about throughout business websites, “better of” lists, and evaluate platforms (most AI citations come from different websites, not yours).
• AI-preferred content material: Create how-to guides, comparability pages (“X vs Y”), knowledge research, and “better of” lists – these get the very best AI visitors.
• Details and statistics: Embrace particular, verifiable numbers and knowledge that AI can confidently cite.
• Multi-platform presence: Construct visibility on YouTube (2nd most cited by AI Overviews) and Reddit (third most cited).
• Structured Info: Use clear headings, Q&A codecs, bullet factors, and schema markup for machine readability.
• Contemporary content material: Preserve info up to date usually – AI prefers citing newer content material over older pages.

In website positioning, your web site seems as a hyperlink in search outcomes.

In GEO, your info or model seems instantly contained in the AI’s reply.

If hyperlinks seem in AI-generated solutions, they’re far much less seen (and redundant from the attitude of customers who wished a fast reply). In AI Overviews, they will seem contextually with a small hyperlink icon subsequent to a time period, on the right-hand panel, or on the very backside.

PEW Analysis Middle lately studied how searches work together with Google’s AI Overviews, proving the “zero click on” phenomenon.

They discovered that customers click on on search outcomes solely 8% of the time when AI summaries seem vs 15% with out them – that’s almost 50% fewer clicks. Only one% of customers click on on sources cited within the AI abstract itself. What’s extra, 26% of customers finish their session fully after seeing an AI abstract (vs 16% for conventional search).

Success in website positioning is measured with metrics like key phrase rankings, backlinks, natural visitors, and natural share of voice. That is a part of the “click on economics,” as a result of your outcomes rely upon convincing individuals to click on via to your web site.

Against this, success in GEO is measured with metrics like model mentions in AI solutions, citations when your content material is referenced, AI referral visitors, and AI share of voice. That is “visibility economics,” the place the extra typically your model seems in AI responses, the extra probably customers are to belief and select you, even when they by no means click on.

Right here’s what a GEO dashboard appears like, a screenshot from Ahrefs’ Model Radar. The core distinction is that there are not any key phrase rankings. As a substitute, you see how in style a model is inside a selected AI’s responses, and the way that recognition adjustments over time.

One other key distinction is the place mentions come from. In website positioning, your personal web site is the first asset—you optimize your pages to rank as hyperlinks in search outcomes. In GEO, nonetheless, most model mentions in AI responses originate from third‑celebration websites quite than your personal area. For that reason, GEO might develop into a extra interdisciplinary effort than website positioning (requiring, for instance, PR and influencer advertising).

Trade rankings, “better of” lists, evaluate platforms, PR protection, and buyer case research typically dominate as the highest sources AI assistants depend on. For instance, in Google’s AI Overviews, the highest pages mentioning Ahrefs didn’t embody ahrefs.com at all.

These mentions don’t even should be linked. AI can choose up unlinked references simply as simply. This makes broad visibility throughout the online extra necessary than ever.

To seek out websites that usually seem in AI solutions, simply plug their area in Ahrefs’ Website Explorer and have a look at the AI quotation rely within the Overview report:

Site visitors from AI search appears totally different from conventional natural search. Guests from AI are inclined to view fewer pages (4 vs. 5.2) however spend barely extra time on them (86s vs. 78s). Additionally they have the next bounce charge (67.8% vs. 63.7%), suggesting they arrive with a transparent, particular purpose (supply).

AI search additionally drives customers to homepages, product pages, and instruments extra typically than natural search, whereas natural search brings extra visitors to worldwide pages.

Most significantly, AI visitors can convert at a a lot increased charge. Within the case of Ahrefs, it was 23x greater than natural search; regardless of being simply 0.5% of visitors, it generates over 12% of signups.

That stated, conversion charges will differ by web site. As this current examine from Amsive reveals, not each web site sees the identical uplift from LLM-driven visitors.

Each website positioning and GEO rely upon having helpful content material, which builds topical authority. On the finish of the day, serps and AI instruments are designed to carry individuals the data they’re in search of. The important thing distinction is in how the reply is delivered: serps level you to hyperlinks, whereas AI typically offers you the reply instantly.

Working example, Ahrefs’ content material and product pages have been talked about 7,470 occasions throughout 2,309 pages with none particular effort to optimize for AI. That’s as a result of new search applied sciences nonetheless depend on the identical basis: high quality, helpful content material.

Each methods deal with understanding what individuals are actually in search of and offering the most effective reply (the search intent).

Whether or not somebody searches Google for “greatest undertaking administration software program” or asks ChatGPT one thing extra particular like “What’s the most effective undertaking administration device for a crew of 30 beneath $50?”, the intent doesn’t change. They’re in search of the highest choices, the explanations behind these suggestions, and a transparent comparability to assist them resolve.

Identical to in conventional website positioning, model authority is a significant factor in GEO. Branded mentions throughout the online present a robust connection to visibility in AI Overviews (correlation of 0.664). Moreover, manufacturers within the high 25% for net mentions earn over 10x extra AI Overview placements than the subsequent tier down.

And that’s not simply true for AI Overviews. AI Assistants additionally lean closely on well-known sources. The principle distinction is that they have an inclination to quote a barely totally different set of websites.

Merely put, the extra individuals speak about your model on-line, the extra probably AI is to function you.

However GEO issues too, as a result of AI search is rising, and the “zero-click” pattern is accelerating as extra AI Overviews roll out. What’s extra, Adobe’s current examine discovered that three in 10 U.S. respondents belief ChatGPT greater than different serps, and 36% of the individuals surveyed found a brand new product or model via ChatGPT.

If you happen to’re curious in regards to the world visitors shift, try our AI vs. Search Site visitors Evaluation dashboard, which pulls knowledge from over 50,000 websites. As an example, from January to August 2025, Google held a 41.13% visitors share, whereas ChatGPT accounted for 0.21%.

Remaining ideas

Bought questions or feedback? Let me know on LinkedIn.