SEO, AEO, GEO — the three ways customers find you now

For twenty years, being found online meant one thing: rank on Google. That's still SEO, and it still matters. But your customers now also get answers without clicking — from featured snippets, voice assistants, and AI chat. That's where AEO and GEO come in. Three letters each, one idea: meet the customer wherever the answer happens.

SEO — be found in search

Search engine optimisation gets your pages ranking when people search for what you do: fast loading, mobile-first, clean page structure, real text content, and a complete Google Business Profile. This is the foundation — nothing else works without it.

AEO — be the answer

Answer engine optimisation is writing so machines can lift your answer directly: headings phrased as the questions customers actually ask, a direct 40–60 word answer under each one, real lists and tables instead of paragraphs pretending to be lists, and FAQ markup so search engines know what they're reading. When Google answers “which cafes in Bayside do gluten-free brunch?” with your menu page, you got the customer before your competitor was even on screen.

GEO — be the recommendation

Generative engine optimisation is the newest layer: when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's Gemini for a recommendation, the AI cross-checks everything it can verify about you — your site, your business profile, your reviews, and what independent sources say. Consistent details everywhere, real customer reviews, and pages an AI can actually read are what make it confident enough to say your name.

Here's the catch most businesses miss: most AI crawlers don't reliably run JavaScript. If your site is a fancy app shell, the AI often sees a blank page.

The 60-second test

Try it now: open your website, then view the page source (right-click → View Page Source). Search for a sentence you can see on the page. If it's not there in the raw HTML, search engines get a partial view of your site — and AI assistants often get little to nothing. That single technical detail is why two businesses with identical reviews can get wildly different AI visibility.

You don't need to chase all three at once. Get the SEO foundation right, layer in answer-style content where customers ask questions, and keep your business details consistent everywhere. That order — and it compounds.