SEO vs AEO/GEO

If you have started reading about AI search, you have met three abbreviations that look alike and are used as if they mean different things. This guide sorts them out, so you can ignore the jargon and decide what, if anything, to do. If the basic idea is new to you, Part 1 explains it first.

What Each Term Means

SEO is the different one. AEO and GEO are two names for nearly the same work: being named in the written answers AI tools give.

SEO is about ranking in a list of links. AEO and GEO are about appearing in an answer.

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the work of ranking well in the lists of links that Google, Bing and other search engines show, so people click through to your website.
• AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the work of being recommended, named or cited as a source in the answers that tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews write.
• GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is a second name for largely the same work, coming from the fact that these tools "generate" their answers. The term comes from a 2023 research paper by researchers at Princeton and IIT Delhi. When people do separate GEO from AEO, it is usually one of two ways: AEO for Google's featured snippets and voice assistants and GEO for AI tools like ChatGPT, or GEO as the broader work of shaping how a business is described across the whole answer, including what other sites say about it.

This is what a list of links and a written answer look like for the same patient search, using invented practice names:

This table compares SEO with AEO/GEO:

The Differences People Draw Between AEO and GEO

Most of the time the two names are used interchangeably. When people do separate them, these are the differences they mean.

Why There Are So Many Names

The field is new, and different people have named it differently.

Nobody in charge decided what to call this work. Some people say AEO, some say GEO, and some use other labels. Some also use AEO for Google's featured snippets and voice assistants, and GEO for AI tools like ChatGPT. For a practice owner the label matters far less than the question underneath it: when someone asks an AI tool about the treatments you offer in your area, are you in the answer?

For a med spa, the work overlaps almost entirely, which is why this series uses AEO for both.

Where They Overlap

A lot of the groundwork is shared, so SEO does not replace AEO, and AEO does not replace SEO.

If you have been doing sensible SEO, you are not starting from zero. The same groundwork helps in both places. Here is what each piece means in practice:

• A clear website. There is a page for each treatment, named the way patients search for it, such as lip filler, Botox or microneedling. The city and neighborhood are on the page. It says who performs treatments and what their credentials are, and it gives hours and how to book. All of it is real text, not words inside images.
• A fast website. Pages load quickly on a phone, so a patient is not left waiting.
• An honest website. The services listed are ones you actually offer, and any prices or price policies match what patients are told when they call.
• Accurate listings. The same practice name, address, phone number and hours appear on your Google Business Profile, Yelp, Apple Maps, Bing Places and med spa directories. A mismatch is easy to miss. An old suite number on one directory is enough to make your listings disagree.
• Genuine reviews. They come from real patients and mention specific treatments and providers. Asking every patient after a visit helps. Buying reviews, or filtering out the unhappy ones, breaks the platforms' rules.

What changes is the emphasis. In the AI answers measured by Acuven, review sites, directories and local articles appear alongside business websites, so what other sites say about you carries real weight. And the result is often all or nothing. In a list you can be seventh and still be seen. In an answer you are named or you are not.

What Changes on Your Site and Beyond

The practical differences come down to a few places you can edit.

• SEO on your website. Page titles, headings, speed, mobile layout, and a page for each treatment and location, so a search engine can match you to a search.
• SEO off your website. Links from other sites and your Google Business Profile, which help a search engine decide where to place you in the list.
• AEO on your website. Plain statements a tool can lift into an answer: what you offer, where, and for whom. Text that is real text on the page, not locked in images, and no accidental block on the crawlers AI tools use.
• AEO off your website. What reviews, directories and local articles say about you, and whether it agrees from one place to the next. AI tools appear to weigh these alongside your own site.

In short, SEO mostly asks "can a search engine place this page?" while AEO also asks "would a careful reader of many sources name this practice?" Google's own guide, published in May 2026, puts it plainly: "optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO." That fits the shared groundwork described above, though the guide covers Google's own AI features, not ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity.

How to See Where You Stand on Each

You can get a first picture yourself, for free.

1. SEO. Search Google, and Bing if you like, for your main treatments and your city, the way a patient would. Note where your website and your Google Business Profile appear. If you have Google Search Console set up, it shows which searches bring people to your site.
2. AEO, one tool at a time. Open ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini and ask the questions patients ask, such as where to get a treatment in your city. Also look at the AI Overview Google shows above some of its results. For each answer, write down whether you are recommended, whether you are named in passing, whether your website is linked as a source, and who else is named.
3. Repeat it. Answers differ from one day to the next and from one tool to another, so one try tells you little. Keep dated notes.

A manual check is a fair start, but it is small, and it is hard to cover many questions, several tools and every location. That is the gap an Acuven AEO audit fills.

If you want to read what the companies themselves say, three primary sources are worth a look:

• Google Search Central: Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search
• OpenAI: overview of its crawlers
• Perplexity: its crawlers

What a Practice Owner Should Actually Do

Keep doing the basics that help everywhere, and find out where you stand in AI answers before you spend on fixes.

• Check, do not guess. Ask the AI tools the questions your patients ask, and write down what each one says about you and about your competitors.
• Keep your listings and website consistent. The same name, address, phone number and treatment names everywhere.
• Keep earning reviews. Genuine reviews that mention specific treatments give the tools material to use.
• Be realistic about size. AI search is a modest part of how patients find a local practice, and it is growing quickly. The value of acting now is position, not this month's bookings.

None of this means giving up on SEO. The goal is not to choose between SEO and AEO. It is to know where you appear in each place patients now look.

Part 3, How Med Spas Show Up in AI Searches, covers how those answers are put together and what a practice can do about it.