SEO vs GEO: what's the difference?
Updated · Vanta Foundry
Short answer
What is the difference between SEO and GEO (generative engine optimisation)?
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work that gets your pages ranked in Google's results. GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the work that gets your business understood and named in AI answers from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews. GEO builds on SEO: AI tools read the same web, so a fast, well-structured site with clear answers helps both.
What SEO covers
- Technical health: speed, mobile, indexing, structured data.
- Pages that match what people search for.
- Links and mentions from other sites.
- For local businesses, a complete Google Business Profile and reviews.
What GEO adds
- Clear, quotable answers near the top of each page.
- Consistent facts about your business everywhere it appears: name, services, location, contact.
- Mentions on the sites, directories and reviews AI tools draw from.
- Machine-readable summaries such as structured data and an llms.txt file.
Can anyone guarantee AI mentions?
No. AI tools decide what to say, and their answers change. Anyone promising a guaranteed spot in ChatGPT is overselling. What you can do is make your business the easiest one to understand and the best-documented answer to the question.
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