How does GEO differ from SEO in practice?

SEO works on rankings in Google search, where users click links to visit your site. GEO works on giving your content a chance to appear in answers generated by ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, which may never send a click. Whether a model cites a particular page is decided by the model, not by the site owner or an agency.

Can you do SEO and GEO at the same time?

Yes, and much of the work is shared. Google states there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond SEO best practices: a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet. Indexing, content structure and structured data serve both channels.

How do you check whether AI mentions your company?

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, with and without your company name, and see whether it appears. Such a check only shows a slice: answers vary between sessions and users, and there is no equivalent of Google Search Console for AI.

SEO vs GEO — What Are the Differences and Which to Choose in 2026?

SEO and GEO are two complementary visibility strategies: SEO works on rankings in Google search results, while GEO works on giving a page a chance to appear in answers generated by AI.

Google vs AI — Two Ways of Searching

People no longer ask only Google. Some of them also ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity. Not "instead of", but in addition to.

Imagine two potential customers:

Customer A types into Google: "SEO agency Warsaw". They look through the results and compare offers.

Customer B asks ChatGPT: "Recommend an agency that does SEO and websites in Poland". They get an answer with a few names.

SEO takes care of Customer A. GEO takes care of Customer B. But the question goes deeper than it first seems. It is not a choice between two marketing channels, but a question of whether your company wants to be a recognizable entity (a brand Google knows and AI is aware of) or just a collection of pages ranking for individual keywords. The latter can be built without GEO. The former cannot.

What Is SEO? (A Quick Refresher)

Search Engine Optimization — optimizing a website for search engines (Google, Bing).

Three pillars:

Technical SEO — speed, mobile, crawlability, Core Web Vitals
Content — articles, service pages, descriptions: content that answers queries
Link building — links from valuable sites build domain authority

Result: your site appears higher in Google results for the keywords your customers type.

Timeline: first results usually show after a few months; the pace depends on competition in the industry and the state of the site at the start.

What Is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization — working to give a company's content a chance to appear in AI answers (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot).

The key difference: in Google, the user clicks a link and lands on the site. In AI, the answer is generated in the chat window, and the user may never click the source. That is why in GEO what matters is not only the visibility of a link, but also whether and how AI describes the company.

What Is Known About Where AI Gets Its Sources?

Companies building AI search do not publish their full source selection criteria. What is documented:

Google: according to Google's documentation, there are no additional requirements or special optimizations for AI Overviews and AI Mode. A page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet, which means meeting the ordinary technical requirements. Google also notes that meeting the requirements does not guarantee being shown.
ChatGPT: according to OpenAI's documentation, sites that block OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt are not shown in ChatGPT search answers.

The practical conclusion: a page the search engine does not index, or that a bot cannot fetch, is out from the start. Everything else, such as a clear structure, answers under headings, structured data that matches the visible content and a consistent description of the company in external sources, is good SEO practice that is useful for AI too. Google notes that you don't need to create special files or markup for its AI features. Whether the model cites a particular page is decided by the model.

What Makes It Harder for AI to Use a Page?

Content blocked for bots in robots.txt
Content that only appears after JavaScript runs
Walls of text without headings, where it is hard to find the answer to a specific question
Content behind a paywall or login

Comparison: SEO vs GEO

Aspect	SEO	GEO
Goal	Ranking in Google	A chance of presence in AI answers
Traffic	Clicks → visits	A mention in an answer, sometimes a click on the source
Result format	List of links	Text answer, often with links to sources
Measurement	Search Console, Analytics	No equivalent of Search Console; manual checks show only a slice
Control	High (technical, content, links)	Lower (the model decides the answer)
Foundation	Indexing and site quality	The same: a page that is not indexed won't appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode

Current prices for all services are on our pricing page.

When to Choose SEO?

SEO should come first if:

Your site generates sales — an online store, SaaS, local services
Your customers search on Google — you can check this in Search Console by looking at queries and impressions
You want stable, long-term traffic — well-built rankings keep working for months
You have a content budget — SEO without content doesn't exist
You operate locally — a Google Business Profile and local SEO matter most to you

When Is SEO Alone Not Enough?

When your customers increasingly start their research with AI assistants and your company has no consistent description beyond its own website. Then a ranking in Google tells you nothing about what AI says about your company.

When to Choose GEO?

GEO is worth adding if:

Your customers use AI when choosing a supplier — tech, B2B, younger demographics
Your industry is new or hard to explain — customers ask AI "what is" and "how to choose" questions
You have expertise worth showing — case studies, data, your own perspective
Your company's description online is inconsistent — different names, addresses and service descriptions make it harder to recognize the company as one entity

SEO + GEO Strategy

You don't have to choose. Much of the work is shared.

How Does It Work in Practice?

Indexing and technical setup — a page Google does not index will appear neither in results nor in AI Overviews and AI Mode
Content structure — an answer in the first sentence under a heading helps both the reader from Google and the system that picks a passage for an answer
Company entity — a consistent name, description and data in external sources help recognize who stands behind the content
Access for bots — a robots.txt that does not block AI search bots

Practical SEO + GEO Framework

When creating every article:

✅ Keyword research (SEO) + analysis of the questions customers ask AI (GEO)
✅ Headings with keywords + a clear question–answer structure
✅ Meta tags and Schema.org
✅ Internal linking (SEO) + sources and data next to claims (GEO)
✅ Backlinks (SEO) + mentions of the company in external sources (GEO)

This framework isn't workshop theory; it is what this article has: Article and FAQPage schema, a named author, a place in our llms-full.txt, and a robots.txt that deliberately lets in GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and OAI-SearchBot instead of blocking them. We build every post on this blog this way, because we sell visibility in Google and in AI, so our own site has to show it, not just write about it.

How to Get Started?

This is the order in which we do it ourselves, before we start writing a strategy:

Step 1: Audit Current Visibility

Check in Search Console which queries your site appears for and which pages are indexed. Ask ChatGPT and Perplexity a few questions your customers ask, and note what they say about your industry and company.

Step 2: Content Strategy

Choose the keywords you want to rank for (SEO) and the questions your company should answer well on its site (GEO).

Step 3: Technical Foundations

Make sure the site is fast, has Schema.org and a sitemap, and that robots.txt does not block Googlebot or AI search bots (e.g., OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot).

Step 4: Content and Distribution

Publish content regularly that answers customers' questions, and keep the company's description consistent in external sources.

Summary

	SEO	GEO	SEO + GEO
Traffic from Google	✅	—	✅
A chance of presence in AI answers	partly (AI Overviews and AI Mode use Google's index)	✅	✅

Don't choose, combine. SEO without GEO tells you nothing about how AI describes your company. GEO without SEO has no foundation, because a page outside the index won't appear in results or in AI answers in Google.

Want to check how your company performs in Google and AI? In our free SEO audit we check indexing, technical setup and the site's readiness for AI search. You get a prioritized report within 48 business hours.

Read next: this article is part of our guide SEO, GEO and AEO in 2026, covering GEO/AEO tactics, technical SEO and off-page work.