The Difference Between SEO and GEO Generative Engine Optimisation
Right, so what the hell is GEO anyway?
I've had three conversations this month. All with local business owners. All asking basically the same thing: "Dan, I keep seeing GEO pop up. Is that just SEO with a new name or...?"
And look, I get it. We've spent 15 years getting our heads around SEO. Just when everyone finally understands what meta descriptions do (or don't do), someone goes and invents a whole new acronym.
GEO is Generative Engine Optimisation. It's optimising for ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Gemini. All those AI things that answer questions directly instead of giving you ten blue links to click through.
SEO is still about Google search results. GEO is about being the answer that ChatGPT gives when someone asks it a question about your service.
Different game. Different rules. Both matter in 2026, but they're not the same thing wearing different hats.
The bit everyone gets wrong
People think GEO is just "SEO but for AI."
Nope.
I'll tell you what happened last month. Client in Letchworth, runs a commercial cleaning company. Ranked number 2 on Google for "office cleaning Letchworth" for three years. Proper old-school SEO setup. Good backlinks, decent content, all that.
His son asked ChatGPT "who should I hire for office cleaning in Letchworth" and the company didn't get mentioned. Not once. ChatGPT recommended three other businesses, two of which ranked below him on Google.
He rang me. Bit panicked. "What's the point of SEO if AI's just going to ignore it?"
Thing is, ChatGPT wasn't looking at his Google ranking. It was looking at whether his content actually answered questions in a way that made sense to include in a conversational response. His site was optimised for keywords and search engines. Not for being quoted by an AI that needs to sound helpful and natural.
That's the difference, really.
SEO: you're fighting for position
SEO has always been about ranking. Position one, position two, page one, page two. You optimise your title tags, build some links, maybe write a blog post with your keyword in it eight times. Google scans your page, decides how relevant it is, where it sits in the algorithm.
The user searches "plumber near me" and gets a list. They click. They choose.
You're optimising to be one option among many. A good option. A high-ranking option. But still just one link in a list.
And that worked. Still works, actually. Google's not going anywhere. But the behaviour's changing. Especially for certain types of queries. The "I just need an answer" ones.
GEO: you're fighting to BE the answer
When someone asks ChatGPT or Perplexity a question, they're not getting a list of ten websites. They're getting an answer. One response. Synthesised from multiple sources, sure, but presented as a single, coherent thing.
If your business isn't part of that synthesis, you don't exist in that moment.
There's no position two. No "click through and see more results." Either you're in the answer or you're not.
That's what GEO is trying to solve. How do you structure your content, your data, your whole online presence so that when an AI pulls together an answer, you're part of it?
It's less about keywords. More about context, credibility, and whether your content actually helps an AI construct a useful response.
I've been calling it AEO for a couple of years now. Answer Engine Optimisation. Same idea. Optimising for things that answer questions, not things that rank pages.
What actually works differently
Let's get specific. Because saying "it's different" doesn't help anyone.
With SEO, you'd write a page targeting "emergency electrician Stevenage." You'd use that phrase in your H1, probably in the first paragraph, maybe in a few subheadings. Build some local citations. Get a few backlinks from local directories. Google sees the signals, ranks you.
With GEO, that same phrase matters less. What matters is whether you've actually explained:
- What counts as an electrical emergency vs. what can wait
- Your actual response time, not just "fast" or "24/7"
- What someone should do while they're waiting (safety stuff)
- How your pricing works for emergency callouts
- Real examples of emergencies you've handled
Because when someone asks ChatGPT "I've got sparks coming from a socket in Stevenage, what should I do and who should I call," the AI needs that kind of information to give a useful answer. It's not just pattern-matching keywords. It's trying to actually be helpful.
If your content gives it the raw material to be helpful, you get included. If your content is just keyword soup, you don't.
The structure thing
SEO loves clean, simple structures. One topic per page. Clear hierarchy. Keywords in the right places.
GEO... well, it's messier.
I worked with a solicitor in Baldock last year. Her website had separate pages for "Divorce Solicitor Baldock," "Family Law Baldock," "Child Custody Baldock." Classic SEO structure. Each page targeting one main keyword.
But when people asked AI assistants about divorce, they'd ask things like "How does divorce work in the UK if we have kids and a house but aren't married." That's not one keyword. That's a proper question that touches four different topics.
Her content couldn't answer that. It was too segmented. Too focused on ranking for individual terms.
We restructured it. Longer, more comprehensive content that actually walked through scenarios. Pulled in multiple aspects of family law in one place because that's how real questions work.
Her SEO rankings stayed roughly the same. But she started getting mentioned in AI responses. And her enquiries went up. Because people weren't just finding her. They were finding her in the context of already having received useful information that positioned her as someone who knows what they're talking about.
Both matter, by the way
This isn't one of those "SEO is dead, long live GEO" things.
I'm still doing SEO work every week. Google's still the biggest search engine by a bloody mile. Most people still search the old way for a lot of things.
But the split's happening. Younger users, certain types of queries, specific industries. More and more, people are asking AI first. Especially for research-heavy decisions or complex questions.
If you're only doing SEO, you're missing a chunk of potential customers. If you're only focusing on GEO... well, you're probably not, because GEO alone doesn't really work yet. You need the foundation.
I had a client in Hitchin ask me which one to focus on. Landscaping business. I told him SEO first. Get the basics right. Make sure Google knows you exist and what you do. Then layer in the GEO stuff. Answer the questions people actually ask. Build content that helps AI tools help people.
It's both. Just... different emphases depending on your business and who you're trying to reach.
What this means for local businesses
Most of what I do is with local service businesses around North Hertfordshire. Trades, professional services, that kind of thing.
For local, the GEO shift is interesting because AI assistants are actually pretty good at local context now. They understand "near me." They pull in current information. They can synthesise reviews, service offerings, availability.
But they need good source material.
If your website just says "plumbing services in Royston," that's not enough. If it explains what you actually do, how you work, what makes you different, real examples of jobs you've done, that's useful to an AI trying to answer "I need a plumber in Royston who can deal with an old system in a Victorian terrace."
The local SEO stuff still matters. Google Business Profile, citations, all that. But the content needs to be deeper. More conversational. Less keyword-focused, more answer-focused.
So which should you care about?
Depends what you're selling and who to.
If you're B2B, especially if your customers are researching before they buy, GEO matters more. People are absolutely using ChatGPT to research suppliers, understand services, compare approaches.
If you're emergency services, immediate need stuff, SEO probably still wins. People want a phone number fast. They're not asking ChatGPT for a conversation about their blocked drain.
But most businesses sit somewhere in the middle. Your customers are doing both. Searching Google when they want to see options. Asking AI when they want to understand something.
You need both. You just need to know what you're optimising for with each bit of content you create.
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I've been working on this stuff properly since about 2023. AEO, GEO, whatever you want to call it. It's not some future thing anymore. It's happening now, and it's changing how people find businesses.
If you're in Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, anywhere round here really, and you want to figure out where you sit with all this, have a chat with me. I can tell you pretty quickly whether you need to worry about GEO yet or whether you should sort your basic SEO out first.
Or if you just want to know more about how AEO works in North Hertfordshire, I've written about that too.
Either way. They're different things. Both matter. Just depends where you're starting from.