Journal AEO vs SEO: what changes.
SEO gets your page ranked in a list of links. AEO gets your brand named inside the answer an AI assistant writes. They share a foundation, pages that are easy to crawl and read, but AEO is judged by whether the answer names you, not by where a page ranks.
The guide
Side by side
The two disciplines ask different questions of the same website.
| Compared | SEO | AEO |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | A high place in the search results | A mention inside the answer |
| Where you appear | A list of ten links | A few named brands in a written answer |
| What is measured | Rankings, clicks and traffic | Which buyer questions cite you, on which engines |
| The shape of the content | Pages built around keywords | Pages that answer a question in their first lines |
| Work off your site | Links from other sites | Mentions on the pages the engines read |
What stays the same
The foundation. Engines can only cite what they can crawl and read, so a fast, well-structured site with clear headings and accurate schema matters for both. If your site has technical problems, fix those first: they hold back AEO and SEO alike.
What changes
The unit of success. In search, a buyer sees your link and decides whether to click. In an answer, the engine has already decided whether to name you, and often says why. So AEO work goes into making your facts easy to quote: the price, who you serve, how you compare, stated plainly on your own pages and repeated consistently on the third-party pages the engines also read.
Measurement changes too. Instead of tracking a ranking, you ask a fixed set of buyer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews and record, each month, which answers name you.
Which should you start with?
If your buyers research your category by asking AI (“best X for Y”, “alternatives to the market leader”), start with AEO, because that is where the shortlist is being made. If your site cannot be crawled or is slow, start with the technical SEO fixes; AEO depends on them. Most B2B companies end up needing both, and the same answer-first rewrites usually serve readers who arrive from search as well.
Not sure which applies to you? Read how AI engines choose which brands to name, or book a 30-minute call and we will look at your category together.
By Rouge Flamingo · Published · 2 min read
Questions
Will AEO work hurt our SEO?
It should not. The changes AEO asks for (clear headings, direct answers, accurate schema) are the same kind of changes that help search readers.
Do we need a new website for AEO?
No. AEO rewrites the pages that should answer your buyers’ questions, usually a handful, and adds schema to them.
Can one team do both?
Yes, if they agree on the questions that matter. We work alongside an existing SEO team, but we don’t take on teams already on an SEO agency retainer for the pilot, to keep the results readable.
Read next
What is AEO?
AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, is the work of making your brand the one AI assistants name when buyers ask about your category. It is also called GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation. SEO earns your page a place in a list of links; AEO earns your brand a mention inside the answer itself.
How AI engines choose which brands to name
No engine publishes exactly how it chooses. But every answer is built from what the engine has read, so three inputs are yours to change: whether your own pages answer the question plainly, whether your facts agree everywhere they appear, and whether other sites the engine trusts mention you.