AI visibility
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
Short answer
SEO helps your pages rank in search results. AEO helps your content become the direct answer a search feature or assistant shows. GEO helps your brand get named inside an answer that an AI model writes. They overlap, and the same clear, crawlable, well-structured pages help all three.
The three side by side
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank pages in results | Be the direct answer | Be named in an AI answer |
| Where it shows | Search results pages | Snippets, voice, answer boxes | ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, AI summaries |
| What you shape | Pages, links, speed, relevance | Question headings, short answers, structure | Clear facts, mentions across the web, crawler access |
| How you measure | Rankings, clicks, impressions | Snippet and answer appearances | Whether and how models mention you |
Where they overlap
A page that is crawlable, fast, clearly written and marked up correctly helps in all three. Most teams should fix SEO basics first, then add direct answers, then check how AI models describe them.
A sensible order
- Make sure search engines can crawl and index your pages. See sitemap best practices.
- Add short direct answers to your most important pages.
- Check that AI crawlers are allowed. See allowing AI crawlers.
- Ask the major assistants about your brand and note what they say. See how to check.
How SageRank helps
SageRank’s scan reports SEO, AEO and GEO scores, and the overall score weighs SEO 40%, AEO 35% and GEO 25%. Security is reported separately. Run the free scan on the home page.