GLOSSARY

SEO vs GEO

IN ONE SENTENCE

SEO targets blue-link rankings and clicks; GEO targets being directly cited and recommended by AI.

SEO targets blue-link rankings and clicks; GEO targets being directly cited and recommended by AI.

01

In detail

User behavior is shifting from search-click-compare to ask-AI-decide. In the SEO era brands fought for top-10 SERP rankings; in the GEO era they fight for citation inside the AI answer text. The two are complementary — we advocate dual-engine delivery where the same content is both indexed by Google and cited by AI.

Data behind this page

+115.1% / −30.3%

Visibility change after optimisation (page ranked 5th / ranked 1st)

Source：Princeton GEO paper, GEO-bench 10,000 queries / 9 domains，2024-08

Sources

  1. [1]Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search．Google Search Central．2026-05-15
  2. [2]GEO: Generative Engine Optimization．Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024．2024-08

Updated 2026-08-10