Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Also called GEO
Generative engine optimization is, in practice, the same discipline as answer engine optimization. The two terms emerged separately and are now used interchangeably across the market, including in job titles and product categories.
Is there a real difference
Some writers draw a line: GEO for generative surfaces such as ChatGPT and Gemini, AEO for extractive answers such as featured snippets and voice results. The distinction was defensible when featured snippets quoted a page verbatim and chatbots did not cite at all.
It has mostly collapsed. Google's AI Overviews are generative and cite sources. ChatGPT with browsing is generative and cites sources. If you are choosing between the terms for a page title, choose the one your buyers type, and do not expect the market to hold a sharp line between them.
Why we mostly say AEO
Because the deliverable is an answer. What a buyer wants to know is whether the assistant recommends them when someone asks what to buy. The word answer keeps that outcome in view. The word generative describes the mechanism instead of the result.
Related terms
- Answer engine optimization (AEO)Answer engine optimization is the practice of getting a brand named, cited and recommended inside the answers AI assistants generate, rather than inside a ranked list of links.
- AI Overviews and AI ModeAI Overviews is the generated summary Google places above its classic results.
Want this measured on your own domain rather than defined? Run a free report and see the rates, with their sample sizes and ranges, for your own buyer questions.