AEO vs GEO vs LLMO: Are They All SEO?

These days, your audience is every bit as likely to find answers through AI Overviews, generative summaries, and language models powering ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude as they are traditional search, if not more so. This shift explains why AEO, GEO, and LLMO keep coming up in SEO conversations. Each represents a different way your content gets discovered and surfaced across AI-driven experiences.

With this said, these systems don’t all rank content the same way. Some want clear, direct answers. Others reward depth and authority. A few care most about consistent brand signals. Stick with classic SEO tactics alone, and you’ll miss visibility your competitors are already capturing.

The good news? You don’t need three separate strategies. You need to understand how these approaches connect, so your content performs across search engines, answer engines, and conversational AI. This guide breaks down how they overlap, where they differ, and how to prioritize without duplicating your work.

Key Takeaways

AEO helps your content become the direct answer for specific, question-driven searches. GEO positions your content as a reliable source that AI systems and generative systems want to summarize and cite. LLMO improves how language models interpret and reference entities and brands in conversational AI experiences. These frameworks aren’t SEO replacements; they extend it across new AI-powered discovery surfaces. Rather than picking a single one, it’s important to understand how AEO, GEO, and LLMO work together so your content earns visibility regardless of where or how people search. One unified strategy can support all three without creating duplicate content or cannibalizing existing pages.

AEO, GEO, and LLMO: Quick Definitions

Before comparing these frameworks, let’s cover what each one does. This context helps you understand how they interact.

What is AEO?

AEO (answer engine optimization) focuses on making your content easy for search engines to convert into a direct answer. It grew out of featured snippets, voice search, and question-based queries. Instead of optimizing only for rankings, AEO prioritizes structure, clarity, and answer-ready formatting. Think of it as helping search engines extract the “best possible response” from your content so users get fast, accurate information.

What Is GEO?

GEO (generative engine optimization) helps your content become the kind of source generative engines prefer to surface, draw insights from, or align with when producing summaries. It emphasizes depth, expertise, and freshness because generative systems prioritize trustworthy, well-supported content. GEO isn’t about giving short answers. It’s about delivering enough substance that AI systems view your content as authoritative and worth citing.

What Is LLMO?

LLMO (large language model optimization) focuses on how large language models understand, interpret, and surface information about entities. Instead of optimizing for traditional SERPs, you optimize for conversational responses from tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. LLMO emphasizes entity clarity, consistent terminology, strong brand signals, and original insights that models can incorporate into long-form answers.

AEO vs GEO vs LLMO: The Comparisons

AEO, GEO, and LLMO all fall under modern SEO, but they optimize for different AI-driven experiences. Here’s how they compare.

Search Intent They Serve

AEO: Direct, question-based intent (“what is,” “how to,” “why does”). GEO: Broad informational or exploratory searches where users want deeper context. LLMO: Conversational prompts and open-ended queries inside tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, or Perplexity.

Where Your Content Appears

AEO: Featured snippets, answer cards, PAA results, definition boxes. GEO: AI Overviews, generative summaries at the top of search, AI-powered search tools. LLMO: Long-form AI responses, conversational threads, citation-style outputs in LLM tools.

Content Style That Performs Best

AEO: Structured, scannable sections, FAQs, lists, clear definitions. GEO: Long-form content with depth, sources, clarity, and E-E-A-T signals. LLMO: Comprehensive guides, expert insights, consistent terminology, entity-rich content.

Optimization Focus

AEO: Formatting and structure so engines can extract a precise answer. GEO: Trustworthiness, depth, citations, and topical authority. LLMO: Brand clarity, entity consistency, and unique perspectives AI can reuse.

The Role They Play in Your Strategy

AEO: Captures quick answers and action-based queries. GEO: Positions your content as source material for generative systems. LLMO: Shapes how AI tools talk about, reference, and summarize your brand.

How AEO, GEO, and LLMO Work Together

AEO, GEO, and LLMO aren’t separate marketing channels. They form a layered system that helps your content perform everywhere people search or ask questions. Treat them as connected instead of competing, and it gets easier to build one strategy that supports all three.

AEO Sets the Structure

AEO gives your content the clarity and formatting models need to extract direct answers. It helps you win question-based queries in search, and it makes generative engines more likely to pull accurate, well-structured information. Clean headers, short definitions, and precise formatting start the chain.

GEO Adds the Depth and Authority

Once structure is in place, GEO strengthens your content with research, topical depth, and context. Generative engines favor content that demonstrates expertise and provides more than a simple answer. Your deeper sections—examples, sources, statistics, analysis—give AI tools something credible to cite.

LLMO Adds Context and Brand Understanding

LLMO builds on both layers by helping large language models understand entities, brands, terminology, and expertise. Repeat key entities consistently and appear across credible sources, and models become more likely to reference your business in conversational responses.

What Do You Prioritize First?

Not every business needs the same optimization approach. AEO, GEO, and LLMO support different goals, so your starting point depends on your business model, audience, and growth targets.

AEO should lead when your content relies on capturing direct, question-based searches. It’s the strongest fit for:

Local and service businesses answering specific queries Product-led brands solving practical “how to” or “what is” searches Companies optimizing for featured snippets or quick-answer visibility Pages driving conversions from intent-heavy traffic

If immediate clarity drives results, start with AEO.

GEO plays a bigger role when your strategy depends on depth and credibility. Choose GEO first if you:

Publish long-form content or educational resources Compete in broad, research-oriented verticals Need visibility in AI Overviews and other generative results at the top of search Want to strengthen your brand’s expertise through content

Businesses in SaaS, B2B, and thought leadership-heavy industries benefit most.

LLMO matters when your goal is influencing how models interpret and reference entities and brands. Prioritize LLMO first if you:

Want AI tools to mention your brand in long-form responses Invest heavily in original research, frameworks, or analysis Need consistency in how your brand and expertise are described Care about unlinked mentions and semantic authority

If brand equity and expert positioning drive your strategy, LLMO should take priority.

How To Optimize for All Three

You don’t need three playbooks to optimize for AEO, GEO, and LLMO. The most efficient approach is building one content system that naturally supports all three. Structure your pages well, go deep on topics, and keep your entities consistent. That makes them easier for search engines, generative systems, and large language models to understand and reuse.

1. Start With Strong SEO Fundamentals

A fast site, clear navigation, clean URLs, and solid internal linking are still the backbone of modern visibility. These basics ensure your content is discoverable no matter which AI-driven system tries to interpret it.

2. Use Structure That Supports AEO

Place short definitions, question-based headers, and scannable sections near the top of your content. This makes your page extraction-friendly for answer boxes and helps generative engines pull accurate information. Key Takeaways sections are a great starting point:

3. Expand Depth to Support GEO

After the quick answers, build out deeper explanations, examples, research-backed analysis, and supporting context. This gives AI systems something substantial to cite and increases your authority on broader topics. The inverted pyramid method is a great way to structure content with this in mind.

4. Strengthen Entities to Support LLMO

Reinforce consistent terminology, expert bios, brand descriptions, and niche-specific language. The clearer your entities are, the easier it is for AI models to recognize and reuse your content accurately.

5. Use Layouts That Work Across AI Formats

Pages should be readable by both humans and machines:

Short intros Quick definitions Logical headers and subheads Lists and steps Deep sections with context Supporting data or examples

This format helps your content perform across search engines, answer engines, and conversational AI.

FAQs

Are AEO, GEO, and LLMO the same?

Conclusion

AEO, GEO, and LLMO aren’t replacements for SEO. They’re extensions of it, shaped by how AI systems now interpret and deliver information. Structure your content for clear answers, go deep enough to be cited in generative summaries, and stay consistent so language models understand you. Do that, and you earn visibility across the entire search ecosystem.

You don’t need three separate strategies. A single, unified approach helps your content perform everywhere your audience looks for answers—on search engines, inside AI Overviews, and across conversational tools. The real opportunity isn’t choosing between AEO, GEO, and LLMO. It’s creating content that works across all of them.

If you want help implementing these strategies or need a deeper analysis of how your content currently performs across these channels, check out my SEO consulting services.