Now that AI search writes its own answers, many businesses are asking: “Do we need GEO instead of SEO now?” My short answer: you need both – in the right order. In this article I explain how the two differ, where they overlap and how to decide where your business should start.
What is SEO?
SEO (search engine optimisation) covers everything you do so that your website ranks high in the unpaid results of Google and Bing for the searches that matter to your business.
The aim of SEO is a predictable stream of visitors who are looking for exactly what you offer. SEO has four parts:
- Technical SEO: Google has to be able to find and read your pages. That means fast load times, a site that works well on phones, clean URLs, an XML sitemap, a correct robots.txt and HTTPS.
- On-page SEO: content that matches search intent – what the searcher actually wants to know or buy – plus the right keywords, internal links, title tags, meta descriptions and structured data.
- Off-page SEO: signals from outside your site, above all links from other websites (backlinks) and mentions on industry portals.
- User experience: a clear structure, good readability and a page where visitors find what they came for.
SEO is measured by rankings, organic traffic and, above all, enquiries and revenue. Here’s how I approach it in practice as an SEO consultant in Hamburg.
What is GEO?
GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the practice of optimising your content and your company’s online presence for AI systems that write their own answers – such as ChatGPT search, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Google’s AI Mode.
These systems don’t show a list of ten links. They pull information from several sources into one answer and cite a handful of them. GEO is about making sure you’re one of those sources and that your company gets recommended for the right questions. What counts most:
- Clear answers: sections that fully answer one question in a few sentences and still make sense on their own.
- Unambiguous terms: jargon explained in the same sentence, and definitions in the pattern “X is …”.
- Consistent company information: the same name, services, location and contact details everywhere – on your website, profiles and directories.
- Mentions elsewhere: trade articles, industry portals, reviews and press coverage that mention your company in the right context.
- Technical access: AI providers’ crawlers are allowed to fetch your pages, and your content sits in the HTML rather than appearing only after JavaScript runs.
How I put GEO into practice for companies is described on my GEO expert page.
How do GEO and SEO differ?
Both want you to be found. The difference lies in where – and in what form.
| Aspect | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | a position in search results | being mentioned and cited in AI answers |
| Channels | Google, Bing | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode |
| What the user sees | a list of links | a written answer with a few sources |
| Key activities | technical SEO, content, backlinks | answer blocks, consistent company data, mentions |
| Measurement | rankings, clicks, enquiries | mentions in AI answers, visits from AI sources, enquiries |
| Content format | in-depth pages per topic | in-depth pages with short, quotable sections |
What do GEO and SEO have in common?
- Good content: relevant, up-to-date answers to your customers’ real questions count for Google and AI systems alike.
- Technical accessibility: if crawlers can’t read it, it doesn’t exist – for Google or for ChatGPT.
- Trust: experience, expertise and evidence on the page, plus recommendations from elsewhere, shape both rankings and AI answers.
Where does the work differ?
- Content structure: for SEO, one thorough page per topic is often enough. For GEO, that page should also contain short answer blocks an AI can lift directly – like the highlighted short answers in this article.
- Company information: for SEO it’s enough if Google understands your page. For GEO an AI needs to recognise your company as a distinct entity: who you are, what you offer, where you’re based.
- Mentions, not just links: classic SEO focuses on backlinks. AI systems also pick up unlinked mentions in articles, forums or reviews.
Which should you tackle first?
In almost every case: SEO basics first, then GEO. How much weight GEO deserves depends on how complex your offer is and how much your customers research before buying.
Complex products and services
In mechanical engineering, medical technology or specialist IT services, decision-makers research for a long time before getting in touch – and more and more often they ask an AI about providers, differences and experiences. Here it pays to structure product details, use cases and specifications clearly from early on. Example: a manufacturer of industrial equipment describes for each machine what it’s designed for, its key specifications and its limits. That’s exactly the kind of section AI systems quote during shortlisting.
High search volume and clear keywords
In retail, travel or consumer goods, lots of people search with clear terms. Classic SEO remains the main lever for predictable traffic here. GEO adds to it but isn’t the first priority.
Leading your market online
If you want to be seen as the go-to name in your industry, you need to show up in search results and in AI answers. Then both disciplines belong in one plan from day one.
Your skills and capacity
GEO needs additional know-how about AI search, company data and content structure. So plan one joint strategy rather than two separate projects.
A quick decision aid
| Criterion | leans towards SEO first | argues for adding GEO early |
|---|---|---|
| Offer | simple, widely searched | needs explaining, long decision cycle |
| Keywords | clear, high volume | many questions, low volume each |
| Audience | searches and buys quickly | researches thoroughly, uses AI assistants |
| Competition in AI search | few providers mentioned | competitors are already recommended |
| Resources | little time for content | a team that can maintain content |
In my free SEO Compass you enter your address, answer a few short questions and within a few minutes you see where your website stands on Google and in AI search – and where your biggest levers are.
What are the most common SEO and GEO mistakes?
Typical SEO mistakes
- Keyword stuffing: repeating keywords until the text becomes hard to read. It hurts readers and rankings.
- Neglecting the technical side: slow pages, mobile issues, pages blocked by accident.
- Thin content: pages that don’t answer the searcher’s question.
- Poor links: links from dubious sites do nothing or cause harm.
Typical GEO mistakes
- Unclear structure: long blocks of text without clear headings and answers are hard to quote.
- Contradictory information: different company names, addresses or service descriptions across your website and profiles confuse AI systems.
- Missing the point: content that doesn’t address your customers’ typical questions won’t be selected.
- Crawlers locked out: a robots.txt that blocks AI providers’ bots makes you invisible in their search.
Mistakes in combining the two
- Separate strategies: if different people run SEO and GEO without talking to each other, you get contradictions and duplicated work.
- Content and tech in silos: good copy doesn’t help if the technical setup hides it – and vice versa.
How do you measure success in SEO and GEO?
SEO metrics
- Rankings for the keywords that matter to your business
- Organic visits in Search Console and your analytics
- Enquiries and revenue from organic search – the number that counts in the end
- User signals such as time on page and bounces, as a hint whether the page answers the question
- Backlinks by quality and topical relevance
GEO metrics
- Mentions in AI answers: ask your customers’ typical questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google at regular intervals and record whether and how you’re mentioned.
- Visits from AI sources: ChatGPT adds the source “chatgpt.com” to outbound links, so your analytics show how many visitors come from AI answers.
- Search Console data: Google counts appearances in AI Overviews and AI Mode within the performance report under “Web”. Since June 2026 Google has also been testing dedicated AI reports, initially visible to only some websites.
- Enquiries: ask new customers how they found you, and note how often an AI tool comes up.
Measuring visibility in AI systems isn’t standardised yet. Set up a fixed list of test questions and check them at regular intervals so you can spot changes.
What applies to local businesses and B2B?
Local businesses
For local providers, the Google Business Profile remains the key building block, along with local keywords and reviews. AI systems draw on exactly this data for questions like “good electrician in Hamburg-Eimsbüttel”. Example: a trades business keeps its name, address, services and opening hours identical everywhere and collects reviews regularly, which makes it more likely to be mentioned in AI answers to local questions. More on that under local SEO.
B2B companies
In B2B, questions are more complex and technical. That’s where GEO can shine: with precise product information, use cases, comparisons and answers to buyers’ objections. Companies that structure this content well are present during research, long before a sales conversation starts. I explain how this fits together under B2B SEO.
Why do you usually need both?
Because AI search relies on search indexes itself. If Google can find you easily, AI systems find you more easily too – and if you bet on GEO alone, you lose the visitors from classic search.
AI is changing search, but it doesn’t make SEO redundant. Google itself says that AI Overviews and AI Mode follow the same fundamentals as regular search: a page must be indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet. GEO builds new answer formats on top of that foundation.
Focus on GEO alone and you neglect the channel that still sends most visitors today. Focus on classic SEO alone and you’ll be seen less in a search experience that increasingly starts with a ready-made answer.
When will GEO overtake classic SEO?
My view as of October 2026: AI search keeps gaining ground, especially for products and services that need explaining. Google is expanding AI Overviews and AI Mode, and for many people ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming the first place to ask. Even so, I don’t see an “SEO is over” moment. I see the two merging: good content, a clean technical setup and outside trust work in both worlds.
Businesses that invest in GEO now get a head start in winning customers via Google and AI while many competitors are still waiting. I test new technology on my own projects first, and my team and I work every day with my AI tool for SEO and GEO, which we built ourselves. I share more about it in my lab.
Why do GEO and SEO belong in one plan?
GEO vs. SEO isn’t a choice between two camps. SEO is the foundation; GEO extends it for a search experience that increasingly begins with an AI answer. If your customers make complex decisions, factor GEO in early.
Go deeper with my articles how to get visible in ChatGPT and optimising for Google AI Overviews. You’ll find all my guides on the blog.
