AEO (AI SEO)
Positioning your business to get cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews, not just ranked in traditional blue links.
What Is AEO (AI SEO)?
This goes by a lot of names right now, and the industry hasn't settled on one. AEO (answer engine optimization), GEO (generative engine optimization), AI SEO, AIO (AI optimization), LLMO (large language model optimization), AI search optimization, and LLM SEO all get used interchangeably, sometimes in the same article by the same publication. There's no agreed-upon definition separating them. We call it AEO because that's the term most business owners actually search for, but the actual work is identical no matter which label gets used.
What it actually means: instead of competing for a ranking position in a list of blue links, you're competing to be the sentence an AI engine delivers and the source it credits. Local customers increasingly ask ChatGPT or Gemini directly, "who's a good electrician near me," instead of typing a search and clicking through results, and Google's own AI Overviews now appear on roughly 48% of tracked searches, up 58% year over year. Getting cited requires clear, well-structured, self-contained content and consistent business information across the web, tuned to how each individual platform actually decides who to trust.
AEO, GEO, AI SEO, LLMO: Different Names For The Same Work
Whatever you call it, here's exactly what it involves, built around how each platform actually behaves, not treated as one generic task.
Winning The Citation, Not Just The Ranking
An AI engine lifts one clean, attributable answer out of a page, not the whole page around it, so the content itself has to be built to survive that.
Clear Claims With Real Evidence
Content written as direct, self-contained claims backed by actual evidence, with a short summary near the top, rather than a long wind-up an AI engine has to wade through to find the answer.
Author, Date & Update Visibility
A visible author, publish date, and last-updated date on every page, since AI systems weigh this the same way they weigh any other trust signal when deciding which source to credit.
Entities Over Exact-Match Phrases
Written around what your business actually is and does as a real, defined entity, not built around repeating one exact search phrase the way older SEO used to work.
Platform By Platform, Because They're Not The Same
Only around 11% of domains get cited by both ChatGPT and Perplexity. Each platform uses its own index and its own logic for deciding who to trust, so treating them identically leaves visibility on the table.
ChatGPT Runs Through Bing's Index
If your site isn't indexed in Bing, ChatGPT can't find it at all. It also favours listicle-formatted pages heavily, which make up close to 44% of the pages it actually cites.
Perplexity Weights Freshness Hard
Perplexity runs its own crawler and weighs how recently a page was updated at roughly 40% of its overall ranking signal, more than almost any other platform.
Claude Fetches Live & Avoids User-Generated Content
Claude fetches pages live at the moment of the query and almost entirely avoids citing forum posts or user-generated content, which makes a well-built, authoritative site on your own domain matter more here than almost anywhere else.
Gemini & Google AI Overviews Sit Inside Search Itself
These appear directly above the normal results and are built on the same fundamentals that earn a real ranking in the first place, so the on-page and technical SEO work already being done directly feeds this.
Local & Trade-Specific AI Visibility Factors
AI platforms weigh a few very specific local signals when deciding whether to actually name a business, and most of them have nothing to do with content.
The Review Threshold AI Actually Uses
Recent research found AI platforms rarely name a business in local recommendations below roughly 150 reviews at a single location, which makes ongoing review growth a direct input into AI visibility, not just a trust nicety.
Google Business Profile Photos, Read By Vision AI
Google's Vision AI now actively scans Google Business Profile photos to verify your actual category, services, and location, which makes regularly updated, real photos a direct ranking signal, not just a nice-to-have.
Consistent Business Information Everywhere
Name, address, phone number, and service details written identically across your site, your Google Business Profile, and every directory, since AI engines rely on that consistency the same way traditional local search does.
Testing & Monitoring, Not Guessing
Whether a business actually gets cited is a testable fact, not something to assume based on how good the content looks.
Direct Prompt Testing Against Every Platform
Your most important local queries get run directly through ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini to document exactly where you show up and where a competitor gets cited instead, which gives a real baseline instead of a guess.
Ongoing Monitoring, Not A One-Time Check
Citation patterns shift as these platforms update their models and crawling behaviour, so the same queries get checked on an ongoing basis rather than tested once and left alone.
How Each Platform Actually Decides Who To Cite
| Platform | What It Weighs Most |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Pulls from Bing's index and favours listicle-formatted pages for nearly 44% of what it cites. |
| Perplexity | Runs its own crawler and weighs content freshness at roughly 40% of its ranking signal. |
| Claude | Fetches pages live at query time and almost entirely avoids citing user-generated content. |
| Gemini & Google AI Overviews | Sit directly inside Google Search, built on the same fundamentals that earn a normal ranking. |
| All Platforms (Local Queries) | Rarely name a business in local recommendations below roughly 150 reviews at one location. |
What’s Included
- AI search visibility audit testing your actual business directly against ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Claude
- Content structured as clear, self-contained claims with real evidence, not written to win a click
- Schema and business information built to be understood by AI systems the same way Google understands it
- Platform-specific adjustments, since ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Gemini each weigh different signals
- Review growth support toward the volume AI platforms actually require before naming a business locally
- Ongoing monitoring as citation patterns and AI search behaviour continue to shift
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the difference between AEO, GEO, AI SEO, and LLM SEO? Are they actually different things?
Not meaningfully. There's no agreed-upon industry definition separating them, and they get used interchangeably even within the same articles. Whatever it's called, the actual goal is the same: getting cited inside an AI-generated answer instead of just ranking in a list of links.
Is AI search optimization actually different from regular SEO?
It overlaps significantly, but AI engines favour clear, direct, self-contained answers over content built purely to rank in a list of blue links, so the structure needs deliberate adjustment on top of standard SEO work.
Do you optimize for every AI platform the same way?
No. ChatGPT runs through Bing's index and favours listicles, Perplexity weighs freshness heavily, and Claude fetches pages live while avoiding user-generated content almost entirely. Treating them identically leaves real visibility on the table.
How do you know if ChatGPT or Gemini is actually recommending our business?
Part of the audit involves directly testing common local queries against these tools to see whether and how your business shows up, which gives a real baseline rather than a guess.
How many reviews do I actually need before AI tools start recommending my business?
Recent research found AI platforms rarely name a business in local recommendations below roughly 150 reviews at a single location, which is why review growth is treated as a direct AI visibility input, not a separate concern.
Is this worth investing in now, or is AI search still too early to matter?
Google's own AI Overviews already appear on roughly 48% of tracked searches, up 58% year over year, and local customers are already using these tools to find trades businesses today. Most agencies haven't caught up yet, which makes now a genuinely good time to build this in rather than waiting.
Ready To Get Started With AEO (AI SEO)?
Get a free audit of your Google Maps, Search, and AI visibility, or book a consultation to talk through your specific business.
Or call or WhatsApp us at +1 (437) 524-6641 to talk it through first, or email hello@visarrow.com.