SEO, GEO and AEO are three ways of answering the same question: when someone looks for a business like yours, does your business show up? SEO gets you found on Google. GEO gets you cited and recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. AEO gets your business into the direct answer itself. Most UK small businesses need all three, because customers now search in all three places.
Ten years ago, being found meant one thing: ranking on Google. That is still important, but it is no longer the whole job. Today a customer might type a question into Google, ask ChatGPT for a recommendation, or read the AI summary at the top of the results page and never scroll down at all. A business that is invisible in any one of those places loses the customers who look there.
This guide explains what each of the three does, how Google and AI tools actually choose who to show, and what to fix first. It is written for owners, not marketers — no jargon where plain English will do, and no promises about positions or timelines that nobody can honestly make.
1. What SEO, GEO and AEO actually mean
The three letters get thrown around as if they were the same job. They are not — but they share most of the same groundwork, which is why they are usually built together.
SEO — being found on Google
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of making your website the page Google shows when someone searches for what you do. It covers the words on your pages, the titles and descriptions Google displays, how fast the site loads, whether it works on a phone, and whether other sites link to it. It also covers local search: your Google Business Profile, your address and opening hours, and your reviews. Our on-page SEO service covers the on-page half of this — the part you control directly on your own site.
GEO — being cited and recommended by AI tools
GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the work of making AI tools cite and recommend your business. When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or Perplexity for “a web designer in Stirling” or “the best plumber near me”, the tool picks a small number of businesses to name. It picks them from what it has read: your website, other sites that mention you, reviews, directories and the structured facts about your business. Our GEO service is built around exactly that — making your business easy for AI tools to find, understand and trust.
AEO — being the answer itself
AEO (answer engine optimisation) is the work of getting your business into the direct answer: the AI summary at the top of Google (AI Overviews), or the single answer a voice assistant or AI tool gives. Where SEO wins a place in a list of results, AEO wins a place in the answer. That takes a different kind of page: short, direct answers to real questions, written the way people ask them, with the structure (FAQ pages and schema) that lets a machine lift the answer out. Our AEO service covers that.
The short version. SEO wins the list. GEO wins the recommendation. AEO wins the answer. A customer who finds you in all three places is a customer who was never going to find your competitor instead.
2. How Google decides who shows up
Google’s job is to show the searcher the most useful page for what they typed. It weighs hundreds of signals, but for a small business the ones that matter most are straightforward.
Relevance. Does the page actually answer what was searched? A page titled “Website design in Stirling” that talks about website design in Stirling will beat a generic services page every time. That is why one page per service, and one page per service in each city you serve, matters so much — and why our city guides, like how much a website costs in Aberdeen, how much a website costs in Stirling or how to choose a web designer in Carlisle, are written for one city and one question at a time.
Trust. Does anything independent back the business up? Reviews on Google, mentions on other sites, directory listings that all show the same name, address and phone number. A business with no reviews and no mentions anywhere is a business Google has no reason to trust yet.
Local signals. For searches with a place in them, Google leans on the Google Business Profile: the address, the opening hours, the category, the photos and the reviews. A profile that is empty, out of date or contradicts the website holds the business back.
The site itself. Pages Google can read, titles and headings that say what each page is about, internal links between related pages, a site that loads quickly and works on a phone. None of this is exotic. It is the basic housekeeping most small business sites have never had done — which is why it is usually the first thing a free visibility audit finds.
3. How AI answers decide who to cite
AI tools do not rank pages the way Google does. They read, summarise and recommend — and they are picky about their sources in a different way.
Clear facts, plainly written. An AI tool can only recommend a business it understands. That means the facts need to be written out in ordinary sentences on pages the tool can read: what the business does, where it works, who it serves, how to contact it. Facts hidden inside images, buried in scripts, or written in vague marketing language do not get used.
Something worth quoting. AI answers are built from passages that answer a question directly. A page that opens with a 40–60 word answer to the exact question someone asked is far more likely to be quoted than a page that takes five paragraphs to get to the point. That answer-first style is the backbone of AEO, and it is how every post on this site is written.
Independent mentions. AI tools trust a business more when other sites mention it: directories, local press, supplier pages, review sites, social profiles. A business that exists only on its own website is a business the tools have only one source for. Citations from elsewhere are the closest thing AI has to a reference.
Machine-readable structure. Schema markup (FAQPage, LocalBusiness, HowTo, Review) tells a machine what a page is, in a format it can use without guessing. The llms.txt file at the root of a site does the same job at site level — it tells AI crawlers what the business offers and where to read about it. And the robots.txt file must actually allow the AI crawlers in: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, CCBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot. A site that blocks them cannot be cited by the tools that use them.
Freshness. AI tools favour pages that are current. A blog that stops in February, opening hours that disagree between two pages, a price list from two years ago — all of it counts against the business, because the tool cannot tell what is still true.
Common mistake: blocking the very tools you want to be found by. We regularly find websites whose robots.txt blocks GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and the other AI crawlers — sometimes set that way years ago by a developer who never thought about it again. If the crawlers cannot read your site, ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity cannot cite it. Check your robots.txt before spending anything else on GEO.
4. Why the three work together
SEO, GEO and AEO are not three separate projects. They are three views of the same foundation, and most of the work counts towards all three at once.
| Work | Helps SEO | Helps GEO | Helps AEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear facts on every page | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| One page per service, per city | Yes | Yes | — |
| Answer-first openings | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| FAQ pages with schema | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Reviews on Google | Yes | Yes | — |
| Mentions on other sites | Yes | Yes | — |
| llms.txt and open AI crawlers | — | Yes | Yes |
| Google Business Profile | Yes | — | — |
| Fast, mobile-friendly site | Yes | — | — |
That overlap is good news for a small business: the same honest work — writing clearly, keeping facts consistent, collecting real reviews, getting mentioned elsewhere — moves all three at once. It is also why the three are sold together here rather than as separate packages. Splitting them would mean paying three times for the same foundation.
5. What to fix first — in order
If you do nothing else, do these in this order. Each one unlocks the next.
- Make the facts readable. Every page should say plainly what the business does, where it works and how to contact it. Check that the same facts appear identically on the website, the Google Business Profile and every directory listing. Fix contradictions first — two different opening hours or two different phone numbers will cost you everywhere.
- Let the AI crawlers in. Check robots.txt allows GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User, CCBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot, and add an llms.txt file that describes the business and points to its best pages.
- Fix the pages that matter most. Home page, main service pages, contact page. One clear heading per page, sensible titles and descriptions, and the key facts above the fold. This is where our website design service usually starts — the site itself has to be worth sending people to before anything else pays off.
- Write answers to real questions. One page per question, opened with a direct 40–60 word answer, with an FAQ block and FAQPage schema. Start with the questions customers actually ask you, then the questions people ask Google and AI tools — the kind covered in our city guides, such as what a small business website in Durham should include.
- Collect reviews where people look. Google first, then the review sites your customers actually use. Ask every happy customer, and answer every review — including the unhappy ones. Never invent reviews, and never pay for them.
- Get mentioned elsewhere. Directories, local press, supplier and partner pages, social profiles. Each mention is a citation an AI tool can use, and a link Google can count. Our directory work and PDF guides exist for exactly this reason.
- Keep it current. A blog that stops, hours that go stale, a service page that still describes what you did two years ago — all of it quietly undoes the work above. One new post or update a week is enough.
6. How long does it take?
Honestly: it depends on where you start, and anyone who gives you a date without looking at your site first is guessing.
A business with a decent website, a filled-in Google Business Profile and a handful of reviews can see movement on small-city terms within weeks. A business starting from nothing — no pages, no reviews, no mentions anywhere — takes longer, because there is nothing for Google or the AI tools to work with yet. Competitive terms in big cities, and being cited by AI tools for the first time, take months of steady work.
What is certain is the direction: every fix above makes the next one easier, and the work compounds. The businesses that win are rarely the ones that spent the most. They are the ones that fixed the basics, kept publishing answers, kept collecting reviews, and did not stop after a month.
What we will not promise. No agency can guarantee page one, a specific position, or being cited by ChatGPT by a given date — those decisions are made by Google and the AI tools, not by us. What we can promise is the work itself: the audit, the fixes in priority order, and honest reporting on what moved and what did not.
7. What a free visibility audit checks
If you are not sure where your business stands, the audit is the starting point. It checks the three places customers look, and lists what to fix first — usually around twelve issues, in priority order.
- Google ranking — where the site appears for the searches that matter, and what is holding it back: titles, headings, content, speed, local signals.
- AI citations — whether ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity mention or recommend the business, and what is missing when they do not.
- AI answers — whether the business appears in direct answers and AI Overviews, and which questions it should be answering.
- The site itself — structure, mobile, speed, contact details, reviews and whether the facts agree everywhere.
The audit is free, and it ends with a free 30-minute call to talk through what it found. You can request one at commercefy.co.uk/visibility-audit/ — all we need to start is your website.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?
SEO (search engine optimisation) gets your business found in Google’s results and maps. GEO (generative engine optimisation) gets your business cited and recommended by AI tools such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. AEO (answer engine optimisation) gets your business into the direct answer itself — the summary at the top of Google or the answer an AI tool gives. They are three ways of being found, and most small businesses need all three.
Does my small business need GEO and AEO, or is SEO enough?
SEO alone is no longer enough, because customers now ask AI tools as well as Google. If someone asks ChatGPT or Gemini for a business like yours and your business is never mentioned, that enquiry never reaches you. SEO wins the Google search; GEO and AEO win the AI answer. The three use much of the same groundwork — clear facts, good content, reviews — so they are usually built together.
Why doesn’t ChatGPT mention my business?
Usually for one of three reasons. First, the facts about your business are not written clearly anywhere AI tools can read — no clear description of what you do, where you work, or who you serve. Second, nothing else on the web mentions your business, so the tools have no independent reason to trust it. Third, your pages block AI crawlers, or your key facts are hidden inside images or scripts the tools cannot read.
How long does it take for SEO, GEO and AEO to work?
It depends on where you start. A business with no pages, no reviews and no mentions anywhere will take longer than one that already has a decent website and a few reviews. Small-city terms can move in weeks; competitive terms and AI citations take months of steady work. Anyone who guarantees page one, or a specific position by a specific date, is not being straight with you.
What does a free visibility audit check?
It checks the three places customers look: your Google ranking, whether AI tools cite or recommend your business, and whether your business appears in direct AI answers. It lists the issues in priority order — usually around twelve things to fix first — and ends with a free call to talk through what to do about them.
Book a call to get started
Find out where your business stands on Google and in AI answers — free, no obligation. Request your free visibility audit and we will check all three, then talk through what to fix first.
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