Last updated: June 2026
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) helps your website rank in search results like Google and Bing. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) helps your content get cited in answers from AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, Copilot, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. SEO gets you found. GEO gets you recommended. Most businesses need both.
ChatGPT – doubled weekly users in a year, up to 900million in Feb 2026 (TechCrunch) and crossed 1 billion monthly active app users in June 2026 — fastest app in history to hit it (Sensor Tower estimate via Reuters, reported by TechnologyChecker).
Google AI Overviews – 2.5 billion monthly active users — announced by Google at I/O 2026, reported June 2026 (Dataconomy). Up 0.5 billion in a quarter (Digiday).
Google Gemini (app) – 900 million monthly active users — disclosed at Google I/O, May 2026 (Panto AI), up from 750M in Feb 2026 (TechCrunch) and ~350M a year earlier.
Perplexity – Mid-2026 estimates put it at 1.2–1.5 billion queries/month — but note these are analyst estimates, not a Perplexity disclosure (Panto AI).
SEO and GEO get talked about as if you have to choose one or the other. You don’t. They’re two different jobs that work best together, and most businesses need both. This guide explains what each one is, where they overlap, where they differ, and how to know what to focus on.
SEO vs GEO in a Nutshell
- SEO is about ranking in a list of links and getting the click.
- GEO is about being named or cited inside an AI’s written answer.
- They overlap heavily — clear, trustworthy, well-structured content helps both.
- They differ in how results are shown, how people search, and how you measure success.
- Do you need both? For almost every business, yes. Good SEO is the foundation GEO builds on.
What’s in this guide
- What is SEO?
- What is GEO?
- Where SEO and GEO overlap
- Where SEO and GEO differ
- How people search differently in each
- How you measure each
- Do you need both?
- Where should you start?
- FAQs
What is SEO?
SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the work of helping your website rank higher in search results so more people find it. When someone types something into Google or Bing, SEO is what helps your page appear in the list of results, ideally near the top. It’s been the foundation of getting found online for over two decades.
SEO covers things like researching the words people search for, writing useful content, making your site fast and easy to use, earning links from other sites, and adding structured data so search engines understand your pages.
What is GEO?
GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation, is the work of helping your content get used and cited in the answers AI tools give people. When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Grok, CoPilot, Gemini, and more a question, the AI writes a single answer and often names a few sources.
Google AI Mode is now the default search experience globally — and it’s live in Australia. Announced at I/O on 19 May, AI Mode (now on Gemini 3.5 Flash) became the standard search flow on desktop and mobile worldwide and passed 1 billion monthly users (ranksenseai.com, smartcompany.com.au). The ten blue links still exist, but they’re now below an AI answer for most queries (claudio-novaglio.com).
GEO is what helps your business be one of those sources, rather than being left out while a competitor gets mentioned. GEO covers making sure AI can reach your site, structuring content so it’s easy to extract a clear answer from, being mentioned and trusted across the web, and keeping your information consistent and current.
Where SEO and GEO overlap
SEO and GEO overlap more than they differ, because both reward clear, trustworthy, well-structured content. If you’ve already done good SEO, you’re a fair way toward good GEO. Here’s where they pull in the same direction:
- Quality matters to both. Google and AI tools both aim to serve genuinely useful content.
- Structure helps both. Headings, bullet points, FAQs, and clear formatting help search engines and AI read your content.
- Topical authority counts for both. Covering a subject deeply, across related pages, builds visibility in search and in AI answers.
- Clear answers win in both. Direct, concise answers do well in Google’s featured snippets and in AI summaries.
- Original information is valuable to both. Unique data earns links for SEO and citations for GEO.
This overlap is the reason we don’t treat GEO as something separate that undoes your SEO. Best-practice SEO already gets you some AI visibility. GEO is the extra layer for when good rankings still aren’t getting you mentioned.
Where SEO and GEO differ
The main differences are in how results are shown, how people search, and how you measure success. Here they are side by side:
| Category | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| What you’re optimising for | A higher rank in search results | Being cited in an AI’s answer |
| Where it shows | A list of ranked links | Inside an AI-written answer |
| How people search | Short, keyword phrases | Longer, conversational questions |
| How you get the visit | The user clicks through to your page | The AI summarises or names you in its answer |
| Main signals | Keywords, links, technical SEO | Clarity, structure, mentions across the web |
| How success is measured | Rankings, clicks, traffic | Citations, mentions, share of voice in AI |
| Freshness | Evergreen pages can rank for years | Content often needs to stay fresh to keep being cited |
How people search differently in each
People use a few words in Google and full questions in AI, and that changes what your content needs to do. Someone looking for a tradesperson might type “deck builder Brisbane” into Google, because they know that brings back a list to choose from. The same person might ask ChatGPT “who does timber deck building in Brisbane with the option of a roof.”
For the Google search, your SEO needs to tell Google your page is about deck building in Brisbane. For the AI question, there needs to be enough clear content — on that page, across your whole site, and in places that mention you — for AI to work out that you do timber decks and patio roofing too. If AI can’t easily find all of that, it may skip you. So GEO is about making sure AI knows everything you do, and everything you don’t.
How you measure each
SEO is measured in clicks and rankings; GEO is measured in mentions and citations. With SEO you can see your position in Google and the traffic it sends. With GEO, people often get their answer without clicking anything, so success looks different — it’s whether AI names you, how often, and whether it’s you or a competitor being recommended.
One thing worth knowing: a drop in clicks doesn’t always mean a drop in business. If AI answers the simple questions and sends you only the people ready to act, the traffic you do get can be more qualified, not less valuable.
Do you need both SEO and GEO?
For almost every business, yes — and the good news is they’re not separate piles of work, they’re layers of the same thing. SEO is the foundation. Without it, AI often can’t find or trust you in the first place, because many AI tools draw on the same web that SEO makes you visible in. GEO is the layer on top that makes sure, once AI can find you, it can also read you clearly and trust you enough to recommend you.
Skipping SEO entirely to “just do GEO” rarely works — not because you need to rank number one, but because the technical foundations that let AI reach and read your site are the same ones SEO sorts out. If AI can’t crawl you, index you, or understand you, ranking position is beside the point because you’re not in the picture at all. And doing only SEO increasingly leaves visibility on the table as more people ask AI instead of Google. So the businesses in the best position are the ones doing both — which is exactly what we do for our clients.
Where should you start?
Start with solid SEO foundations, then add GEO on top. If your SEO is already in good shape, much of the GEO work is reformatting and structuring what you’ve already got, plus building trust and presence across the web. If your SEO isn’t there yet, that’s the first job, because it’s the ground everything else stands on.
The honest answer for most businesses is that it’s not “SEO or GEO,” it’s “SEO foundations first, SEO and GEO for content already on the site, then both together, ongoing.”
Our take: SEO and GEO aren’t rivals. SEO gets you found, GEO gets you recommended, and the businesses that do both are the ones that show up wherever their customers are looking. — Georgie, Fruitful Online
Where to go from here
If you’d like to know how your website is doing on both fronts, our SEO and GEO audit shows you exactly where you stand in Google and across AI tools, and what to fix first. If you’d rather do it yourself, our GEO checklists walk you through every step. And if you want it done for you, here’s how our SEO and GEO services work. No hard sell — if it’s not going to work for your business, we’ll tell you.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO helps your website rank in search results like Google and earn clicks. GEO helps your content get cited in answers from AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. SEO gets you found; GEO gets you recommended. They work best together.
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. Traditional search isn’t going away, because many AI tools rely on the same web content that SEO makes visible. However, it may eventually just be AI that is using search and not people. The smart approach is to do both, so you’re visible whether someone searches Google or asks AI.
Do I need both SEO and GEO?
For almost every business, yes. If you need SEO, you need GEO. SEO is the foundation that helps you get found and trusted in the first place. GEO is the layer that makes sure AI can read and recommend you. Doing both covers you across traditional search and AI answers.
If I already do SEO, how much extra work is GEO?
Often more than people expect. Even if your SEO is solid, GEO can be very time-consuming in the beginning as it involves reformatting and structuring content you already have, which could be 20 to 100’s of pages, plus building trust and mentions across the web.
Should I start with SEO or GEO?
It depends. If you already have years of good SEO foundations, you might want to invest fully in GEO for a few months in order to get all the current website content up to date. If you are starting with a new website, then Fruitful Online would do the most critical things for both SEO and GEO at the same time. You don’t need to rank number one before GEO can work — AI can cite a page that ranks modestly if it answers the question well. But you do need to be findable: crawlable, indexed, and readable by both Search engines and AI.
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