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    What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

    Reviewed by Taylor Moses, Co-Founder, Strategy & Web·

    Direct Answer

    SEO targets the blue-link search results — Google, Bing — and is measured in rankings, clicks, and impressions. GEO targets citations inside AI-generated answers in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews. SEO and GEO share most of the same foundations (clean HTML, schema, fresh content) but diverge on direct-answer formatting, llms.txt, and citation strategy.

    Voice answer (≤30 words)

    “SEO targets blue-link rankings. GEO targets citations inside AI-generated answers. They share most foundations but differ in formatting and llms dot txt.”

    Most service businesses should run both as one program. The cost overlap is high; the upside compounds.

    Track SEO with Search Console; track GEO with weekly prompt-test runs across each major engine.

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