Writing for SEO, AEO, and GEO: What You Need To Know

You already know the basics of SEO. You’ve been writing for years with Google in mind: hitting the keywords in the brief, shaping H2s to cover keywords, making sure your content is actually answering readers’ questions while trying to go deep enough to rank in organic search. That skill set still matters.

But the search landscape is shifting, and so’s the vocabulary. Marketers — your clients — are increasingly thinking about AEO and GEO, and sometimes their briefs might mention these topics, too. Let’s break down what you need to know to stay competitive in a shifting marketing climate. Spoiler alert: most of what it takes to succeed at AEO and GEO is exactly what you’re already doing to create good SEO content, anyway.

How Search Is Evolving: AEO and GEO

Readers are no longer just typing queries into Google and clicking through to your carefully written articles, depending on how those articles rank in search. They’re seeing AI Overviews at the top of their results pages. Sometimes, they’re not searching Google — or Bing or Brave or DuckDuckGo — at all, but instead they’re asking ChatGPT, Copilot, Claude, Gemini, and/or Perplexity. Regardless of how they’re they’re searching, the odds that they’re getting direct answers pulled from across the web have gone way up, and sometimes they aren’t clicking a single link. (Even though they should be, because AI still makes stuff up — and  LiveScience reported in June 2025 that it’s hallucinating more often, the more advanced it gets.)

This is where AEO and GEO come in. They’re related terms, both focused on optimizing content for answer engines or generative engines, rather than search engines, but there’s some nuance to each strategy. It’s important to know both terms, including how they intersect and how they’re different — and how they fit into the broader world of SEO.

In a world where your content might be read first by a model instead of a person, you’ll need to adapt some of your skills and approaches to be sure you’re using the right building blocks to structure your content for success.

What Is AEO?

AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, is focused on optimizing for direct answers in search engine results pages (SERPs). This is what you often see labeled as an “AI Overview.” Think of it as the evolution of Featured Snippets, or “Position Zero” on Google. 

According to a July 2025 report at WebFX analyzing 2.37 million U.S. queries, AI Overviews (the AEO feature) now appear in about 25.8% of searches, or roughly one in four. Another analysis from Semrush in July 2025 reports similar figures: In March, AI Overviews appeared in 13.14% of all U.S. desktop searches, nearly doubling from 6.49% in January of the same year.

AEO typically involves:

• Conversational question formats ("What is X? How does Y work?")

• Structured markup like FAQ schema, HowTo schema, or product data

• Short, direct answer blocks optimized for Google's AI Overviews or Bing’s Snapshot feature

What Is GEO?

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is the practice of writing so your content can be parsed, quoted, and repurposed by “generative engines,” or large language models (LLMs), like the ones powering ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity. The share of searches happening in an AI-powered LLM is still small — around 5.6%, according to a Datos report cited in the Wall Street Journal in July 2025 — but it's growing faster than expected.

It’s similar to SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, in that yes, someone’s still searching for information. In traditional SEO, you optimized content for search engine algorithms, and the goal was to rank high in the list via keywords, backlinks, and technical signals. But GEO doesn’t aim to rank content in a list of links, because its giving readers complete answers, not lists. 

Instead, GEO aims for visibility within the AI’s answer itself by making sure your content is:

• Structured cleanly (with bullet points, tables, definitions)

• Fact-rich and well-sourced

• Easy to attribute to a single origin (with a clear brand, author, date, etc.)

The goal is for your content to be selected as part of the model’s composed answer, not just surfaced as a clickable result.

Many of the structures that make sense as part of optimizing for AEO also come into play when optimizing for GEO, even though the terms aren’t quite interchangeable. An easy way to make the distinction is to think about where readers are getting their info. AEO happens on search result pages, with the goal of capturing previews or AI Overview placements at the top of SERPs. GEO happens inside LLM-generated responses — imagine someone “asking ChatGPT” and getting an answer within their Chat app or browser. 

What’s Different About Writing for AEO or GEO?

For writers, the strategic difference is awareness. Writing for AEO or GEO doesn’t mean you should abandon what you know about SEO or need to learn an entirely new way of writing. In fact, that’s exactly what you shouldn’t do. Instead, doing your best work in this brave new world of search is about a subtle strategic switch that requires you to broaden your sense of the “reader” and of what success looks like.

The Goal — and What It Takes To Succeed

It’s no longer safe to assume that the only path to your content is a Google search result click. Increasingly, readers are meeting your words halfway: through a sentence cited in an AI answer box or a snippet embedded in a chatbot’s reply. That means every section of your article has the potential to stand on its own. When you were writing for traditional SEO only, and the question was “what’s the goal of the piece” or “what are you trying to do?” the answer was easy: to rank. We want to rank. The content should rank. 

Now, the goal has changed, and “rank” isn’t even the most accurate verb to describe what we’re going for. A better way to frame it is that brands aim to “surface,” “receive brand mentions,” “appear in,” or “be cited by” generative AI. This reflects the shift from traditional ranking as the be-all-end-all to being embedded in AI-generated answers as another measure of success.

Shared Foundations: What SEO, AEO, and GEO Have in Common

A lot of what makes content AEO or GEO-friendly is exactly what you’ve been told to do for SEO all along:

• Use recent, reliable, authoritative sources.

• Support claims with stats, numbers, and definitions.

• Structure your work with clear H2s and digestible chunks.

• Answer the reader’s question quickly, without fluff — as in, if the header’s a question, the first sentence under it should be the answer.

All of this is still true. The difference is in mindset. SEO is about rankings. GEO is about reusability. In SEO, you want Google to see your page as the best overall match. In GEO, you want a model to recognize that your sentence, list, or takeaway is the cleanest building block for an answer — and to reward your effort with a citation to your article. That’s how readers will find you if they’re searching this way.

And, as with SEO, it’s not all down to the writing, either. Brands still need to follow publishing best practices and keep up their end of the technical SEO bargain — from schema markup to site speed — to help make sure the content is easily readable for LLMs. But when you’re thinking about AEO or GEO as a way for brands to track content presence, performance, and outcomes across multiple platforms, the influence of your work can multiply. A strong piece can surface in organic results and in AI Overviews. It can be cited inside ChatGPT’s browsing answers while also appearing in Perplexity as a linked source. That’s free distribution of your work — and more visibility for the client. The key is making sure you’re writing in a way that maximizes the chances of that happening.

What Answer Engines and Generative Engines Do With Your Content

Unlike a traditional search engine, an answer engine or a generative engine doesn’t display your article in one piece. It disassembles your work, grabs the parts it understands, and reassembles them into something new. That’s why phrasing, formatting, and evidence matter so much. Kirby Ferguson wasn’t talking about AI when he said Everything Is a Remix, but that’s certainly an apt description of how the LLMs form their answers.

So, imagine the process however you like — LLM as a weird DJ, a serial killer snipping magazine letters, an assemblage artist, a patchwork quilter, a Tetris master. They’re assembling blocks (of text, in this case) together, trying to make something coherent that will answer the user’s question. 

Assume it’s in your (or at least your client’s) best interest that you write your content in a way that makes the LLMs’ collage job as easy as possible. If you give them materials they can easily identify as things that work, that fit, they’ll be more likely to use (and cite) your article. 

What Are LLMs Looking For In Content To Cite?

Beyond looking for information that’s relevant to the user’s search query, the answer engines and generative engines are looking for clear, reliable, discrete strings of text that they can easily, cleanly weave together. 

To evaluate whether your writing fits the bill, ask these questions:

• Extractability: Can this sentence stand alone if lifted out?

• Clarity: Is it free of vague pronouns or buried ledes?

• Credibility: Is there a source, stat, or explicit entity that signals authority?

• Structure: Are related facts grouped so they can be pulled together?

The bonus here is that yes, this makes things easier for the LLM to remix, but none of these questions should prompt you to change your work in ways that would lead to a worse experience for a human reader. People are also often moving quickly and looking for clean, clear, credible answers, without fluff or nonsense.

Turning Principles Into Practice: What Writers and Editors Can Do Across SEO, AEO, and GEO

The good news is that you don’t have to learn a whole new set of tricks. The same practices that make your content strong for SEO — clarity, structure, credibility — also make it adaptable for AEO and GEO. What changes is the frame. Instead of thinking only about whether Google can rank your page, you’re also thinking about whether Google can lift your answer into an Overview or whether ChatGPT can cite your sentence cleanly in a conversation.

Line-Level Moves 

Here are some line-level moves that pay off across all SEO, AEO, and GEO:

Lead With Evergreen, Follow With Evidence

Every section should open with a timeless, paraphrasable answer — the kind that works on its own if it’s the only line a reader or an AI tool sees. Right after, add stats or examples that show authority and recency.

Not Friendly:
H2: What Does It Mean to Refinance a Mortgage?
“Homeowners have a number of different financial strategies to consider, depending on their long-term goals and current interest rates. If they’re looking to lower their monthly payments, they might choose to refinance their mortgage.”

💡 Why it doesn’t work: This paragraph doesn’t actually answer the question posed by the header. Even readers (let alone LLMs) want the answer to a question to follow the question ASAP. 

Better:
H2: What Does It Mean to Refinance a Mortgage?
“Mortgage refinancing means replacing your current home loan with a new one, usually to lower monthly payments. Homeowners often consider it when interest rates fall or when they want different loan terms.”

💡 Why it works: The definition is quotable on its own (good for AEO + GEO). The supporting detail makes it comprehensive (good for SEO).

Make Q&A Blocks Self-Contained

Answer engines and generative engines don’t always pull whole paragraphs. They may lift a single line. That means every answer should stand on its own without relying on the sentence before or after.

Not Friendly:
“This has grown significantly in the past five years and shows no signs of slowing down.”

Better:
“Remote work adoption has grown significantly in the past five years and shows no signs of slowing down.”

💡 Why it works: Clear nouns travel better than vague pronouns. The sentence can be dropped straight into an AI Overview or chatbot response.

>> Editorial note: You don’t have to ban pronouns — that would make your writing robotic and could even look like keyword stuffing. Use the full noun clearly the first time, and after that, pronouns or natural shorthand are fine as long as the reference is clear. Synonyms (“hybrid schedules,” “flexible policies”) help keep language natural. Try to be strategic when you’re choosing between nouns and pronouns, though. If you’re working with a high-search-volume keyword or answering a common PAA question, that might be a good time to keep the noun and rework a couple of sentences around it, if needed.

Structure for Skim and Synthesis

Both people and machines need scannable sections. Generative engines favor lists, steps, and short blocks they can repackage. Humans skim, too.

Not Friendly:
“Students preparing for the LSAT should take practice tests, review logical reasoning questions, and build their reading comprehension skills to ensure success.”

Better:
H3: How To Prepare for the LSAT
“To prepare for the LSAT, focus on three areas:

1. Take timed practice tests.

2. Review logical reasoning questions.

3. Build strong reading comprehension skills.”

💡 Why it works: SEO wins because the keyword sits cleanly in the header. AEO + GEO win because the steps can be pulled directly into a summary box or AI response.

Anchor Your Evidence

Search engines and generative engines both need to know where your information comes from. In-line anchors are the clearest signal of authority.

Not Friendly:
“According to a recent study, the U.S. saw a spike in flu cases last winter.”

Better:
“According to the CDC’s 2024 flu report, the U.S. saw a spike in flu cases last winter.”

💡 Why it works: The anchor itself — “CDC’s 2024 flu report” — carries the credibility. If a line is quoted, the authority travels with it. SEO benefits from clear attribution, and GEO tools display that anchor as part of a citation.

Editor's note: Sometimes, you’ll have to defer to client preferences. If they don’t want named sources or have a different dominant sourcing style, it’s best to follow that. When you have free rein, think about what might help your article surface and err on the side of following best practices in your first draft. Worst case, a client can ask you to revise it back, but you’ll know you tried to do the right thing.

End With Mini-Summaries

A short recap at the end of a section reinforces the key point and creates a quotable nugget.

Not Friendly:
[After a long section on refinancing]
“Consider your goals carefully before deciding.”

Better:
“Refinancing replaces your current mortgage with a new loan, ideally at a lower rate.”

💡 Why it works: The recap is concise, accurate, and quotable. Good for human skim readers, and good for AEO/GEO tools that want a clean closing line.

What Not To Do in Writing for AEO and GEO: Common Pitfalls to Avoid

Some mistakes can keep your work from surfacing across SEO, AEO, and GEO — or worse, make it look clumsy to the client or awkward to human readers. Here are a few to watch out for:

• Burying the lede. Especially when you're answering a question, but even when you're getting to the main point of a given section, address it right up front, as close to the header as possible. Don’t make readers dig three paragraphs for the answer.

• Undated stats. Numbers without years look stale. Always give the date, assuming the brand guidance allows it. The more recent the better; anything older than three years or so is probably already outdated, unless it's the kind of study that isn't conducted often, published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal or similar.

• Unclear references. “This” and “it” without a clear noun reference can break the meaning of a sentence when pulled out of context. If it's a very important sentence, consider using the noun instead of a pronoun.

• Weak anchor text for sources. Adding links to “click here” or “source” or even "a study" wastes the chance to communicate the timeliness and authority of your research.

• Overly clever phrasing. Lines that only work in context may be confusing when quoted alone. Save the voiciness and cleverness for the framing text that’s less essential and less likely to be pulled.

• Fragment overload. Don’t chop everything into bullets just because they’re easier for robots to parse. Narrative flow still matters.

Checklist for SEO + AEO + GEO-Friendly Drafts

Before you hand off a piece to an editor or a client, ask yourself:

• Did I open sections with a clear, direct statement that clearly addressed the topic the header set up?

• If a header posed a question, did I answer it ASAP?

• Did I include evergreen definitions first and follow them up with current stats (and dates, where appropriate)?

• Are my links anchored on the claim itself with descriptive text?

• Would most of my sentences  — especially the ones related to the main keyword, FAQs, or PAA questions woven into the text — still make sense if pulled out of context?

• Did I close key sections with a mini-summary?

• Is the article comprehensive enough to rank on its own?

• Does it still have a natural flow with clean transitions, for human readers (like clients or your dream searcher) who read the whole thing start to finish?

Bottom Line: Good Content Is Still Good Content

At the end of the day, SEO, AEO, and GEO aren’t three separate playbooks but simply three ways your work circulates online.

• SEO is still the foundation — ranking in traditional search.

• AEO is the evolution inside search — direct answers in AI Overviews and similar features.

• GEO is the layer beyond — your words traveling into generative engines and chat tools.

The fundamentals haven’t changed. In your work, aim to deliver clear writing, credible sources, and useful answers. What should change is a simpler shift: your awareness of where your work can show up, and a few key tactics that can help make sure your work has a stronger chance of success across all three venues.

If SEO is about ranking and AEO is about answering, GEO is about traveling. Your content can move farther than ever — into SERPs, into Overviews, and into chatbots — and wouldn’t you want as many people as possible to see it, wherever they’re looking?

AEO and GEO, as an evolution of SEO, are simply a reminder that good content, written with clarity and evidence, is flexible enough to serve any audience — human or machine. Your job is to make it easy for both people and machines to use, quote, and trust your work.