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SEO, GEO, AIO, AEO, LLMO - What Does it All Mean?
We know, we have a bit of a reputation. In the digital marketing industry, we love a good acronym. You finally think you understand SEO, right? Let’s make things interesting and mix it up a bit! Have you noticed how your LinkedIn feed is flooded with “industry experts” claiming that traditional search is dead and that you need to pivot your entire budget into GEO, AEO, or LLMO? Well, you’re not alone. And we get it – it’s confusing, it’s scary and deciphering the truth from fiction feels like a big task.
For a business owner, it can feel like being back in a secondary school French lesson. Lots of noise, very little of it making sense, and a sneaking suspicion that everyone is just overcomplicating things.
At Page, we live and breathe SEO – SEO is ALL we do. As an agency, we know that’s a bit unusual, but we have been here many times before over the years, yet SEO still remains as powerful as ever. We also believe in plain English, so we’re sharing what these acronyms actually mean without the complicated jargon and whether you need to be investing in these new buzzwords or not.
SEO
Search Engine Optimisation
The “OG” of SEO is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility when users search for products or services related to your business, primarily on Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. Simply put, SEO is the foundation of the internet and isn’t something that should be overlooked.
In a deep dive report by Datos and SparkToro, Google’s Share of Search in Q4 2025 in the US was 73.7%, with Amazon (7.83%), Bing (4.31%) and YouTube (3.65%) the nearest competition. ChatGPT’s share of search for the same period was 2.86%.
SEO is what ensures your site is fast, crawlable, and authoritative enough for any engine or AI to find it in the first place.
GEO
Generative Engine Optimisation
GEO is a new term which means optimising your content so that Generative AI engines like Google Gemini, ChatGPT, or Perplexity cite your brand and website as a primary source when they synthesise an answer for a user. While traditional SEO focuses on “blue links,” GEO focuses on being the footnote or the cited source in an AI summary.
Breaking this down, the tactics sound very familiar: unique content, clear citations, proven expertise and topical authority.
A study in 2025 by SE Ranking found that AI Overviews link to an average of 13.3 sources. If it’s not already clear, it’s quite simple – getting into that list is achievable by producing high-quality content that answers a question.
Sounds a bit like SEO.
AIO
Artificial Intelligence Optimisation
AIO is often used as an umbrella term for all AI-related visibility measures, but it also refers to the use of AI to scale SEO tasks such as writing meta content, alt-text and even blog content at speed. For most people, the assumption is that AIO is essentially SEO, but faster. But that comes with a risk – the content created isn’t with the end user in mind, it’s not personable, it certainly won’t be authoritative or show expertise and experience, and more importantly, it won’t fit your brand.
So what is AIO? It’s still SEO, but with a robot assistant.
AEO
Answer Engine Optimsation
AEO is a subset of SEO that focuses on providing direct, concise answers to specific questions. This isn’t anything new – I’m willing to bet big that you have even used it yourself. If you’ve interacted with a featured snippet in search (the box displayed at the top of Google before any links) or asked Siri or Alexa a question, you’ve experienced AEO.
AEO has turned into “zero-click” searches. Statistics show that nearly 60% of traditional searches now end without a click because the user gets the answer directly on the results page. So how can you feature here? Simple – use your knowledge to answer the questions users are searching for and write quality content that’s marked up with Schema.
You’ve got it, SEO!
LLMO
Large Language Model Optimisation
LLMO is all about ensuring that Large Language Models (like GPT-4 or Claude) understand and “know” about your brand during their training phase or through Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). It’s far less about a specific keyword and more about “Entity Clarity” making sure the AI knows exactly who you are and what you do, read to serve you as a result when asked a question by the user.
In this Ahrefs blog, you can see that the process of becoming more visible in the data sources these models use is, you guessed it, yet again SEO.
It's All Just SEO
If you’re feeling overwhelmed by these terms, we have good news.
You don’t need five different strategies. You just need good quality SEO!
Strip it all back. The very core of all the above can be broken down:
- Technical Expertise: Can the bot/engine read your site? Has your website been indexed? Is the structure clear and easy to navigate? Is your content understandable?
- Authority: Do other reputable sites trust you? Do you show your authority in your industry within your content?
- Relevance: Do you actually answer the user’s question? Are you producing relevant content?
Let Us Do Your SEO!
If you do the SEO work properly, and by that we mean building a fast, authoritative, and helpful website that’s accessible for humans and bots, you are already “optimised” for the AI era and how search has changed.
Don’t let the new acronyms scare you; let the fundamentals ground you.
And if you want to work with a team that truly understands SEO and all it involves, reach out for a chat.
Contact & Onwards
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