The digital visibility game has changed. We’re no longer just chasing clicks—we’re fighting for AI citations. Welcome to the era of SEO vs. AEO.
The way people find information online is transforming before our eyes. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity now handle millions of conversational queries daily. Meanwhile, Google’s AI Overviews sit at the top of search results, delivering instant answers to complex questions.
This shift demands a new approach to content optimization. Consequently, we’re moving from traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) to Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
Here’s the truth: SEO isn’t dying. It’s evolving. Therefore, understanding both SEO and AEO is now essential for digital success.
SEO vs. AEO: The New Era of Search Optimization
SEO: The Traditional Quest for the Click
For decades, SEO has been about one thing: getting users to click your link. The goal was as simple as ranking higher in search results and driving traffic to your website.
Traditional SEO relies on three core steps:
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Crawling: Web crawlers follow links across the internet and collect webpages.
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Indexing: The collected pages are analyzed and stored in a database.
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Ranking: Algorithms sort these results by relevance to show the best matches.
This process has served us well. But then came the AI age, and now suddenly, the fundamental mechanics of discovery are changing at the point of user interaction.
AEO: The New Battleground for Mentions
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) – sometimes referred to as Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) or Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO) – focuses on a different outcome. Instead of clicks, we’re now competing for inclusion and attribution within AI-generated answers.
If SEO aims for the click, AEO optimizes for whether your brand appears inside the answer itself. The objective is ensuring your brand becomes part of the conversation, even when users never visit your site.
In the AI visibility landscape, two outcomes matter most:
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Citation: When an AI attributes information to your content and includes a link. This typically happens with data, statistics, or instructional content.
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Mention: When your brand appears in an AI answer without a link. This often occurs in product or solution recommendations.
This distinction materially changes how visibility should be measured.
The Data: Why Top Rankings Are Losing Clicks
AI Overviews have accelerated the rise of zero-click searches. Users increasingly find answers directly on the search results page without visiting any website.
The most valuable real estate for which SEO teams competed tooth and nail – the very top of search results – has now been occupied by AI Overviews.
Multiple industry studies indicate that when AI Overviews appear, traditional organic listings experience significant declines in click-through rates, even for top-ranking positions. One study by Ahrefs quantified this effect, finding that the number one organic result lost approximately 34.5% of its clicks when an AI Overview was present. Another analysis by Pew Research Center showed that users only click on search results 8% of the time when AI summaries are present, as opposed to 15% of the time when they are not. 99% of users do not engage with any cited sources in AI summaries, and 26% conclude their search session immediately after consuming the AI-generated summary.
These patterns suggest that the user journey has fundamentally changed. We’ve moved from “click and explore” to “ask and receive.” As a result, visibility now occurs within the results interface itself, not solely on destination websites.
Why SEO Remains the Foundation for AEO
Despite the fundamental differences in metrics, AEO doesn’t replace SEO. Instead, it builds directly upon it.
Here’s why: AI assistants still largely rely on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). When an AI needs current or verifiable information, it retrieves content from search engines such as Google and Bing before generating a response. Therefore, strong content that ranks well in traditional search remains essential for AI visibility. If your content is not accessible, crawlable, or authoritative enough to surface in search, AI models cannot reliably cite or reference it.
If SEO is the door that gets you into the room, AEO determines whether you are referenced once you’re there. Both are necessary, and neither is sufficient on its own.
The Path Forward: You Need Both
The choice isn’t SEO vs. AEO. It’s a false dichotomy. Marketers must embrace a dual approach:
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SEO ensures your content is crawlable, indexed, and evaluated as authoritative by search engines. It remains the foundation that enables discovery.
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AEO extends that foundation by optimizing for brand inclusion, citations, and mentions across AI-generated answers.
Fortunately, these strategies align naturally. The same qualities that strengthen SEO – authority, relevance, freshness, and accessibility – are likely to influence how content is surfaced or referenced in AI-generated answers, though the exact weighting of these factors is still emerging.
The key is expanding your definition of success. Clicks still matter, but they are no longer the only outcome that signals visibility. Tracking AI citations and brand mentions is increasingly necessary to understand real exposure.
SEO vs. AEO: The Bottom Line
We’re witnessing a structural shift in how people discover information online. The rise of AI-powered search isn’t killing SEO – it’s expanding what optimization means. Success now requires thinking beyond the click.
Brands must optimize for visibility wherever users receive answers, whether that occurs on a website or inside an AI-generated response. The brands that thrive will be those that master both disciplines: building strong SEO foundations while deliberately positioning themselves for AEO-driven visibility.
The future of search isn’t SEO vs. AEO. It’s SEO plus AEO, working together to ensure brands remain visible in an AI-mediated search environment that already exists today.
For more insight on this shift, our next post explores the strongest factor(s) correlating with AI visibility.