Quick answer
SEO earns a position in Google's results; GEO earns a mention inside an AI assistant's answer. They overlap more than the hype suggests: pages that rank on Google's first page are much more likely to be named by ChatGPT. The difference is what decides the last step. AI answers lean heavily on what other websites say about you, they draw on different sources per engine, and they change from one answer to the next, so GEO is measured as a share of answers rather than a rank.
Key takeaways
- Rankings still matter. Seer Interactive found a correlation of about 0.65 between page-one Google rankings and brand mentions in 10,000 ChatGPT answers.
- Backlinks matter less than mentions. In Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions correlated with AI Overview visibility at 0.664; backlinks at 0.218.
- Each engine reads different sources. Wikipedia dominates ChatGPT's most-cited sources; Reddit and YouTube lead for Google's AI Overviews and Perplexity (Profound).
- There is no position one. Only 30% of brands stay visible from one AI answer to the next (AirOps), so GEO is measured as a rate across many answers.
- Swiss buyers search for it in German and French. “geo seo” is searched around 320 times a month in Switzerland in both languages.
The short version
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | A position in Google's results | Your name in the AI's answer |
| Where buyers see you | Ten blue links, then your page | The answer itself, often without a click |
| Main signals | Relevance, links, technical health | Relevance, mentions on other sites, clarity about who you are |
| Measured as | Rank per keyword | Share of answers that name you, per question and engine |
| Stability | Rankings move over weeks | Answers vary from one run to the next |
Where GEO and SEO overlap
AI assistants with web search retrieve pages much as a search engine does, then write an answer from them. Pages that are hard to crawl, slow or thin are unlikely to be retrieved at all. And ranking well still helps: Seer Interactive found page-one Google rankings correlated at about 0.65 with brand mentions across 10,000 GPT-4o answers, while backlinks showed weak or neutral effects.
So the SEO basics are not optional for GEO: crawlable pages, clear titles, structured data, content that answers the question. If your site fails those, fix them first.
Where they split
Mentions beat links
In Ahrefs' May 2025 study of 75,000 brands, branded web mentions correlated with AI Overview visibility at 0.664, branded anchors at 0.527 and the number of backlinks at only 0.218. The December 2025 follow-up found YouTube mentions correlated most strongly of all, at about 0.74, across ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews. These are correlations, not proof of cause, but they point the same way: AI engines recommend brands that many independent sources talk about.
Each engine has its own sources
| Engine | Most-cited sources (share of each engine's top 10) |
|---|---|
| ChatGPT | Wikipedia 47.9%, Reddit 11.3%, Forbes 6.8%, G2 6.7% |
| Google AI Overviews | Reddit 21.0%, YouTube 18.8%, Quora 14.3% |
| Perplexity | Reddit 46.7%, YouTube 13.9%, Yelp 5.8%, LinkedIn 5.3% |
Source: Profound, AI platform citation patterns, August 2024 to June 2025. Shares move: Semrush recorded ChatGPT suddenly citing Reddit and Wikipedia far less in September 2025.
For a B2B company that means the off-site plan depends on which engine your buyers use and which sites it cites for your questions, which is something you measure rather than guess.
There is no rank to hold
The same question can produce a different answer each time. AirOps found only 30% of brands stay visible from one answer to the next, and 20% across five consecutive runs. GEO is therefore measured as a rate: in how many answers, to which questions, on which engines, are you named?
What a B2B team should do first
- Fix what blocks both. Crawlable pages with their text in the HTML, unique titles and descriptions, structured data describing your company.
- Measure where you stand. Run your buyers' questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode several times each. See how to measure AI visibility.
- Publish the pages shortlists are built from. Comparisons, “best X for Y” pages that include competitors honestly, and answers to the objections buyers raise.
- Earn mentions where your engines look. Review sites, trade press, YouTube and podcasts, and genuine answers in communities, chosen from what the engines actually cite for you.
Is GEO searched in Switzerland?
| Search term | Language | Monthly searches in Switzerland |
|---|---|---|
| geo seo | German | about 320 |
| geo seo | French | about 320 |
| generative engine optimization | English | about 210 |
| geo vs seo | English | about 110 |
| llmo | German and English | about 90 each |
| geo agentur | German | about 70 |
Google Ads search volume for Switzerland, retrieved by REVEX through DataForSEO on 28 October 2026. Small numbers: the topic is new, and most AI questions are asked in the assistants, not typed into Google.
Questions people ask
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. Pages that rank on Google's first page are much more likely to be named in ChatGPT answers (Seer Interactive found a correlation of about 0.65). GEO adds work on top of SEO, mainly earning mentions on other websites and measuring answers instead of ranks.
What is the difference between GEO and AEO?
In practice they describe the same goal: being named and cited in answers from AI assistants. GEO (generative engine optimisation) comes from a 2024 research paper; AEO (answer engine optimisation) is the term many agencies use. See what GEO, AEO and LLMO mean.
Do backlinks still matter for AI search?
Less than mentions. In Ahrefs' study of 75,000 brands, the number of backlinks correlated with AI Overview visibility at 0.218, against 0.664 for branded web mentions.
Which AI assistant should a B2B company focus on?
The ones your buyers use. Measure the same questions on ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Mode; each cites different sources, so the results show where to work first.
Sources
- Seer Interactive: what drives brand mentions in AI answers
- Ahrefs: AI Overview brand visibility factors, 75k brands (May 2025)
- Ahrefs: brand visibility factors in ChatGPT, AI Mode and AI Overviews (Dec 2025)
- Profound: AI platform citation patterns
- Semrush: the most-cited domains in AI, a 3-month study
- AirOps: The 2026 State of AI Search