Getting found and cited by AI search: GEO, AEO, AI-ready websites, and how it relates to SEO.
An AI-ready website is one that AI tools can easily read, understand, and cite. It has clean structured data, a consistent business identity, fast and crawlable pages, and content shaped around the real questions buyers ask. It's built to be found in AI search, not just to look good to people.
SEO aims to rank your pages in search results like Google. GEO (generative engine optimization) aims to get your business understood and recommended by AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity. They share a foundation (clear content, structure, and trust signals) but GEO focuses on being cited by AI, not just ranked by search.
To show up in ChatGPT and other AI tools, your business needs to be easy for them to find and trust: a clear, consistent presence across your website and the profiles AI reads, structured data that explains who you are, and content that plainly answers the questions buyers ask. There's no ad to buy. It comes from being a clear, credible source.
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is structuring your content so AI answer engines and search features can quote it directly. That means using the real question as a heading, putting a clear answer in the first sentence or two, and adding FAQ schema so engines know exactly what the question and answer are.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews to find, understand, and recommend. It relies on clear structured data, a consistent business identity across the web, and content that answers real questions, so AI cites you as a trusted source.