What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?

SEO optimises for ranked lists of links. AEO — answer engine optimisation — optimises for being the extracted answer. GEO — generative engine optimisation — optimises for being cited inside AI-generated responses. They overlap heavily, but AEO and GEO reward plainly stated, attributable answers over keyword coverage.

Does llms.txt actually do anything?

It is a convention, not an enforced standard. It costs almost nothing to publish and gives AI crawlers a clean map of your most useful content.

AI answer visibility

Check whether AI assistants can find and cite your page.

In short

An AI answer visibility check evaluates how easily answer engines and large language models can extract, attribute and cite a page: whether the main answer is stated plainly near the top, whether structure and entities are machine-readable, and whether crawling by AI agents is permitted.

What the AI answer visibility checks

A direct answer appears within the first screen of content.
Headings are question-shaped and map to distinct intents.
Structured data identifies the entity, author and FAQ content.
llms.txt and robots.txt permissions for AI crawlers.
Content is present in server-rendered HTML rather than only after hydration.
Claims are attributable — dates, authorship and sources are explicit.

How to read your results

Answer engines quote the shortest self-contained passage that resolves the question; if no such passage exists, they paraphrase a competitor who has one.
Blocking AI crawlers removes you from generated answers entirely, including the citation link. Decide that deliberately, not by accident.
Entity clarity matters more than keyword repetition: name the product, organisation and author explicitly.

Limitations of this tool

Assistant behaviour changes frequently and differs between providers.
This is a readiness assessment, not a guarantee of being cited.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?: SEO optimises for ranked lists of links. AEO — answer engine optimisation — optimises for being the extracted answer. GEO — generative engine optimisation — optimises for being cited inside AI-generated responses. They overlap heavily, but AEO and GEO reward plainly stated, attributable answers over keyword coverage.
Does llms.txt actually do anything?: It is a convention, not an enforced standard. It costs almost nothing to publish and gives AI crawlers a clean map of your most useful content.

Category: AEO / GEO · Last updated 2026-08-08