People now find you three ways. Most sites are built for one.
Search has split. Some people still type a query and click a result. Many read the answer at the top and never click at all. A growing number ask an AI assistant and act on whatever it recommends.
SEO, AEO and GEO are the three disciplines that cover those routes. KEYOB builds for all three together, because the same work that earns a ranking is what makes you quotable to an AI.
THREE ROUTES TO THE SAME BUSINESS
The short answer
What are SEO, AEO and GEO?
Definition
SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of ranking in a results page. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is the work of being the source a search engine lifts into a direct answer or featured snippet. GEO (generative engine optimisation) is the work of being recommended and cited by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews.
They overlap but they are not the same job. Ranking rewards authority and relevance. Being the answer rewards clear, extractable, well structured content. Being cited by an AI rewards consistency, verifiable facts and substance an assistant can trust. A site can do one well and the other two badly.
Why it matters
A click is no longer the only way to be found.
If your visibility strategy assumes everyone clicks through to your site, it is measuring a shrinking part of the picture.
01
Answers are given before clicks
Search results increasingly answer the question on the page. Being the source of that answer is visibility even when nobody clicks.
02
AI assistants make shortlists
People ask an assistant who to use, then contact one or two names. If you are not in that answer, you are not in the consideration set at all.
03
Authority compounds slowly
Search visibility is cumulative. The work done this quarter pays over the following year, which is why starting late is expensive.
How to tell
Signs your visibility work is incomplete.
Most Australian businesses have some SEO in place and nothing at all for the other two.
- →You rank for your business name and very little else.
- →Competitors appear when you ask an AI assistant for recommendations, and you do not.
- →Your traffic is flat while impressions are rising, which usually means answers without clicks.
- →Your site has no structured data beyond whatever the theme added.
- →Your content answers questions nobody is actually asking.
- →You serve several suburbs or regions but have one generic location page.
- →Nobody has looked at a technical crawl of the site in over a year.
- →Your best expertise lives in people's heads and has never been published.
What you get
What the work actually involves.
Three disciplines, run as one programme rather than three separate retainers.
01
Technical SEO audit
Crawl, indexation, page speed, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, internal linking and the structural issues that cap everything else.
02
Keyword and question research
What your buyers actually search and ask, including the question-shaped queries that drive answers and AI responses.
03
On-page optimisation
Titles, headings, metadata, internal links and content depth, aligned to intent rather than to keyword density.
04
Structured data
Schema markup for organisation, services, FAQs, articles and local business, so engines and assistants can parse what each page is.
05
Answer-led content
Articles and FAQs written so a clear, accurate answer can be lifted directly, which is the mechanism behind featured snippets and AI summaries.
06
Local SEO
Google Business Profile, consistent business details, and genuine location pages for each area you serve rather than one page with the suburb swapped.
07
Authority and content strategy
A publishing plan that builds subject credibility over time, because both search engines and AI systems weigh how substantive a source is.
08
Measurement
Rankings, impressions, clicks and enquiries tracked together, so you can see visibility turning into business rather than just traffic.
How we work
Fix the foundations, then build authority.
Publishing more content on a technically weak site is the most common way to waste a search budget.
Stage 01
Audit
Technical health, current visibility, content inventory and a look at what competitors are ranking and being cited for.
Stage 02
Fix the foundations
Crawl and indexation issues, speed, structure and metadata. The unglamorous work that determines whether anything else can succeed.
Stage 03
Structure the site for intent
Service pages, location pages and supporting content organised around how people actually search rather than around your internal org chart.
Stage 04
Add structured data
Schema across the site so engines and AI assistants can identify your organisation, services and answers without guessing.
Stage 05
Publish answers
Question-led content that resolves real queries clearly enough to be quoted, with the depth that earns subject authority.
Stage 06
Measure and iterate
Monthly review of rankings, impressions, AI citations where observable, and enquiries, with the plan adjusted on evidence.
Often confused
SEO, AEO and GEO: what each one does.
The simplest way to see why they need to be run together.
| Discipline | The question it answers | Where you appear | What wins it |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | How do we rank for what people search? | The list of blue links | Technical health, relevance, authority, links |
| AEO | How do we become the answer itself? | Featured snippets, answer boxes, AI Overviews | Clear, extractable answers plus structured data |
| GEO | How do we get recommended by AI assistants? | ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini responses | Consistent facts, substance, verifiable credibility |
How it connects
Visibility work depends on what sits underneath it.
Needs
Brand positioning
Specificity is what ranks and what gets cited. A business that cannot say precisely who it serves is hard to rank and harder to recommend.
Needs
A technically sound website
Page speed, structure and crawlability cap what search work can achieve. Fixing those is usually the first month of any engagement.
Feeds
Content and social
A search strategy gives your content plan a reason to exist beyond posting regularly.
Feeds
Lead capture and CRM
Visibility creates enquiries. Those enquiries need somewhere to land so you can tell which search work actually produced revenue.
Search, Visibility and Authority is stage three of the KEYOB pathway, directly after the website it depends on. See the full pathway →
Common questions
Search visibility, answered plainly.
SEO is about ranking in the list of results. AEO is about being the source that gets lifted into a direct answer, featured snippet or AI Overview. AEO rewards content that states a clear answer near the top and uses structured data, so a machine can extract it confidently.
GEO is the work of being recommended and cited by AI assistants when someone asks for a provider or an explanation. It depends less on traditional ranking signals and more on whether your facts are consistent across the web, whether your content is substantive, and whether an assistant can verify who you are.
Be consistent and be substantive. State the same business facts the same way everywhere, publish content that genuinely answers questions in your field, use structured data so machines can identify your organisation and services, and build the kind of third-party presence that makes those claims verifiable. There is no submission form; it is earned the slow way.
Technical fixes can show results within weeks. Authority and content work usually takes months, and compounds after that. Anyone promising rankings in a fixed short timeframe is describing a sales pitch rather than how search works.
Yes, though the goal has shifted. The work that earns rankings is largely the same work that gets you quoted in answers and cited by assistants. What changes is how you measure success: visibility and enquiries matter more than raw sessions.
Yes. Genuine location pages with real detail about serving that area, consistent business information, and Google Business Profile work. We do not publish twenty near-identical pages with the suburb name swapped, because that approach stopped working and now carries risk.
Through a combination of impressions versus clicks, featured snippet and answer-box appearances, branded search growth, and periodic testing of how AI assistants answer the questions your buyers ask. Measurement here is less mature than traditional SEO, and we are straight about which numbers are solid and which are directional.
Invisible in search, or invisible to the AI?
Both are fixable, and the work overlaps more than most people expect. A short audit will show you exactly where you stand today.