AEO vs SEO: what changes and what stays the same

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SEO works to make your site appear in a search engine's results list and receive clicks. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) works to get your brand mentioned or cited inside the answer of an AI assistant, such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or Google's AI Overviews. Both share the technical base and the content; what changes is where the result appears and how it is measured.

What are SEO and AEO?

In SEO, the user types a search, receives a list of pages and chooses which one to click. Your job is to be on that list, as high as possible, with a title that leads to the click.

In AEO, the user asks a question and receives a text written by the assistant. That text can name companies and include links to the pages consulted. Your job is to be one of those companies or one of those pages. Often the user reads the answer and clicks nothing, so being mentioned is already the result.

How do they differ?

SEO AEO
Goal Position in the results list and clicks to the site. Brand mention or citation of a page in the assistant's answer.
Where it appears Results page of Google, Bing and other engines. Answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews or AI Mode.
Who reads the site Googlebot, Bingbot and other search engine robots. OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and robots that visit pages at the user's request.
How it is measured Positions, impressions and clicks in Search Console; visits in Analytics. Repeated questions to the assistants, cited sources, robot visits in the server logs.
Search unit Short keywords ("accountant Braga"). Full questions ("which accountant do you recommend for a freelancer in Braga").
Content that works Pages focused on one search, with a title and description that lead to the click. Pages with the answer at the start, verifiable facts and brand mentions on third-party sites.

The result does not always bring visits

In SEO, a position without clicks is worth little. In AEO, a potential customer can read your company's name in the answer and look for it directly afterwards, without going through the cited link. For that reason, visits from assistants show only part of the effect.

Measurement is manual

Google states that traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode appears in the Search Console Performance report, under the "Web" search type, together with the rest. For ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity there is no equivalent dashboard for site owners. The way to measure is to ask the same questions every month, record who is cited and cross-check with the server logs.

Answers vary

The same question can produce different answers in different conversations. Measure with several questions and compare over time.

What stays the same?

Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: the page must be indexed and eligible to be shown with a snippet in search, and the SEO rules continue to apply. It also says you do not need to create text files for AI or special markup.

In the other assistants, web search works on the same principle: a robot reads the page and the system decides whether it answers the question. So the following still applies:

  • Technical access. The site must respond without errors, load the text in HTML and not block search robots in robots.txt or in the firewall.
  • One page per topic. Each service, product or frequent question has its own page, with a title that says what is there.
  • Structured data. JSON-LD with Schema.org describes the company, the services and the frequent questions. Google recommends this format.
  • Consistent information. The same name, address, contact details and services on the site and in directories.
  • Mentions and links on other sites. Press, associations and sector directories help in both cases.

What changes in robots.txt?

In SEO, robots.txt usually has rules for Googlebot and Bingbot. In AEO, robots from other companies come in, and each company separates the search robot from the training robot:

  • OpenAI: OAI-SearchBot for search, GPTBot for training.
  • Anthropic: Claude-SearchBot for search, ClaudeBot for training.
  • Perplexity: PerplexityBot to show sites in results.
  • Google: Google-Extended controls whether content can be used for training AI models and for grounding answers. Google states that it does not affect inclusion or ranking in Google Search.

You can block training and allow search. OpenAI says that blocking GPTBot does not remove the site from ChatGPT search; OAI-SearchBot controls that.

Where does a small business start?

If you have little time, first do what serves SEO and AEO at the same time:

  1. Confirm access. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt and check that the search robots of OpenAI, Anthropic, Perplexity and Google are not blocked.
  2. Write down customer questions. List the 5 to 10 questions you hear before a sale and make sure each one has an answer on a page, in the first paragraph.
  3. Complete the service pages. What you do, for whom, in which area and from what price.
  4. Add structured data. Organization or LocalBusiness on the home page, with name, address and profiles on other sites.
  5. Fix the directories. Google Business Profile, sector directories and social networks with the same details.
  6. Measure both sides. Search Console for Google; monthly questions to ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity for the rest.

The guide how to appear in ChatGPT explains each of these steps in more detail, including the status of the llms.txt file.

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