Two words, one job
If you have taken three agency calls in Dubai this month you have probably heard both terms, sometimes in the same sentence. One agency sells GEO. Another sells AEO. A third sells "AI SEO" or "LLM optimization". Owners reasonably ask whether these are different services with different prices.
They are not. They are different emphases on the same work, and the choice of word says more about where the agency came from than about what it will do.
What GEO means
Generative engine optimization. The term comes from a 2023 academic paper that studied how to get content cited by engines that generate text answers: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude. The emphasis is on being one of the sources the engine draws on when it writes its answer. Agencies that lead with GEO tend to come from content and PR backgrounds and talk about citations, mentions and share of voice.
What AEO means
Answer engine optimization. The term is older and broader. It covers any system that gives a direct answer rather than a list of links: Google's AI Overviews and featured snippets, voice assistants, and the same generative engines. The emphasis is on being the answer, not just a source. Agencies that lead with AEO tend to come from SEO backgrounds and talk about structured data, FAQ schema and answer-first pages.
Where they overlap, which is almost everywhere
Whichever word is on the proposal, the work that moves the needle is the same list:
- One consistent description of the business across the website, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories
- Pages that answer a buyer's question in the first paragraph, with facts
- Structured data: organisation, service, FAQ, article
- Presence on the third-party sources each engine cites for your category: directories, review sites, lists, press
- A log of real AI answers for a fixed set of prompts, run regularly, to see what moved
An agency doing GEO without the structured data and identity work is doing half the job. An agency doing AEO without the third-party citation work is doing the other half. Ask about both.
Where they differ, slightly
GEO programs sometimes put more weight on earned coverage, getting the business mentioned in articles and lists that the engines read, because generative engines lean heavily on those. AEO programs sometimes put more weight on the website itself and on Google's answer features. A Dubai business whose customers mostly use Google will want the AEO emphasis; one whose customers have moved to ChatGPT and Perplexity will want the GEO emphasis. Most want both, which is why we use both words and do both.
What to ask, whichever word they use
- Which engines do you track, and can I see a sample weekly log?
- What do you do off my website, and on which sources?
- Will you show me the before and after for a client, with the prompts?
- Do you cover Arabic questions as well as English?
- What is the price and term, and what renews?
If the answers are specific, the word on the proposal does not matter. If the answers are vague, neither word will save the engagement.
Want to see where your business stands?
The AI Visibility Audit tests 50 real buyer questions across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews and shows who is being recommended instead of you. AED 1,999, credited against any program within 30 days.
Order the auditFrequently asked
Is GEO the same as AEO?
In practice yes. GEO emphasises generative engines such as ChatGPT and Perplexity; AEO emphasises direct answers including Google AI Overviews. The work that moves results is the same list: identity, answer-first pages, structured data, third-party citations and tracking.
Which should a Dubai business buy, GEO or AEO?
Neither word matters. Ask which engines the agency tracks, what it does off your website, and whether it will show a client's before and after with the prompts.
Where does the term GEO come from?
A 2023 academic paper on getting content cited by text-generating engines. AEO is an older, broader term that includes Google's answer features and voice assistants.
Does Samura do GEO or AEO?
Both, because the work overlaps almost entirely. Programs cover ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, with weekly prompt tracking across all five.