Guides
GEO vs SEO: what changes, and what does not
Updated 26 October 2026
SEO aims for a high position in a list of links; GEO aims for a mention or a citation inside an answer written by AI. The two overlap heavily, which is why most UK agencies in the ranking sell both, but they are not measured the same way.
Side by side
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page for a query | Be named or cited in the AI answer |
| Where | Google and Bing results pages | ChatGPT, AI Overviews, AI Mode, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, Copilot |
| Unit of work | Pages and keywords | Facts, entities and sources |
| Main levers | Technical health, content, links | Quotable content, structured data, entity consistency, digital PR |
| Measure | Rankings, clicks | Citations, mentions, share of voice per prompt |
What stays the same
AI search engines still crawl and index the web, and several of them retrieve pages from a classic search index before writing an answer. A site that cannot be crawled, or that says nothing clearly, is as invisible to them as to Google. Technical SEO remains the floor.
What changes
- The answer is the result. A buyer may never click. What matters is whether the answer names your brand, and what it says about it.
- Third-party sources weigh more. Answers often lean on reviews, press and published rankings rather than the brand’s own pages. That is why digital PR is part of most GEO offers.
- Facts must be consistent. A model that finds two prices or two addresses for the same company hesitates, or picks one.
- Measurement moves to prompts. Agencies track a fixed set of questions across engines and report how often the brand is cited.
Do you need a separate GEO agency?
Not necessarily. Of the 38 agencies scored by the rules, most are search agencies that have added a GEO offer; 34 give it a dedicated page. The questions in how to choose a GEO agency apply either way.