SEO, AEO and GEO: what they are and what a small business should do first

Three acronyms now describe what is, for a small business, mostly one job: help the right people find accurate information about what you sell. The names can make a plain task sound like three separate projects, each needing its own budget. They are not. This guide explains what each term means, what Google itself says about AI search, and the order we would tackle things in.

What the terms mean

SEO covers technical work (can crawlers reach and index your pages), on-page work (titles, headings, useful content), local presence and the links other sites give you. AEO is about answering a question clearly enough to be useful in a direct-answer experience. A concise explanation, a short process or a comparison table can help a reader, but they do not entitle a page to an answer box: Google chooses featured snippets automatically and site owners cannot request one. GEO is the newest label. Being mentioned, being linked as a source and receiving a visitor are three different outcomes, and the assistants do not behave alike.

What Google says about AI search

Much of the advice online treats AEO and GEO as new disciplines with their own tricks. Google's own position is plainer. Its guidance on generative AI features, last updated in July 2026, says that optimising for its AI search features is still SEO. It also says:

• You do not need new machine-readable files, markup or special text files to appear in these features.
• Structured data is not required for generative AI search, and there is no special schema.org markup to add.
• Content does not need to be cut into small "chunks" for AI, and inauthentic mentions do not help.

The same page tells site owners to check third-party AEO and GEO advice against Google's guidance. We follow it, and that has an uncomfortable consequence for us. WISVERA publishes an llms.txt summary file, because it is cheap and some tools may read it. Google says it does not need one, so we do not claim it improves anything. If someone sells you "AI visibility" mainly through files and markup, ask what evidence they have.

Other assistants have their own systems and no equivalent public rulebook, so what applies to them is less certain. The practical overlap is large: accurate, well-linked, clearly written pages that answer real questions help in every case.

Start with the page closest to an enquiry

Choose one service or product page that matters to the business. Read it as someone who has never heard of you. Can they tell what they would receive, whether it suits their situation and what happens next? Replace vague claims with concrete scope, and explain any limits that affect the buying decision.

For a hypothetical furniture repair workshop, useful details might include the kinds of repair it accepts, its service area, whether it collects items and which photographs help it assess damage. That beats a paragraph announcing it is the best workshop in town. Publish only what the business can actually deliver.

Then check the page on a phone. Make the enquiry link easy to find, test it yourself, and confirm the business can handle what arrives. Search visibility is worth little if the person cannot take the next step.

Check access before producing more content

Make sure important pages have normal links from the navigation or from related content. Look for broken links, pages accidentally marked noindex, and a sitemap that lists the right addresses. Keep one preferred address per page instead of letting several versions of the same content circulate.

Inspect the priority page in Google Search Console. A page being published does not mean it has been indexed, and any reported issue deserves attention before you commission a batch of articles. Our technical SEO and GA4 guide lists these checks and a small measurement plan.

Then look at what visitors feel directly: readable headings, useful image descriptions, buttons they can tap, and pages that do not jump while loading. Fix what you observe and record what changed.

Turn customer questions into useful answers

Collect questions from real conversations, enquiries and support messages, with personal details removed. Pick a question where your business knows something beyond a generic definition: what is included, which documents to prepare, how to choose between two services.

Put a direct answer near the relevant heading, then explain the conditions. If a price depends on scope, say what changes it. If a process needs the customer's approval, name that step. The short answer should help someone decide whether to keep reading, and the rest of the page should give enough detail to act.

Avoid repeating the same question across many near-identical pages. Give each page a purpose and link related topics naturally. If you use AI to draft, treat the draft as a draft. Google's helpful content guidance warns that using automation mainly to manipulate rankings breaks its spam policies, and that content produced at scale with little human oversight is low-effort. It also suggests telling readers when AI was substantially involved and why. Check every claim about your own services and commitments before publishing.

Keep business information consistent

Use the same business name and current contact details wherever you control them. Describe your real service area. A business that serves customers remotely should say so instead of inventing an office address. Keep availability and service details current.

For an eligible local business, maintain the Google Business Profile. Google's local ranking guidance names three factors: relevance, distance and prominence. You can improve the first by keeping information complete and accurate. You cannot change the second, and prominence takes time. Never promise a customer a particular map position.

For GEO work specifically, start an information record: the business name, services, contact route, the pages that state each fact, and the date you last checked them. Use it whenever you update the website or other profiles. It is an editorial control. It does not guarantee that an assistant will cite you.

Measure enquiries, then decide

Write down the outcome you want before opening a report. A service business might care about suitable enquiries. Track useful steps, such as a contact link being opened, while remembering that a click is not a message received and a message is not a sale.

Review the queries bringing people to your priority pages, the pages they land on and what they ask when they contact you. Keep a dated change log so you can connect observations with specific edits, and be wary of crediting one tactic for a result when several things changed.

If you check an AI assistant, record the question, the date and the sources it shows. Treat the answer as a spot check, not proof of permanent visibility, because the same question can produce different answers on different days. Ask whether it reveals missing or wrong information you can correct at its source.

What to ignore

• Promises of a guaranteed first-page ranking. Google states plainly that no one can guarantee a number one ranking.
• Promises of guaranteed AI citations, from anyone.
• Mass-produced pages written to catch every phrase. A few helpful pages beat many thin ones.
• Paid "mentions" or fake reviews. They are weak at best and risky at worst.
• A new acronym every quarter. Check whether it changes anything about the pages your customers need.

Your first-pass checklist

• Choose a priority service page and define the enquiry it should support.
• Confirm scope, service area and contact details with the business.
• Test the page and contact route on a phone.
• Check links, indexing settings and the sitemap.
• Inspect the page in Search Console and look into anything reported.
• Answer one real buying question with specific, reviewed information.
• Update eligible local profiles and correct inconsistent details.
• Track meaningful actions, distinguish them from completed enquiries, and log changes.

Use the list to find the next useful task, not to complete a ritual. WISVERA's GROWTH service covers SEO, AEO, GEO and measurement around that foundation. If you would like help deciding where to start, tell us about your website, the customers it serves and what currently stops them from getting in touch, or write to contact@wisvera.com.