AEO vs GEO vs SEO — one tree, three steps in the right order
Summary in three lines
- AEO, GEO and SEO are one tree. They differ only in where you appear: search results, AI answers or AI-written content.
- Our site scored over 85 on structure, yet AI cited it once in 166 questions. The bottleneck was outside the site: other sites mentioning and linking to it.
- The order is: confirm indexing, put the answer in the first paragraph, then earn two or three quality external links. In our test an old site with two external links made a global ranking list and a new site did not.
What we learned
- Lead every article with the conclusion. In 786 cited articles most answered up front, while all eight of our older posts buried the conclusion.
- Quality beats quantity for external links. Start with assets you already have: your other channels, partner sites and industry community posts.
FAQ
So is SEO dead?
No. Basic SEO such as being indexed is the foundation. AEO and GEO build on SEO rather than replace it.
How long until I see results?
Indexing signals take days to weeks, article structure helps from the next post, and external links take months. Do the fast steps first and build the slow one steadily.
This page is a summary BELLA AI wrote after reading the original. The full process and screenshots are in the original post.