What is the difference between GEO and SEO?

Before AI-powered search existed, most of the work that helped businesses get found online fell under one umbrella-which was SEO. If you wanted visibility, you improved your website, strengthened your Google Business Profile, published helpful content, and built links. 

Today, AI search and large language models have changed how people find information. They still use Google and Maps, but they also ask questions inside AI tools that generate answers rather than show a list of websites. 

This new behaviour has introduced GEO, which is Generative Engine Optimisation. It’s closely connected with SEO as both rely on strong content, clarity, and authority, but GEO focuses on how AI systems read and understand your information and reuse it inside generated answers. Knowing the practical difference lets you build a strategy that keeps your business discoverable across both classic search and emerging AI channels.

Short answer for business owners

SEO focuses on helping your website rank in Google’s traditional search results and map listings. GEO focuses on helping AI systems accurately interpret your content so they can include it inside summaries, explanations and recommendations. 

Both share the same foundation, because without a well-optimised website, no search engine or AI model can trust you as a reliable source. The key difference is that GEO treats your content as information to be cited rather than a page to be ranked. This shift means structure, accuracy, and authority matter more than ever, especially for service-based Australian businesses relying on local discovery. Working with a Sydney SEO agency can help navigate these complexities effectively.

How LLMs and Google index websites differently?

Google still crawls the web using stable technical frameworks that have existed for decades. It reads your sitemap, follows internal links, interprets structured data and considers backlinks as votes of trust. Large language models take a very different approach. Instead of indexing pages into a list they ingest a wide range of content and use that information to generate complete answers. When they display those answers they may reference your business as a cited source or they may synthesise your information into a paragraph without showing a visible link.

That means Google’s crawler evaluates your website page by page. An LLM evaluates the clarity and extractability of your content as a whole. It is looking for clean structure, consistent facts, explicit citations, well-marked service information, and content which is easy to reuse in a natural language format. Where Google cares heavily about page-level ranking signals, an LLM cares about whether your content can be trusted as a building block inside of an answer.

Why GEO is not replacing SEO?

It’s common to hear that GEO is the future of search or SEO will fade out. In practice, both are necessary. SEO has more than twenty years of history, while GEO is only a few years old. Australia’s search behaviour still leans heavily on Google Search and Google Maps, which is why SEO Sydney strategies remain crucial for local businesses. Customers looking for plumbers, accountants, electricians, roofers, lawyers, and service providers still type in specific suburb-based searches. Therefore, your SEO foundations remain non-negotiable.

Instead, GEO acts as an additional visibility layer. Strong SEO signals help GEO, as LLMs prefer information coming from authoritative, well-linked, and technically clean sources. In other words, your SEO work strengthens your GEO performance. 

GEO does not stand alone and should be integrated into ongoing SEO, rather than handled as a separate trend.

The technicalities that supports both GEO and SEO

Although GEO and SEO serve different search behaviours, the underlying technical work overlaps. The following pillars support both channels and give you the best chance of being discovered.

Structured data and schema

Structured data will markup the important facts about your business, such as services, locations, reviews, price ranges, and FAQs, plus operating hours. Search engines use it to enrich listings. LLMs use it to extract verified information. The cleaner and more complete your schema is, the more trusted your content becomes.

Clean robots.txt instructions

Google still relies on robots rules and sitemaps to crawl your site accurately, and LLMs themselves often rely on data sources that are informed by traditional crawling. Clear instructions make your content easier to access, and reduce the chance of incomplete indexing.

Extractable content structure

LLMs like content that is easy to read paragraph by paragraph, which means using simple headings, clear lists, concise service descriptions, and factual statements that can be reused. If a model can lift a sentence from your page without editing it, your chance of being cited jumps way up.

Citation friendly formatting

When referring to any data, processes, or insights, it is helpful to clearly attribute where the information comes from. AI models consider these references to be signals of reliability that increase the likelihood your content will be included in generated responses.

Why Building Links Is Still Pivotal in Visibility?

Despite the shifts in search technology, backlinks remain a core signal of authority. Google continues to rely on links as a proxy for trust and quality, and AI systems lean heavily on trusted, widely referenced websites as they train or curate information. Proper link building is not optional, it is one of the most powerful levers for both SEO and GEO.

For Australian businesses, especially those in competitive local industries, quality link building builds genuine authority. Strong directories, local citations, relevant industry listings, community involvement, and niche partnerships send very strong signals that your business is real, reputable, and established. When this is combined with refined on-page content and consistent updates, your website becomes more likely to surface in both traditional search results and generated AI answers.

What GEO-focused work looks like inside ongoing SEO?

At Aidan Coleman SEO, GEO is treated as part of ongoing optimisation rather than a project in isolation. The following elements sit inside a well-rounded program.

Strategies based on local and suburbs

Local search intent is still one of the strongest drivers of conversion. We map pages onto service suburbs with clear wording, structured data, and internal links that make your local coverage obvious to both search engines and AI models.

Dashboards and reporting

GEO data is more difficult to visualise compared to traditional search rankings. We combine organic rankings, Google Business Profile insights, content engagement metrics, and any available AI citation indicators for the clearest picture possible of what is working. This blended dashboard matters because GEO performance does not always show up in simple ranking positions like SEO does.

Content editing and revisions

AI systems prefer new, correct, and well-structured information. Regular updates perform better for both GEO and SEO. Service pages, blog posts, case studies, listicles, and FAQ blocks are in constant refinement so they can stay up-to-date and machine-compatible. 

Ongoing technical optimisation 

GEO relies on clean, accurate technical foundations. This comprises schema refinement, sitemap maintenance, internal linking improvements, faster loading pages, up-to-date robots rules. 

Measurement and attribution 

Customer journeys now cross between AI answers, Google results, and direct visits. Multi-channel attribution, UTM tracking, and form call tracking will let you know which content pieces are driving enquiries, and which need improvement. 

The biggest challenges businesses face in GEO and how to overcome them 

Difficulty seeing what is working 

GEO is new, and not all platforms show clear analytics. A blended dashboard solves this problem in that it combines traditional ranking data with user behaviour metrics and content-specific insights. 

Unclear AI citations 

Not all AI tools indicate the source, origin, or basis of the information within. To stand a better chance of being cited, create structured, accurate content with clear facts and references. 

Faster content cycles 

Since AI systems draw from many sources, content must be fresh. Prioritize pages that impact enquiries and update them often. 

Maintaining authority 

Authority still depends on a number of backlinks to the website quality and frequent content updates. Authority takes time but pays long-term dividends. 

What a combined, practical plan might look like? 

A balanced plan blends the reliability of SEO with the emerging opportunities of GEO. First, solidify your technical foundation and local pages. Refine your content to be clearer, structured better, and easier for machines to understand. Generate a consistent stream of quality links.

 Add in GEO-aware content types, such as listicles, helpful FAQs, structured guides, and well-marked factual statements. Finally, implement dashboards that track both lead generation and citation visibility. Over time, these efforts compound, because strong content with strong links performs across every search channel.