SEO Terms in the new AI Era explained (and Why They Matter)

Introducing AEO, AIO, GEO and LLMO

Jul 30, 2025

[Image made using midjourney]

If like me you will find that your LinkedIn and tech news sites are getting filled up with buzzwords galore for AI. Recently it is starting to really fill up with new acronyms for SEO. It seems the masses have started to finally buckle down and figure out how your sites need to be absorbed by AI to keep you on a competitive edge.

So here is a breakdown of the 4 most common terms I have seen. AEO, AIO, GEO, LLMO and how they all fit together in this new world.

Search isn’t what it used to be.

Let’s just take a small step backwards to even just ten years ago, the constant fight to be ranking #1 on Google was the holy grail. But today, with the rise of AI; AI chatbots, voice assistants, and generative search results are often answering questions before anyone even clicks a website and sees the lovely work of art you spent hundreds and thousands of pounds on.

If your SEO strategy stops at “keywords and backlinks,” you’re going to become invisible and no longer anywhere in the race.

That’s where those new keywords I mentioned above are coming into play. AEO, AIO, GEO, and LLMO are the four emerging pillars of search visibility in the age of AI.

So let’s breakdown each one and see what it means. But before I do, it is worth pointing out that this area is still evolving all the time, so the information here could be out of date within weeks of writing it. If you come here and notice something has moved on, please do leave a comment and I will come back and make updates.

AEO: Answer Engine Optimisation

AEO is optimising your content for answer engines like Google’s new featured snippets, Siri, Alexa, and AI chatbots. So if you think about it in terms of when people ask, “Hey Google, what’s the best hybrid car?” this is the technique to get your content to be the answer.

Let’s break that down into 4 techniques we can do in order to facilitate AEO on your websites. (yes I know, I know. I love breaking down ideas and concepts into 4’s)

Write a clear answer block (40–60 words) at the top of your page for the question the page is related to.
Bring back the old school FAQ sections using the same language customers use in search.
Make sure to add structured data (schema markup) to your html page. Examples are FAQPage, HowTo, and Product.
Format answers in lists, tables, and steps, AI likes structured data a lot more than humans.

AIO: AI Optimisation

AIO is the art of making sure your brand and content is trusted by AI systems like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, and Bing Copilot. These AI assistants summarise the web and if you’re not a recognised entity, you are never going to be surfaced.

Let’s break that down into 4 techniques we can do in order to make sure we become trusted by AI.

Build topical authority by publishing related, interconnected content clusters.
Create strong entity profiles (e.g. Organisation schema, consistent brand details across the web).
- https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization
Use expert-driven content with attributions and citations.
Earn links and mentions from high-authority sources that AI models already trust.

GEO: Generative Engine Optimization

GEO is SEO adapted for AI-powered search experiences, like Google’s AI Overviews and Bing’s Copilot answers. As we have seen generative engines now create summaries instead of sending users to multiple sites (Yes we have seen this good and bad and sometimes outright hilarious). Your content needs to be in those summaries and this is how you get there.

Let’s look at four techniques to do this.

Publish comprehensive yet scannable content that answers sub-questions in context.
Include multimodal assets (images, diagrams, videos) that AI systems can pull from.
Keep content fresh and updated; generative engines favour the most current sources, you will be suprised how quickly your content will become irrelevant in the AI eyes.
Use internal linking and entity relationships so AI engines understand your context.

LLMO: Large Language Model Optimisation

LLMO is the art form of ensuring your content can be understood, parsed, and cited by the Large Language Models (LLMs) powering AI search because if models can’t interpret or attribute your content, you won’t appear in answers at all.

So here is 4 techniques we can do to make sure we are not passed over.

Write in plain, unambiguous language. AI does not need the marketing speech. It prefers clear factual information.
Include definitions and summaries at the top of your articles. Your text will be chunked in order to be absorbed by AI and as such having a summary gives your information a better chance of being in the same chunk.
Use clean structure (semantic headings, consistent formatting).
I keep mentioning this above, but I can not fathom how important it will be to make sure you have the correct schemas everywhere: Article, Author, Organization, Dataset.
Offer attributable data tables or downloadable CSVs where possible.

So Aaron, how do you they all fit together?

I am glad you ask, as you would have seen above. There is quite a few overlapping areas in each of the 4. So let’s take a look at the bigger picture:

AEO focuses on giving short, clear answers for snippets and voice assistants.
AIO ensures AI search engines even know you exist and trust your brand.
GEO makes your content appealing to the AI-generated summaries that users now see.
LLMO is the foundation, making sure the models themselves can parse and attribute your content correctly.

So that means, LLMO feeds into everything. If models can’t understand your content, you’ll struggle with GEO, AIO, and AEO.

OK, I am ready to start, what should I do?

For me you should start straight away, all your competitors are already doing it. So technically your already behind. So to help you off on a good footing, here is my 4 steps.

Audit your top pages – Add answer blocks, FAQs and those schemas (AEO).
Build your brand’s entity layer – Add the organisation schema, consistent profiles and topical authority (AIO).
Write comprehensively – Cover related sub-questions and refresh your content regularly (GEO).
Structure for machines – Semantic HTML, clean URLs, structured data (LLMO).

The Bottom Line of it all…..

SEO isn’t dead. It’s evolving and so should you. Winning ‘position 1’ on Google is no longer enough. Your content needs to show up where people, and most important AI are when they look to finding answers: chatbots, voice assistants, snippets, and generative search summaries.

If you start implementing these four pillars now, you won’t just survive the AI shift, you’ll thrive in it.

I would also love to know which of these four pillars are you already working on? Which one feels the most urgent for your brand?

Drop a comment. I’d love to hear what challenges you’re facing in this new search landscape.

Now I am off to figure out which acronyms I want to try and breakdown next. If you liked this post please make sure to follow this substack where I will share more findings and musing I have over AI in the day job.