AI SEO, also known as AEO or Answer Engine Optimisation, is the practice of making your business visible, trusted and recommended by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok. Here is exactly what that means and how it works.
AI SEO is the process of optimising a website and its content so that AI systems can find, understand, trust and recommend it when answering a user's question. Where traditional SEO is concerned with ranking in Google's list of search results, AI SEO is concerned with being the answer itself, the business an AI system names directly when someone asks for a recommendation.
The term is sometimes used interchangeably with AEO, Answer Engine Optimisation, and GEO, Generative Engine Optimisation. All three refer to broadly the same discipline, optimising for AI driven search rather than traditional ranked results.
Traditional SEO focuses on ranking a webpage as highly as possible in Google's search results, optimising for keywords, backlinks and technical performance so a page appears as close to position one as possible.
AI SEO has a different end goal. Rather than aiming for a high ranking position, it aims to be the specific business, product or service an AI system names when generating an answer. A user does not see a list of ten results, they see one confident recommendation, and the goal is to be in that recommendation.
Despite this difference, AI SEO is not a separate discipline built from scratch. Most AI systems, including ChatGPT when browsing, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot, rely on web crawling and search indexes, including Google's and Bing's, to source the content they cite. Google AI Overviews and Gemini draw directly from Google's own index. This means a website with weak technical SEO, thin content or poor crawlability will struggle to be cited by AI regardless of how well it is optimised for AI specifically.
In practice, strong AI SEO is built on strong traditional SEO foundations, with an additional layer of optimisation focused on structure, clarity and direct answers that AI systems can extract and cite confidently.
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Each AI platform works slightly differently, draws from different sources, and favours different types of content. Understanding these differences is central to doing AI SEO properly.
The most widely used AI assistant in the UK. When web browsing is enabled, ChatGPT searches the web for current information and tends to cite well structured, authoritative pages that are frequently referenced elsewhere.
Appears directly within Google's standard search results. Draws on Google's existing search index, so traditional Google ranking factors have a direct influence on whether a page is included here.
Google's standalone AI assistant, separate from AI Overviews. Has access to Google's index and tends to favour established domains with strong authority and trust signals.
Built specifically as an AI search engine. Actively crawls and cites sources, displaying its references clearly. Responds well to structured, factual content that directly answers specific questions. Growing quickly among UK professionals and researchers.
Integrated into the X platform and gaining ground, particularly for real time and trending topics. Draws on both web content and live social conversation, giving it a distinct character compared to other platforms.
Built on GPT-4 and uses Bing's search index. Strong presence in business contexts due to its integration into Microsoft 365, making it influential in B2B research and procurement.
A growing proportion of UK consumers and business buyers now use AI tools as a starting point for research, comparison and recommendations, often before ever opening Google. This shift is accelerating, not slowing down. Businesses that are not visible within AI generated answers are, in effect, invisible to a growing portion of their market, regardless of how well they rank on Google itself.
Our free AI SEO audit shows you exactly how visible your business is across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Grok and Google AI Overviews today.
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