AEO vs SEO: What's the Difference?
SEO gets clicks. AEO gets citations. Both drive organic traffic, but they optimize for different outcomes. This guide breaks down the key differences and helps you decide where to focus.
AEO vs SEO: Quick Comparison
| Factor | AEO | SEO |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Goal | Be cited by AI assistants | Rank higher in search results |
| Leading Ranking Factors | Referring domains + content freshness | Backlinks + content quality |
| Time to Results | 30-60 days | 6-12 months |
| Content Format | Q&A structure, direct answers | Comprehensive, long-form |
| Author Importance | Critical (expert attribution) | Low (except E-E-A-T niches) |
| Update Frequency | Critical (12-month freshness) | Quarterly refreshes |
| Schema Importance | Helpful for structure (Article, Person) | Helpful but not required |
| Traffic Type | AI-referred (high trust) | Search clicks (volume) |
| Measurement | Citation rate, AI visibility | Rankings, organic traffic |
The Fundamental Difference
SEO asks: "How do I rank higher so more people click my link?"
AEO asks: "How do I become the source AI cites when answering questions?"
This matters because the signals are different. Google ranks pages based on backlinks, keywords, and user experience. AI assistants cite pages based on structured data, direct answers, and expert attribution. A page can rank #1 on Google but get zero AI citations — 80% of AI-cited sources don't rank on Google Page 1.
Key Differences at a Glance
| Factor | AEO | SEO |
|---|---|---|
| Top Signal | Referring domains + freshness | Content quality + backlinks |
| Time to Results | 30-60 days | 6-12 months |
| Content Format | Q&A, direct answers | Comprehensive long-form |
| Technical Foundation | SSR, schema, llms.txt | Core Web Vitals, crawlability |
| Measurement | Citation rate, AI visibility | Rankings, organic traffic |
Deep dives: Technical AEO Foundations · What Drives AI Citations · How to Measure AEO
The Traffic Decline Reality: What the Data Shows
Studies show organic traffic decline ranges from 5-25% depending on industry and query type. AI Overviews reduce click-through rates by approximately 35% when they appear, but they currently appear on roughly 30% of queries.1
This matters for resource allocation. SEO still drives the majority of discovery. AEO captures an emerging channel. Both warrant investment. Neither replaces the other.
Crawls Do Not Equal Citations
GPTBot can crawl your site 1,000 times without ChatGPT ever mentioning you.
Server logs showing AI crawler activity measure upstream visibility—bots accessing your content. This does not predict downstream outcomes—actual citations in user-facing responses. The two metrics have weak correlation.
Confusing crawl activity with citation success leads to misallocated effort. A site can achieve perfect technical accessibility for AI crawlers while producing content that LLMs never surface in answers.
Timeline implication: The 30-60 day timeline for AEO results holds when measuring actual citations, not crawler activity. Track what matters: mentions in AI responses, not bot visits in your logs.2
A Caveat on Q&A Formatting
Google has explicitly warned against artificially chunking content into FAQ-style blocks hoping for AI citations. Their guidance: "We don't want you to do that." The pattern will eventually be penalized.3
Answer questions naturally within comprehensive content. Do not restructure every page into synthetic Q&A grids.
Why You Need Both
Traditional search still drives 85-88% of web discovery. AI search captures 12-15% and is projected to reach 28%+ by 2027. Neglecting either leaves traffic on the table.
The good news: many optimizations benefit both. Seer Interactive found 0.65 correlation between organic rankings and LLM mentions—though this was measured on high-authority domains (1M+ monthly visits). For smaller sites, the correlation may be weaker.5 Quality content, domain authority, freshness, and clear structure help both AEO and SEO, but AEO has additional requirements around off-site presence and content structure.
Optimize Pages by Function
Not all pages serve the same purpose for AEO and SEO. Different page types require different optimization approaches:
Marketing Pages
(homepages, product pages, landing pages)
- SEO focus: Conversion, user experience, brand messaging
- AEO focus: Limited. AI rarely cites marketing pages directly. Focus on schema markup and brand entity signals.
Knowledge Pages
(blog posts, guides, help docs, glossaries)
- SEO focus: Keyword targeting, internal linking, search intent matching
- AEO focus: High priority. These are what AI systems cite. Structure for extraction.
Trying to optimize a marketing page for AI citations is often wasted effort. Concentrate AEO resources on your knowledge content.4
Where to Start
Start with AEO When:
- You rank well but aren't getting AI citations
- Your audience uses AI for research (B2B, technical)
- Competitors are being cited and you're not
- You need faster results (30-60 days)
Start with SEO When:
- You have zero organic visibility
- Your audience uses traditional Google search
- You have technical issues hurting crawlability
- You need volume at scale
The Off-Site Difference
This is where AEO diverges most sharply from traditional SEO. According to Profound research, 85% of AI mentions come from off-site sources—Reddit threads, YouTube transcripts, third-party reviews, help documentation. Your website is only 15% of the AEO equation.6
Traditional SEO is primarily an on-site discipline. AEO flips this ratio. If starting AEO from scratch, build your on-site foundation first (it establishes brand identity), but allocate more resources to off-site presence than you would for traditional SEO.
Key insight: AEO requires a solid technical foundation that most teams skip — and faces a measurement gap that makes ROI harder to prove. Understand both challenges before investing.
FAQ: AEO vs SEO
SEO optimizes for link clicks in search results (ranking higher = more clicks). AEO optimizes for being cited by AI assistants when they answer questions (being the source AI uses = direct recommendation). Different goals require different optimization signals.
You need both. SEO drives traditional search traffic (85-88% of web discovery). AEO captures the growing AI-first audience (12-15% and rising to 28%+ by 2027). Neglecting either leaves traffic on the table. Many optimizations (quality content, expertise signals) benefit both.
AEO is significantly faster. First AI citations typically appear within 30-60 days of implementation. SEO takes 6-12 months for ranking improvements. The difference comes from how AI processes structured data vs. how Google evaluates link signals over time.
Yes. The core AEO fundamentals (authority, freshness, quality content) also improve SEO. Our client data shows pages optimized for AEO often see Google ranking improvements as a side effect. You're not choosing between them - you're stacking benefits.
Referring domains (backlinks) emerged as the leading factor. SE Ranking's study of 129,000 domains found sites with 32K+ referring domains are 3.5x more likely to be cited by ChatGPT. Content freshness is another critical factor - 95% of citations come from content published in the last 10 months.
Content quality and backlinks are the leading factors. Google has shifted toward content that satisfies search intent, but quality backlinks from authoritative sites remain critical - especially for competitive niches.
Sources
- Traffic decline data from multiple industry studies, 2025-2026
- Cem Ozcelik, Digital Marketing Consultant — Crawls vs citations analysis
- Oren Greenberg, Founder of Kurve — Google Q&A formatting guidance
- Jessica Hennessey, Director at Siege Media — Page optimization by function
- Matthew Mellinger, SEO Lead at Seer Interactive — 0.65 correlation study
- Matt Hammel, VP of Marketing at Profound — 85/15 on-site vs off-site distribution
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