A few years ago there was one acronym to worry about. Now there are three, and plenty of people are happy to sell you a service for each. Before you pay for anything, it helps to know what the words mean.
SEO: search engine optimisation
This is the old one. It means setting your website up so Google understands what you do and where you do it, and shows you to people searching for that.
Most of it is not clever. It is the page titles saying the right thing, the headings on each page describing what the page is about, your suburb and service area written down in words rather than hidden in a picture, the site loading quickly on a phone, and your business details matching your Google Business Profile.
If you have ever wondered why you do not appear for your own trade, why your website is not showing up on Google walks through the usual causes.
AEO: answer engine optimisation
Google no longer just lists websites. For many searches it puts an answer at the top of the page, pulled from a website it trusts, and often an AI written summary above that. AEO is the practice of being the site that answer comes from.
What that takes, in practice, is writing the way people ask. A plumber's page that says "Do you do emergency call outs on weekends? Yes, across the northern Gold Coast, and here is what it costs after hours" is far more likely to be lifted into an answer than a page of adjectives. Short, direct questions and answers on your pages, the kind you already give on the phone ten times a week, are the raw material.
GEO: generative engine optimisation
This is the newest one, and the name is awful. It means being the business that ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and the rest name when somebody asks them a question like "who does bathroom renovations in Tweed Heads".
Those assistants read websites to answer. Three things decide whether yours is in the running:
- They are allowed in. Some website platforms quietly block AI assistants from reading your site by default. It is usually one setting, and if it is switched off you are invisible to those answers no matter how good the site is.
- The facts are plain. Your business name, what you do, where you work, your phone number and your opening hours, written in ordinary text on the page. An assistant cannot read a phone number that only exists inside a logo.
- The story is consistent. The same business name and address on your website, your Google Business Profile, Facebook and the directories. Mismatches make a machine, like a person, less sure it has the right business.
What all three have in common
Look back over the list and notice how much repeats. Clear words about what you do and where. Pages that load fast on a phone. Business details that match everywhere. Honest answers to the questions people actually ask.
That is not three jobs. It is one job, done properly, which is why we do not sell SEO, AEO or GEO as separate things. A website built right covers the foundations of all three on day one. What to put on your homepage is most of the work in a single page.
What to be careful of
Guarantees. Nobody can promise you a position in Google or a mention from an AI assistant. The companies do not sell those spots, and anyone who says otherwise is guessing with your money.
Monthly fees for mysterious work. If you are paying for ongoing optimisation, ask to see what was changed this month and what moved as a result. Website care plans covers the questions to ask.
Chasing the acronym instead of the customer. The businesses that do well out of all this are the ones that answer real questions plainly. Write for the person ringing you, and the machines tend to follow.
A simple check you can do today
Ask an AI assistant the question a customer would ask about your trade and your area. See who it names. Then search the same thing in Google and look at what sits at the top. If you are not there, the fix is almost always one of the plain things above, not a secret.