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What is the difference between GEO and SEO?

GEO gets your brand named inside AI answers, while SEO gets your pages ranked in the list of search results. They share a technical foundation but aim at different outcomes.

SEO optimises for a ranked list of links a user clicks through. GEO optimises for the single synthesised answer an AI assistant gives, where being cited matters more than ranking.

Both rely on crawlable, server-rendered HTML and structured data, so good technical SEO still supports GEO.

The biggest divergence is off-site: GEO depends heavily on third-party sources like Reddit and review sites, which AI engines cite far more than a typical search result page would reward.

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