AI SEO is the evolution of search optimisation for a world where customers discover information through both traditional search engines and AI-powered search experiences. It combines established SEO fundamentals — technical accessibility, useful content, relevance, authority and strong site structure — with an increased focus on making expertise clear, well organised and easy for search and AI systems to understand. Google explicitly states that its existing SEO best practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode.

AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. At Catalyse Digital, we use the term to describe structuring and improving content so that it clearly answers the questions prospective customers are asking — whether those answers appear in conventional search results, featured answer experiences or AI-powered search interfaces.

AEO complements SEO rather than replacing it. The objective is to make useful answers easier to find, understand and associate with your business’s expertise.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It describes approaches intended to improve how content is discovered, represented or cited within generative search and AI answer environments. The term was formalised in academic research on optimising visibility within generative engines.

For businesses, the practical focus should remain on creating authoritative, relevant and well-structured information rather than trying to manipulate individual AI systems.

No. GEO does not replace SEO.

Strong technical SEO, crawlability, indexing, relevant content and helpful information remain foundational. For Google’s own AI search features, Google states that there are no additional technical requirements beyond the normal requirements for appearing in Search, and that existing SEO best practices continue to apply.

We therefore treat SEO, AEO and GEO as connected parts of a broader search-visibility strategy rather than completely separate disciplines.

Start by becoming genuinely useful and authoritative around the problems your buyers are researching.

That typically means strengthening technical SEO, creating clear expert-led content, covering important topics in depth, answering relevant buyer questions, improving internal site structure and ensuring important pages can be crawled and indexed. Google advises site owners to continue focusing on helpful, reliable, people-first content for its AI search features.

For B2B companies, this is particularly important because buyers often research complex questions long before they contact a supplier.

No. Structured data can help search engines understand information on a page, but it does not guarantee visibility, rankings, rich results or inclusion in AI-generated answers.

Google explicitly states that even correctly implemented structured data does not guarantee that a search feature will appear.

Structured data should therefore support a strong content and technical foundation — not be treated as a shortcut to AI visibility.

Not for Google’s AI search experiences.

Google states that there are no additional technical requirements or special optimisations required to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. A page must fundamentally be indexable and eligible to appear in normal Google Search.

Standard technical SEO, appropriate structured data, accessible content and strong information architecture remain more important than adding unsupported “AI-only” markup.

No. No credible provider should guarantee specific organic rankings, AI citations or inclusion in generated answers.

Search and generative systems determine which sources appear based on many changing factors, and even technically compliant content is not guaranteed to be surfaced.

Catalyse Digital instead focuses on strengthening the technical, content, relevance and authority signals that improve your business’s opportunity to be discovered across traditional and AI-powered search.