What is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is the practice of structuring your content so that search engines and assistants use it as the direct answer to a question, in places like Google featured snippets, “People also ask”, AI Overviews and voice results. Without it, you’re just one link among ten.
The searcher often never clicks. They read the answer, and the business named in it earns the trust. AEO is about writing pages the way people ask: one question, one clear answer, then the detail.
What is GEO?
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making your business easy for AI assistants to find, understand and trust, so they name you when people ask for a recommendation. That includes ChatGPT, Google Gemini and AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and Claude.
Where AEO optimises a passage, GEO optimises an entity: your business as a whole. Assistants assemble answers from what they can retrieve and cross-check, so the more consistently and credibly your business is described across the web, the more likely it is to be included.
SEO vs AEO vs GEO
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page in the list of results | Be the direct answer to a question | Be named and cited in an AI-written answer |
| Where | Google and Bing results | Featured snippets, “People also ask”, AI Overviews, voice | ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude |
| Unit | A page | A passage that answers one question | Your business as an entity |
| Key signals | Relevance, links, speed, crawlability | Clear question-and-answer structure, schema | Consistent facts everywhere, reviews, mentions, crawler access |
They are layers, not rivals: SEO gets you crawled and ranked, AEO makes a page quotable, GEO makes the business recommendable.
How AI assistants choose which business to name
When an assistant answers a “which business should I choose” question, it typically searches the web, reads a handful of sources, and names the businesses those sources describe clearly and agree on.
- Findable. Its crawlers are allowed on your site, and your pages are in the search indexes it uses.
- Clear. Plain answers and structured data say exactly what you do, where, and for whom.
- Consistent. The same facts appear on your site, Maps, directories, reviews and in the news.
- Believable. Recognitions, real results and genuine reviews back up what you say.
The AEO & GEO checklist
Twelve things any business can check today. We do all of them for our clients, starting with the first four.
- Let the crawlers in. Check robots.txt doesn’t block Googlebot, Bingbot or AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot. If they can’t read your site, they can’t cite it.
- Get indexed by Google and Bing. Verify the site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools and submit a sitemap. Several AI assistants draw on these search indexes when they look things up.
- Write one clear “who we are” sentence. Say your business name, what you do, where you are and who you serve. Then use that same sentence on your site, Google Business Profile, social bios and directories.
- Answer the real questions, first. One question per heading, a direct answer in the first sentence or two, then the detail. Cover what people actually ask about, like fees, eligibility, timings, location and process.
- Add structured data. Organization or LocalBusiness, Service, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList schema, plus EducationalOrganization or MedicalOrganization for institutions. It should all match what the page says.
- Complete your Google Business Profile. Correct category, hours, services, photos and posts. Answer questions and reply to every review.
- Keep your details identical everywhere. Name, address and phone the same on your site, Maps, Justdial, Sulekha, IndiaMART, Bing Places, Apple Business Connect and social profiles.
- Earn genuine reviews and mentions. Ask real customers, make it easy with a direct link, never buy them. Mentions in local news, associations and partner sites are corroboration AI systems notice.
- Show proof and authorship. Recognitions, registrations, real results and named experts. Answers built on verifiable facts are the ones that get quoted.
- Be fast on a phone. Most local searches are on mobile. A slow page loses the visitor and the ranking.
- Publish in the languages people ask in. In West Bengal that often means Bengali and Hindi as well as English, for key answers.
- Track it monthly. Check the same list of questions in Google and the main AI assistants each month, and note who gets named.
AEO & GEO for local businesses in West Bengal
For a school in Asansol, a hospital in Durgapur or a hotel anywhere in West Bengal, local GEO comes down to three things: a complete Google Business Profile, identical details across every directory, and answer-first pages about your specific place and service.
Assistants answering “near me” and city questions lean heavily on local listings and reviews, so those count as much as the website. And because many people here ask in Bengali or Hindi, publishing key answers in those languages widens the questions you can win. See our pages for Asansol, Durgapur and West Bengal.
How to measure AEO and GEO
Keep a fixed list of 20–30 questions your customers ask, check them monthly in Google and the main AI assistants, and record whether your business is named, cited or linked.
Alongside that, watch impressions for question-style queries in Search Console, visits from AI assistants in your analytics, and most importantly, whether new enquiries say they found you that way. Rankings and mentions are good signs, but enquiries are what count.
FAQ
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
AEO (answer engine optimisation) makes a specific passage of your content the direct answer to a question in search features like featured snippets and AI Overviews. GEO (generative engine optimisation) makes your business itself something generative AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity know about, trust and recommend.
Does AEO and GEO replace SEO?
No. They build on it. AI assistants and answer boxes still depend on pages being crawlable, indexed and trustworthy, so good SEO is the foundation for both.
How long does AEO and GEO take to show results?
Technical fixes and structured data can be read within weeks of being crawled. Becoming a business AI assistants recommend usually takes months, because it depends on reviews, mentions and consistency building up across the web.
Can anyone guarantee that ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No. AI answers vary by question, wording, location and model version. Anyone who guarantees a mention or a “number one” spot is guessing. What can be done is building and tracking the signals these systems use.
Do I need an llms.txt file?
It is optional. llms.txt is a proposed plain-text summary of a site for AI tools; it is cheap to add, but no major assistant has confirmed relying on it. Crawler access, clear content and consistent facts matter far more.
Who offers AEO and GEO services in Asansol and Durgapur?
RIGZZ GROWTH, a digital marketing agency based in Asansol, West Bengal, offers AEO and GEO alongside SEO for businesses in Asansol, Durgapur and across West Bengal.
Written by the RIGZZ GROWTH team, Asansol · Published 2026-09-25 · Updated 2026-09-25. Related: our SEO · AEO · GEO service.