The New SEO Terms

These new SEO terms are not new disciplines that can suddenly be mastered. They are attempts to describe a landscape where ranking, clicks, and visibility are no longer tightly connected. To use them correctly, it is necessary to understand what they point to—and just as importantly, what they do not.

Traditional SEO – the reference point

Classic SEO was about ranking in search results. A list of alternatives, where the goal was to appear high enough to earn a click. Competition was visible, and the rules were relatively stable. For many small and medium-sized businesses, this was for a long time a rational, long-term strategy.

This foundation still matters. Websites must still be understandable, technically sound, and easy for systems to interpret. But the role SEO plays today is not the same as it was before. It is no longer where the real battle for attention is decided.

GEO – Generative Engine Optimization

GEO is currently the fastest-growing term in the industry, and also the most misunderstood.

While traditional SEO focused on ranking in a list, GEO is about something entirely different: the probability that generative systems use your information when constructing an answer. In generative engines, there is no page one. There is one answer—or a very limited set of sources.

GEO therefore does not describe optimization for visibility in the classic sense, but optimization for usage. Either your information is used as part of the answer, or it is absent altogether. This is a binary outcome, not a gradual climb.

Precision matters here. GEO does not provide control over visibility. At best, it increases probability. These systems favor clarity, unambiguous definitions, consistent subject focus, and broad authority. That makes GEO a long-term authority game, not a tactical lever.

AEO – Answer Engine Optimization

AEO is an older term that has gained renewed relevance with AI.

Originally associated with voice search and Google Featured Snippets, AEO today refers to structuring content so it delivers direct, concise answers to specific questions. This is the type of information generative systems can easily extract and reuse, often through Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG).

AEO is less about visibility as an end goal and more about clarity. When a question can be answered cleanly and without interpretation, the likelihood of reuse increases. In practice, AEO is a tactical subset of GEO rather than a separate discipline.

LLMO – Large Language Model Optimization

LLMO is the most technical—and least practical—term in this context.

It describes how brands, concepts, and perspectives are represented over time in the training foundations of language models. This happens indirectly, through mentions in open sources, academic or professional contexts, and consistent terminology across many platforms.

The key point is this: LLMO is not something you can actively optimize through actions. It is the result of broad authority and long-term presence. For most businesses, it is an outcome—not a strategy.

When LLMO is marketed as a service or method, it is often a sign that the term is being used more commercially than accurately.

Other terms you will encounter

Beyond GEO, AEO, and LLMO, a range of additional labels is emerging. Terms like “AI SEO,” “entity-based SEO,” and similar expressions are often used to describe different aspects of the same shift: search becoming more contextual, less click-driven, and more filtered.

What these terms have in common is that they attempt to describe how information is selected and presented—not that they introduce fundamentally new tools.

The most important distinction

The critical distinction is not between SEO and GEO, but between control and probability.

SEO, GEO, and AEO are all about increasing the likelihood of being found, used, or selected. None of them provide guarantees. Advertising remains the only system that offers direct control over visibility. Social platforms remain the primary space for building recognition and trust before demand arises.

The new SEO terms describe how systems work. They do not replace the need for distribution, visibility, and brand presence.

Why this matters

In a market where new terms appear faster than new solutions, it is easy to confuse linguistic precision with real impact. Understanding what GEO, AEO, and LLMO actually mean helps set realistic expectations and ask better questions.

For most organizations, this is not about choosing a new method, but about understanding that visibility is now created across multiple layers at once. The website remains an anchor point. SEO remains hygiene. But attention is increasingly decided before a search happens—or without a click ever occurring.

The new SEO terms are therefore best understood as maps, not instructions.