AI SEO vs Traditional SEO: What GEO and AEO Actually Change

On 18 September 2026 we searched Google Malaysia twice, logged out. For a narrow search naming a partner programme we belong to, our page ranked second, and the AI Overview, the AI-written summary in Google's results, named us.

For a broad search for our service category, the AI Overview named six companies. We were not among them, and not in the top twenty results either. At least one company it did name was also outside the top twenty.

That is the AI SEO vs traditional SEO question in one example. Being named in the AI answer does not require a page-one ranking, so a rankings report alone cannot tell you whether customers hear your name.

The pattern is not only ours. An SEO software company put 15,000 long-tail (specific, multi-word) questions to Google and the AI assistants in early July 2025. On average, it found, "only 12% of links cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot appear in Google's top 10 results for the same prompt".

Our view is that AI SEO is ordinary SEO with two additions. You earn mentions on the sites AI answers read, and you measure AI visibility separately from rankings.

AI SEO, GEO and AEO, defined

Traditional SEO is the work of ranking in Google's list of results. In our experience most of it comes down to crawlable pages, pages that answer what people actually search, and links from other sites.

AI SEO is getting your business found in those results and in the answers ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews give when a customer asks who to call.

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. The term comes from a 2023 research paper, later published at the KDD 2024 conference, which described it as a way "to aid content creators in improving their content visibility in generative engine responses".

Its headline figure, "up to 40%", was measured on two proxy metrics against an AI engine the authors built themselves, not on clicks or enquiries.

AEO stands for answer engine optimisation, a related term that Google names alongside GEO. In Malaysia the same letters also belong to the Royal Malaysian Customs Department's Authorised Economic Operator programme, a supply-chain security accreditation for companies that move goods in international trade, running since 2010. It has nothing to do with search.

For Google, they are the same work. It says in its AI optimisation guide that "optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO".

Bing frames it differently, describing its own citation reporting as an early step toward GEO tooling.

Google's list of things you do not need

Anyone selling you a special AI file or markup is selling something Google says you do not need. Its documentation on AI features is unusually direct:

"There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary."

It adds that you do not need "new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup". Nor do you need special schema.org structured data, the hidden code some sites add to describe themselves to search engines.

Since 15 June 2026 Google has also stated that its Search ignores llms.txt files, a plain-text summary some sites publish for AI crawlers. Many suggested AEO and GEO "hacks", in its words, are not effective or supported.

To be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet, the short text under a result. The site must also be included in Search Console's generative AI features setting, which is on by default.

We keep an llms.txt file for other AI systems. Google calls that "completely fine", but says it will "neither harm nor help" your visibility in Google Search, so nobody should sell it to you as a Google fix.

The foundations have not moved

Google's AI answers are built on Google Search. It describes them as retrieving pages "by relying on our core Search ranking systems". A page Google cannot index cannot be a link in its AI Overview.

Three foundations matter in both kinds of SEO:

• Crawlable pages. Google tells site owners to "ensure your content is crawlable" for its AI features. That means allowing crawlers in robots.txt, the file that tells them what they may read, and at the CDN, the network that serves your site.
• Pages that say plainly what you do and where. This is our advice rather than a rule any engine publishes. A line such as aircond servicing in Shah Alam and Klang is easier for any system to repeat than quality climate care for every need. Google does say AI answers can include local business information, and that a Google Business Profile "can help" you appear in them.
• Content that answers real questions. Google says content people find "unique, compelling, and useful will likely influence your website's presence in generative AI search in the long run more than any of the other suggestions" in its guide.

Crawl access now reaches beyond Google. OpenAI says sites that block its search crawler, OAI-SearchBot, "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers, though can still appear as navigational links". Perplexity recommends allowing its crawler "to ensure your site appears in search results". Check your robots.txt and firewall before spending anything on content.

Four things AI answers change

The answer is a shortlist. An AI Overview occupies one position in Google, and every link inside it shares that position. If it names four companies and you are not one of them, you are missing from the summary itself. It does not appear on every search either; Google says AI Overviews "often don't trigger".

Does that cut clicks? Google says total organic click volume has been "relatively stable year-over-year", and that clicks from results pages with AI Overviews are "higher quality". It publishes no rate, so treat both as Google's own claims.

Most cited links are not in Google's top 10. In the study quoted above, for ChatGPT's in-text citations alone, the overlap with Google's top 10 was 8%. The authors note their results "may have changed" since.

What other sites say about you can show up in the answer. Google says its AI features "can show what's being said about products and services across the web, including in blogs, videos, and forum discussions".

It also warns that chasing inauthentic mentions "isn't as helpful as it might seem". Our broad category search results were led by government pages and "top 10" directory lists, and on a separate company search the AI Overview cited a third-party agency directory as a source. That is an observation, not proof that listings cause citations.

Measurement has to be done separately. Search Console is Google's free report on how your site performs in search. Since 31 August 2026 it has had a report for AI Overviews and AI Mode.

That report only counts how often you appeared, not whether you were named or clicked. Bing Webmaster Tools, in public preview since February 2026, reports how often Copilot and Bing AI answers cite your pages, though only as a sample.

For ChatGPT and Gemini, ask them your customers' questions every month and write down who is named and which sources are cited. Ask the way your customers ask, in Bahasa Malaysia or Chinese as well as English if that is how they search. Our guide on how to get recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews sets out that routine step by step.

Of these four, off-site mentions and separate measurement are where the extra work goes.

When to hire a human-led agency instead

There are three jobs where a human specialist is the better purchase.

• Digital PR in crowded national markets. Getting a publication or industry body to write about you is relationship work, and other sites' mentions can now show up in AI answers. If the AI answer for your category, say private hospitals or property, lists the big national names, site fixes are unlikely to be enough on their own. You need a campaign.
• Complex migrations. Moving platforms or restructuring a multi-language site means redirecting every old address, and that needs a specialist who owns the outcome.
• Commercial strategy. Which market to enter and which service line deserves investment is business judgement, informed by search data rather than derived from it.

If your bottleneck is one of these, hire a good agency and pay properly for it.

Questions to ask anyone selling AI SEO, GEO or AEO

• Do you measure AI answers separately from Google rankings? Ask to see the list of customer questions and the monthly results.
• Do you record the sources the AI answers cite? They tell you where to earn mentions next.
• Do you guarantee citations or rankings? A yes is a red flag. Google itself says a page meeting every requirement is still not guaranteed to be indexed or shown.
• Is the "AI" part a file or a piece of markup? Ask what Google says about it.
• Who reviews content before it goes live? Publishing unreviewed AI pages at volume is a red flag. Google's spam policy lists "using generative AI tools or other similar tools to generate many pages without adding value for users" as scaled content abuse.
• Can you get us press coverage? If you need national PR, a monitoring plan alone will not do it, ours included.
• What exactly will you do in month two? A serious provider can answer in detail.

Which to buy: an AI SEO plan, an agency or a migration specialist

• You run a local business, say a clinic group in the Klang Valley, and you want to know whether AI answers name you: an AI SEO plan with visibility tracking.
• You compete for national category answers or need press coverage: a human-led agency with real PR capability, possibly alongside a monitoring plan.
• You already have an agency you trust: ask them the questions above, and add AI visibility tracking if they do not measure it.
• You are moving your site to a new platform: a migration specialist first, everything else after.

For the first case, our AI SEO service starts at RM899 a month for Essential as of September 2026, with Growth at RM1,999 and Managed from RM3,800, all month to month. Every plan asks ChatGPT, Gemini and Google AI Overviews 10, 25 or 50 of your customers' questions each month and records who is named and which sources are cited.

New pages, rewritten copy, prices and claims always wait for your approval. On Growth, some reversible technical changes, such as titles and meta descriptions, can apply without waiting. How our AI SEO agent works covers the detail, and our SEO price guide for Malaysia covers the wider market.

None of these routes can promise you a place in an AI answer. What you can insist on is honest work and a monthly record of whether it is showing up.

Frequently asked questions