SEO and GEO, the difference in plain EnglishSSEEOO aanndd GGEEOO,, tthhee ddiiffffeerreennccee iinn ppllaaiinn EEnngglliisshh

You may have heard about SEO, then GEO, as two services to buy separately. In reality, the second one rests on the first. And since July 2026, Google has been writing answers of its own in France.

What is the difference between SEO and GEO?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is everything that gets you found in Google results. It's also called organic search, because you don't pay for your spot, unlike an ad.

GEO is everything that gets you cited in the answers of AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity. It stands for generative engine optimization. Generative engines are tools that write an answer instead of showing a list of links.

Take a roofer near Annecy, in the French Alps. SEO means showing up when someone types “roofer Annecy” into Google. GEO means being named when someone asks ChatGPT who to call about a roof leak nearby.

Why France has been talking about it since July 2026

On July 22, 2026, Google launched AI Overviews and AI Mode in France, where we work (announcement in French). An AI Overview is a summary written by Google, shown on the results page, with links to its sources. AI Mode is a conversation. You ask a question, then another, and Google answers by drawing on the web.

In early August, SE Ranking, an SEO software company, tested 100,000 searches in France across 20 industries: 52.6% of them already showed an AI Overview, from 20% to 87% depending on the industry, less than three weeks after launch.

And clicks? On a simple question, people can read the answer without ever opening your site. Ahrefs, another SEO software company, tracked 963 of the sites that get the most clicks in France (in French). Among the minority of sites where more than one search in five shows an AI Overview, the share of people who click fell 23.1% in nine days. Across all 963 sites, half lost more than 5.7% and half lost less. Ahrefs plans a new analysis over a longer period.

Ranking first is no longer enough: you also need to be the source Google and AI tools cite.

How does Google pick its sources?

The answer starts from pages Google already knows. Its index is the giant filing cabinet where it stores the pages it has read. To appear in its AI answers, a page first has to be in that cabinet, as its guide explains.

So what ranks you well on Google also brings you closer to its AI answers. But nothing is automatic. Nearly 4 in 10 cited pages come from further down. Because Google may run several searches at once, a page that answers a specific question well can get cited without ranking at the top of the main search.

Before an AI can cite you,it has to find you

What Google says about GEO

GEO is an easy sell right now. In May 2026, Google published an official guide to set things straight. In its view, optimizing for its generative AI search “is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.” There's no separate recipe.

The same guide lists what you can ignore for Google, and what it rejects. If someone tries to sell you one of these, ask questions.

What changes for you

The foundation stays the same, but three things change.

What others say about you

An AI tool doesn't read only your site. In the SE Ranking study, YouTube appears in 51.3% of AI Overviews in France, and Facebook ranks among the top five sources in 16 of 20 industries. Google confirms that its answers can draw on what's said in blogs, videos and forums. So your presence beyond your site becomes raw material for those answers.

The crawlers you need to let in

Google is no longer the only one reading your site. Each AI tool sends its own crawlers, each with its own name. To appear in answers that use web search, they are OAI-SearchBot for ChatGPT, Claude-SearchBot for Claude and PerplexityBot for Perplexity. Overly strict protection can stop them without you knowing. ChatGPT and Claude also rely partly on partner search engines, such as Bing for ChatGPT and Brave for Claude. We explain how to check all of this in What Google and AI read on your site.

How you measure

On Google, you can track your ranking. In an AI answer, there's no stable ranking, because the answer changes every time. So you track what keeps coming up, month after month.

Where to start

Everything below serves both SEO and GEO. Work through it in this order.

Open the door

Check that Google and AI crawlers can read your pages. A blocked crawler reads nothing, and everything else depends on this. Since the French launch, Search Console, Google's free tool for site owners, also lets you remove a site from Google's AI answers: make sure yours isn't excluded.

Answer your customers' real questions

Take what people ask you on the phone and answer it on your site, drawing on your own experience. Google writes that unique, useful content will likely matter most in the long run. A roofer who explains what to check first on a roof after a storm offers more than a list of general tips.

Keep your Google profile up to date

Your Google Business Profile carries your name, hours, phone number and reviews. Google says it can make you more visible, in its AI answers as well as its classic results.

Get talked about for real

Ask every customer for a review and reply to each one. Show up where people look for your trade: reputable directories, partners, local press. Manufactured mentions help less than people claim.

Measure every month

Track your Google clicks and your AI citations every month. The method is in How to tell if AI tools cite you.

SEO is long-term work: plan on 3 to 6 months for solid, lasting results. Some technical or local fixes pay off sooner. And be wary of anyone who guarantees you the top spot. You can buy an ad. You can't buy a spot in organic results or in the text of an AI answer.

GEO doesn't replace SEO. It's a reminder of what a good site is for: answering real questions clearly.

Would you rather focus on your business? We work on both together, and a person follows up with you every month.