- Chapter 1 – From Google to ChatGPT: The New Search Era
- Chapter 2 – What Is AI Search Engine Optimization?
- Chapter 3 – How AI Decides and Ranks Your Content?
- Chapter 4: How to Rank in AI Answers (3 Key Tactics That Work for GPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.)
- Chapter 5: Tactic 3 – Technical SEO and AISEO Performance Measurement
In the previous chapter, we established the major shift in search and how it is no longer just about blue links and “googling” stuff. It’s more about intelligent, intent-driven answers.
Your audience is using AI for making searches, comparing, and making buying decisions. Many of the doubts and ambiguities about your brand and product can already be taken care of by AI.
And to appear in AI-generated answers, traditional SEO alone is not enough.
So, what exactly is AISEO or AI Search Engine Optimization?
At its simplest: AISEO is SEO for AI answers.
It’s the practice of structuring your content and executing some other technical aspects so that AI systems can read it, understand it, and trust it enough to recommend it.
Let us first clarify all the buzzwords circling around for the past couple of years related to AISEO. We dive deeper into how AI SEO works in chapter 3.
You can skip this section and go to Chapter-3 if you like. All these buzzwords essentially mean the same thing – optimizing for AI platforms.
Throughout this guide, we’ll use AISEO as the umbrella term. But if you’ve been wondering what each of these terms actually means, this section will clear up the confusion once and for all.
AEO – Answer Engine Optimization
This is where it all started. AEO emerged with the rise of zero-click searches, featured snippets, and voice assistants, when Google began pulling answers directly from webpages so users didn’t need to visit the site. It’s about delivering direct answers instantly (think Google AI Overviews). You can optimize for AEO using schema markup, FAQs, AI-optimized summaries, and other techniques layered on top of SEO.
GEO – Generative Engine Optimization
GEO came with the rise of AI-powered search engines or AI models or LLMs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Unlike AEO, where Google pulls text directly, GEO tools extract and synthesise information from multiple sources to create the most suitable response. They don’t quote your words verbatim; they generate a tailored response for their user informed by your content. To be cited or sourced, you need comprehensive content, reliable authority, strong internet presence, and clear structure, all on top of SEO basics (detailed discussion later).
AISEO – AI Search Engine Optimization
AISEO refers to the extended SEO strategies used to optimize content for AI answers. In this book, we’ll use AISEO as the umbrella term.
LLMO – Large Language Model Optimization
LLMO is about structuring content so Large Language Models like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity can read, interpret, and cite it correctly. It is synonymous with GEO and AISEO. Effective strategies include semantic clarity, proper use of schema, and being referenced by high-authority sources.
AIO – Artificial Intelligence Optimization
AIO is AI Optimization for inclusion in the AI model’s training data. It is very difficult to influence the model’s training data as compared to its live search (more on this later).
SXO – Search Experience Optimization
SXO is about site optimization for a better user experience, so when visitors find your website via search, they also convert.
RAG – Retrieval Augmented Generation
RAG combines retrieval-based and generation-based models in NLP (Natural Language Processing). In the retrieval stage, the model fetches information from external sources (databases, APIs, documents). In the generation stage, it integrates that data into the prompt, producing factually grounded answers. Mastering RAG is central to influencing how AI cites and uses your content.
You’ll come across other phrases like “Answer-first Content,” “RAG-ready Content,” or “AI-native SEO.” All these phrases (including the ones above except SXO) circle around the same idea: creating content not just for human readers, but for AI systems that generate answers.
End of Chapter 2
So far, we have established that SEO is clearly not dead, but adopting AISEO, which is an extension of SEO, is the need of the hour.
Traditional SEO will always matter, but AISEO ensures you stay visible in the new era of AI search.
In the next chapter, we’ll explore how AISEO actually works under the hood: how AI systems read, retrieve, and decide what content makes it into their answers.
