Two different ways of being found
Classic SEO optimizes for one moment: someone types something into Google and chooses among several results. AEO optimizes for another: someone asks an AI assistant and gets a pre-chewed answer. In the first case you compete for a click; in the second, for a mention inside the answer. It is not SEO versus AEO: it is SEO plus AEO. This guide covers what they share, how they differ, where they clash and how to work both layers on the same page without doubling the effort.
What they share
More than it seems. Both reward useful content, technically healthy sites and clear structure. If your site loads fast, has honest titles and truly answers what people are looking for, you are already halfway there for both. Neither works with filler. And both depend on the same foundation: that the crawler can read your page. Googlebot and the AI bots come in through the same door, the HTML your server serves.
How they differ
- Goal. SEO aims to rank a page; AEO aims to get you cited inside an answer.
- Unit of work. In SEO the unit is the page and its keyword; in AEO it is the paragraph that answers a question and can be extracted as is.
- Access. Googlebot has rendered JavaScript for years, if late; many AI bots do not, so content hidden behind JS is invisible to them.
- Authority signals. SEO weighs links; AEO weighs consistent mentions of your brand across many sources, with or without a link.
- Outcome. On Google there are ten positions and a second page; in an AI answer there is room for two or three names and nothing else.
- Measurement. In SEO you watch positions, impressions and clicks in Search Console; in AEO you watch whether you appear, how you are described and what traffic arrives from the assistants.
A concrete example
Imagine a comparison page of your product against an alternative. For SEO you care about the title, internal links, the keyword alternative to X and fast loading. For AEO you care that the comparison table is in readable HTML (not an image), that there is a paragraph at the top summarizing in two sentences why to choose you, that each criterion has its own heading and that a Product or SoftwareApplication block states unambiguously what the page is. Same page, two layers of work. And the layers reinforce each other: the summary paragraph also improves your click-through rate on Google.
Where they clash (and how to resolve it)
There are three usual frictions. The first is the long introduction: old-school SEO rewarded a thousand words before getting to the point; AEO wants the answer in the first two sentences. Today Google prefers the latter too, so there is no real conflict. The second is content in visual format: an infographic or a video may earn links, but to AI they do not exist; always accompany them with text. The third is pagination and "hub" pages that only link out: useful for internal SEO, nothing citable for AEO. Keep them, but make each destination page stand on its own.
Both layers on a single page
A practical list for any public page:
- A title that is the exact question or topic, and a meta description with the short answer.
- A first paragraph that answers without detours; the nuances afterwards.
- One heading per sub-question; no walls of text.
- Concrete facts: figures, names, dates, prices.
- Tables and lists in HTML, not in images.
- Structured data consistent with what is visible.
- A visible updated date.
- Internal links to related pages and, where appropriate, to external sources.
If your app was built with an AI tool and the HTML arrives empty, none of this matters until you fix it: start with why AI-built apps are invisible to AI.
Why you need both
Google has not disappeared and organic traffic still pays the bills. But more and more decisions start in a chat with an AI, and there the winner takes all. Ignoring AEO means letting AI describe your category without you. Ignoring SEO means giving up the channel that brings most visits today. See how to start in our AEO guide.
What to prioritize if you are short on time
For a freshly launched app, the order that pays most is: content that arrives in the HTML, bots not blocked, one clear sentence defining the product repeated everywhere, structured data on home and product, and then content that answers concrete questions. All of that serves both channels at once. Link building and external authority come later and feed both as well.
The good news
Almost all AEO work also reinforces your SEO: clean HTML, structured data, clear content, authority. You are not building two houses, you are putting a new roof on the one you already have.
Scanaris looks at both layers
Scanaris has a separate SEO pillar and AI visibility pillar, and it tells you what is missing in each with a fix prompt to paste into your AI. The SEO one reviews titles, metadata, links, sitemap and structured data; the AI one, readability without JavaScript, robots.txt, llms.txt and how models describe you. All through read-only checks on what is already public on your site.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to choose between SEO and AEO?
No. They share most of the work and are measured in different places. Do first what serves both: readable HTML, clear structure, structured data and content that answers.
Are Google's AI summaries SEO or AEO?
Both: they feed on Google's index, so you need to be indexed (SEO), but they pick citable fragments (AEO). They are the best example of why both layers live on the same page.
Which metric do I watch first?
In SEO, impressions and average position in Search Console for your key pages. In AEO, a monthly round of questions to three assistants, noting whether you appear and whether they describe you correctly. Those two are enough to decide what to touch.