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 moment: 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.
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.
How they differ
- Goal: SEO aims to rank a page; AEO aims to get you cited in an answer.
- Format: SEO values links and keywords; AEO values self-contained paragraphs and structured data the AI can extract.
- Access: Googlebot has rendered JavaScript for years; many AI bots do not, so content hidden behind JS is invisible to them.
- Measurement: in SEO you watch positions and clicks; in AEO you watch whether you appear and how models describe you.
A concrete example
Imagine a comparison page for your product. For SEO you care about the title, internal links, and the keyword alternative to X. For AEO you care that the comparison table is in readable HTML (not an image), that there is a paragraph summarizing plainly why to choose you, and that a Product schema makes clear what the page is. Same page, two layers of work.
Why you need both
Google has not disappeared and organic traffic still pays the bills. But more and more decisions start in an AI chat, and there the winner takes all. Ignoring AEO means letting AI describe your category without you. See how to start in our AEO guide.
The good news
Almost all AEO work also reinforces your SEO: clean HTML, structured data, clear content. 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 AEO pillar, and it tells you what is missing in each with a fix prompt to paste into your AI. All through read-only checks on what is already public on your site.