SEO was about ranking in a list of links. GEO and AEO are about something different: showing up, accurately, inside the answer itself when someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI results about your category.
The two acronyms mean roughly the same thing and the industry has not picked a winner yet. GEO optimizes for generative engines, AEO for answer engines. You will also see "LLM visibility" and "AI search optimization". Same conversation, different badges.
Strip away the jargon and the actual practices are familiar: be clear about what you do, structure your content so machines can parse it, answer real questions directly, and be credible enough that other sites mention you. AI systems lean heavily on third-party sources, so what the wider internet says about you matters as much as your own website.
Why you keep hearing it
Because buyers have started asking AI for recommendations before visiting websites, and an industry of consultants and tools has formed around the anxiety. Some of it is useful. Some of it is the old SEO snake oil with a new label.
What it means for you
Before buying any GEO tool, do the free version: ask the AI assistants about your category and see if you appear, and how. I wrote about this properly in AI Search Is Changing How Brands Are Discovered.