SEO optimizes for traditional blue-link search results. AEO optimizes for AI-generated answers. SEO success looks like ranking number one in Google. AEO success looks like ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google's AI Overview citing your website as the answer source. The signals that matter for each overlap but are not the same. A site can rank number one in Google and still be invisible to AI search, or the other way around.
