What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the work that makes a website easy for search engines to crawl, index and understand, and useful for the people searching. It covers the technical side, meaning speed, structure and indexing, the content of the pages, and external signals such as links and mentions from other websites. The goal is to appear in the results when people search for what the company offers.
Google asks for content written for people first, not to manipulate rankings, and gives weight to experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust (E-E-A-T), as explained in Google Search Central’s guide to helpful content. That is why good SEO starts from pages that genuinely answer the audience’s questions, signed by real people.
What is GEO?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the set of actions that make it more likely for a brand, a product or a page to be used and cited in the answers of generative engines, the systems that search the web and write an answer with its sources. The work covers clear, verifiable content, consistent data about the company and a presence on authoritative external sources.
The term comes from the research paper “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues, presented at the KDD 2024 conference. In their experiments some changes to content increased visibility in generated answers by up to 40%, with very different results from one domain to another: it is a lab result, not a promise for any single website.
What is AEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) prepares content for systems that give a direct answer instead of a list of links: AI answers in search engines, assistants such as ChatGPT or Perplexity, and voice assistants. In practice it means writing pages that answer real questions straight away and precisely, with question-shaped headings, a short answer at the top and the details right after it.
It is the same method used on this page. AEO and GEO overlap a great deal: the first looks mainly at the shape of the answer, the second at every signal that leads a generative engine to choose a source.
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and AEO?
SEO targets search engine results, GEO targets generated answers that cite their sources, and AEO targets direct answers to precise questions. The foundations are shared: a website crawlers can read, clear copy, correct structured data and the same company information everywhere. That is why we handle the three together, with a single plan of work.
| SEO | GEO | AEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where | Results on Google, Bing and other search engines | Generated answers with sources: Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot | Direct answers: AI answers, assistants, voice search |
| Goal | Appear in the results and earn clicks | Be used as a source and cited | Be the answer to a precise question |
| What we work on | Technical setup, content, internal and external links | Verifiable content, entities, presence on external sources | Questions and answers, page structure, structured data |
| How it is measured | Search Console and Google Analytics | Citations tracked with repeated prompts, traffic from AI assistants, Bing’s AI report | Brand presence in answers to the tracked questions |
How Google, ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity find and cite a brand
These systems search the web, pick a few pages and use them to write the answer. This is what their makers say about how it works:
- Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. To appear as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet. Google states that no special optimisation is needed, and no AI-specific files or markup, and that both features may use “query fan-out”: several related searches across the subtopics of the question. Sources: Google Search Central, AI Mode Help.
- ChatGPT search. ChatGPT rewrites the question into one or more targeted queries that it sends to partner search providers, and shows the sources it cites. To be included, a website must not block OAI-SearchBot, the crawler OpenAI uses for search; GPTBot, which collects content for model training, is managed separately. Sources: OpenAI, ChatGPT search, OpenAI, crawlers.
- Perplexity. Every answer has numbered citations linking to the original sources. PerplexityBot is the crawler used to surface and link websites in the results: it should be allowed in robots.txt and through the firewall. Sources: how Perplexity works, Perplexity crawlers.
- Gemini. When sources are available, answers in the Gemini apps show a Sources button with the related websites; not every answer includes links. Source: Gemini Apps Help.
- Microsoft Copilot and Bing. Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report, in public preview since February 2026, that counts how often a site’s pages are cited in Copilot and in Bing’s AI-generated summaries. Source: Bing Webmaster Blog.
What they have in common: pages crawlers can read, indexed, with the important content available as text, and a company described consistently on the website and beyond it. No agency can guarantee a citation: answers change from one question to the next and over time.
SEO services: strategy, technical work and content
- SEO strategy. Goals, markets, priority pages and a plan of work, tied to the company’s marketing strategy.
- Keyword strategy. The real searches people make, grouped by intent and assigned to one page each, so that no two pages on the site compete for the same search.
- SEO audit. A review of indexing, structure, speed, content and links, with the list of fixes in order of priority.
- Technical SEO. Crawling and indexing, robots.txt, sitemaps, canonical URLs, redirects, language versions (hreflang), speed and Core Web Vitals.
- On-page SEO. Titles, meta descriptions, headings, copy, images with alt text and readable URLs, page by page.
- Content SEO. Service pages, guides and articles that answer the audience’s questions in the brand’s tone of voice, like the pieces in our Insights.
- Internal linking. Links between pages that lead people and crawlers to the important content, with link text that says where it goes.
- Local SEO. A complete, up-to-date business profile on Google, the same contact details everywhere and pages tied to the area. Google says local results are mainly based on relevance, distance and prominence (Google Business Profile Help).
- Google Search Console. Setting up and verifying the property, submitting sitemaps, checking indexing errors and reading the Performance report.
Structured data, entities and information architecture
- Structured data and schema markup. JSON-LD using the schema.org vocabulary (Organization, Service, Article, BreadcrumbList and the other useful types), always consistent with the visible text. Google uses structured data to understand the content of the page and to gather information about the web (Google Search Central).
- Semantic SEO. Pages organised around topics and questions rather than single keywords, with related concepts explained and linked.
- Entity SEO. The company, its services, its people and its location described as precise entities, with the same name, description and links everywhere, so they are not confused with namesakes.
- Knowledge Graph optimisation. Organization data with logo, contact details and official profiles (sameAs), and consistent information on external sources: Google uses these to understand an organisation and tell it apart from others (Google Search Central). A knowledge panel cannot be guaranteed.
- AI-ready information architecture. Menus, URLs, page hierarchy and links that make clear what the company does, for whom and where, both to people and to the systems that read the website.
- Semantic authority. Complete, consistent coverage of the topics the company knows well: service pages, in-depth articles and glossaries linked to each other and signed by real people.
GEO and AEO services: visibility in AI engines
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). Content, data and external sources that make the brand a reliable source for generated answers.
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation). Pages rewritten as questions and answers, with short answers at the top, verifiable details and consistent structured data.
- AI search optimisation. Checking that crawlers such as Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot can read the website, from robots.txt to the CDN and firewall, and that the important pages are indexed.
- LLM visibility. How language models describe the brand: name, services, location, competitors mentioned, and where the information is wrong or missing.
- AI visibility audit. A list of real questions from your market asked several times in Google AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot: who gets cited, with which sources, and where the brand is missing.
- Content strategy for AI search. A content plan that answers the questions surfaced by the audit, with direct answers, verifiable data and named sources.
- AI search monitoring. The same questions repeated at regular intervals, citations from Bing’s report and traffic from assistants in GA4, gathered in a periodic report.
Also for websites built by others
SEO, GEO and AEO are also available as a standalone service, for websites built by other agencies or by your own team: we review the site as it is, list the fixes in order of priority and either apply them ourselves or hand them to whoever runs the site. If the website needs rebuilding or does not exist yet, we design it through our Web & Digital Strategy service, with SEO, GEO and AEO built in from the start.
How are results measured?
We only measure what can be checked, with tools you can access too. Search Console, GA4 and Bing Webmaster Tools provide the search figures; presence in AI answers is checked with repeated prompts, because assistants do not provide a complete report of their citations. Every report compares the data with the baseline measured before the work starts.
- Google Search Console. Impressions, clicks, average position and indexed pages. Traffic from Google’s AI features is included in the Performance report, under the “Web” search type, together with the rest of search (Google Search Central).
- Traffic from AI assistants in GA4. Visits coming from sites such as chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, read in the session source (Google Analytics Help) when the assistant passes it on. ChatGPT adds the utm_source=chatgpt.com parameter to its links to websites automatically (OpenAI).
- Citations in Copilot and Bing. The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools: total citations, cited pages and the queries used to find them.
- Citations and mentions with repeated prompts. A fixed list of questions from your market, asked several times in each assistant because answers change from one run to the next. We record whether the brand appears, whether it is cited with a link and with which sources. It is a documented sample, not a complete statistic.
- Crawler access. In the server logs, visits from Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot show whether pages are being read, and which ones.
How we work
- Conversation. Goals, markets, the services you want to be found for, and competitors.
- Audit. Technical and content SEO, plus an AI visibility audit on a list of questions agreed with you.
- Plan. Fixes ranked by impact and effort, with who does what.
- Implementation. Technical fixes, structured data, copy and new pages, applied by us or with your team.
- External sources. Profiles and listings that align the information about the company beyond the website.
- Measurement. A periodic report with Search Console, GA4, Bing and the tracked questions, and the next priorities.
What you get
- An SEO and AI visibility audit, with the fixes in order of priority.
- A map of the searches and questions in your market, page by page.
- Technical fixes and structured data applied to the website, or the specifications for whoever runs it.
- New or rewritten copy, with direct answers to the audience’s questions.
- Search Console, GA4 and Bing Webmaster Tools set up and verified.
- A periodic report with verifiable data and the next steps.
When you need it
- Your website does not show up in searches for the services you offer.
- When you ask an AI assistant about your industry, it names your competitors and not you, or describes your company incorrectly.
- You are about to rebuild your website and do not want to lose the visits search brings in today.
- The information about your company differs between the website, listings and online profiles.
Who it is for: companies and brands that want to be found by people looking for their services on Google and in AI assistants, including those with an existing website built by someone else.
SEO, GEO and AEO FAQ
SEO works to make a website appear in search engine results. GEO aims to have the brand used and cited as a source in answers generated by systems such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI answers. AEO prepares content to give direct answers to precise questions. The foundations are shared: a site crawlers can read, clear copy, structured data and consistent information.
No. Google explains that AI Overviews and AI Mode need no AI-specific files, special markup or special optimisation: the page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet. Structured data is still useful because it helps Google understand the page and the company, as long as it matches the visible text.
No, and nobody can honestly do so. Rankings and citations depend on systems no agency controls, on the competition and on the exact question, and AI answers change from one run to the next. What we guarantee is methodical, documented work and figures you can check yourself in Search Console, GA4 and Bing Webmaster Tools.
With three verifiable tools. Traffic arriving from assistants, such as chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai, is read in GA4. Citations in Copilot and Bing’s AI summaries appear in the AI Performance report of Bing Webmaster Tools. For the other assistants we ask a fixed list of questions several times and record whether the brand appears, with which sources and which links.
Yes. SEO, GEO and AEO are also available as a standalone service: we review the website as it is, whoever built it and whatever platform it runs on, and list the fixes in order of priority. We can apply them ourselves or hand them, with precise specifications, to whoever runs the site. If the website needs rebuilding, we design it through our Web and Digital Strategy service.
There is no fixed timeframe, and we are wary of anyone who promises one. It depends on how often search engines recrawl the site, how many fixes are needed, the competition in the searches that matter and the content to be written. That is why we measure the baseline before starting and agree regular checkpoints with you, so every step can be compared with the starting data.
It depends on the size of the website, the number of languages and markets, how much technical work and content is needed, who applies it (us or your team) and how many questions and assistants to monitor over time. That is why we have no price list: after an initial conversation we prepare a proposal for your case.
Write to us through the contact form or at info@magnetmilano.it with your website address, the services you want to be found for and your main competitors. The first step is always a conversation to understand goals and priorities; then we start with the audit of the website and of its visibility in AI assistants.