SEO (search engine optimisation)
SEO is the work of making a website findable in search results: a comprehensible structure, sound technology, and content that genuinely answers a question. The newer disciplines aimed at AI answers build on this — they do not replace it.
Search engine optimisation, SEO for short, covers everything that gets a website into search results without paying for the placement. Three things carry it: the content answers a real question, the technology serves it quickly and without errors, and the structure makes clear what it is about — for people and for machines alike.
That last point is why SEO today is about more than Google. A page that is clearly structured, backs up its claims and carries its meaning in machine-readable form is preferred by an AI assistant for the same reasons a search engine prefers it. The offshoots that have acquired names of their own start from exactly this point.
Which is why the popular line "SEO is dead" misleads. What changes is the surface on which the answer appears, not the question of whether your content can be found and understood. Anyone who skips the fundamentals and starts with the new acronyms is building on sand.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions.
Has classic SEO become obsolete with AI search?
No. Google AI overviews mostly cite pages that already rank well classically. SEO remains the ticket in — AI optimisation (GEO) is the extension with citable answers, structure and visible authority.
What is the difference between SEO, GEO and LLMO?
The three terms build on each other rather than replacing one another. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) makes sure a page ranks well in classic search results. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) extends that goal to being cited as a source in AI-generated answers — in a ChatGPT or Perplexity answer, for example.
LLMO (Large Language Model Optimisation) goes a step further and gets more technical: it means specifically understanding and influencing how individual language models process, weigh and reproduce content — essentially reverse-engineering the model in question. In practice: SEO remains the entry ticket, GEO secures broad citability, and LLMO fine-tunes the details for the systems that matter most to a given business.
Why is classic search engine optimisation alone no longer enough?
Because a growing share of your customers no longer search the classic way — they ask AI assistants, and you only appear there if your website is readable for AI systems too. Classic search still brings visitors, but it is now just one of two channels. Serve both — people in the browser and AI systems as a second audience — and you get found wherever your customer asks. This principle is called dual-channel visibility.