SEO, AEO and GEO: different labels, shared foundations
SEO focuses on helping search engines discover and understand useful pages. AEO is commonly used for content that answers a specific question clearly. GEO is commonly used for work aimed at visibility in generative search experiences. These are not three guaranteed ranking systems, and vendors do not use the terms consistently. Start with a direct answer, explain the conditions and limitations, support important claims with original evidence, and make the next action clear. Google states that its normal SEO fundamentals apply to AI features; no special AI file or dedicated schema is required.
1. Name the system and the evidence
Avoid treating all AI products as one search engine. Write down the specific product, test date, language, query, and whether the response actually linked to your page. A brand mention, a linked citation, and a referral visit are different observations. For example, a response may name a business without citing its website, or cite an informational page without recommending a purchase. Preserve that distinction in your report. Use a small set of realistic audience questions rather than repeatedly changing prompts until a favorable result appears.
2. Check documented crawler controls
Review the provider’s current documentation before editing robots.txt. OpenAI documents separate purposes for OAI-SearchBot, GPTBot, and ChatGPT-User; search access, potential training use, and user-initiated requests should not be conflated. A permissive robots rule is only an access signal. Authentication, a firewall, an unavailable page, or other controls can still affect retrieval. Google describes its AI search features within its existing search framework. Decide your access policy intentionally and test important public URLs. Never expose private information merely to make it available to crawlers.
3. Make the underlying page worth using
Publish clear answers, explain their scope, and support factual claims with reliable sources or your own documented work. Give readers a way to understand who is responsible for the content and when time-sensitive information was reviewed. A comparison page should explain its criteria; a procedure should include prerequisites and exceptions. These are editorial practices that help people judge information, not a promise of AI preference. Keep important content available as accessible text and maintain coherent internal links. Do not invent expert credentials, testimonials, usage statistics, or case studies to manufacture authority.
4. Report observations without a fictional guarantee
Keep an evidence log containing the tested page, technical observations, query samples, response links where available, and limitations. Repeat a consistent sample when evaluating a substantive change, while acknowledging that answers vary by time and context. Referral analytics can show some visits, but absence of referrals is not proof of absence from every answer. Suprara’s public HTML, robots.txt, and sitemap checks help identify reviewable signals. They do not measure a verified GEO score, universal AI visibility, or a probability of recommendation. Use the report to organize improvements and the academy to understand the underlying tasks, then evaluate outcomes separately.
Measure observed citations, referrals and conversions separately
An appearance in an AI answer, a link to your page, a referral visit and a completed signup are different observations. Record the platform, question, date, cited URL and what actually happened. Bing Webmaster Tools has introduced an AI Performance public preview for supported Microsoft experiences, including citation and cited-page data; its metrics do not establish ranking or placement. Referral analytics and conversion events need their own first-party measurement. Suprara does not import these sources in this release. Use the worksheet to keep evidence from each source separate rather than collapsing them into a made-up visibility score.
Your practical checklist
- Separate crawler access, search eligibility, citations, and visits.
- Read current provider documentation before changing access rules.
- Use repeatable audience questions and record the test conditions.
- Publish useful evidence and label all measurement limitations.
Frequently asked questions
Apply what you learned
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Sources and further reading
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