Glossary of terms
Brand positioning
Brand and positioning
Brand positioning refers to the place a company occupies in the minds of its audience relative to its competitors. This should not be confused with search engine optimisation (SEO).
Last updated: 8 September 2026
What does that mean?
Two different meanings of one word
In brand marketing, positioning refers to a conscious choice: the category in which you want to be recognised, alongside whom, and how you differ from them. In SEO, the same word refers to working on a website’s visibility in search results. Two different professions, the same name.
When measuring visibility in AI, it is the first meaning that counts. The model lists brands within the context of a category, so if a company is not clearly associated with any particular one, it does not appear in the response to any of the category-related questions. A comparison of the abbreviations can be found in the article SEO, GEO and AEO.
FAQ
Questions about this concept
The questions most frequently asked in connection with this concept.
Is brand positioning the same as SEO?
No. It’s about where it ranks in the reader’s mind. SEO is about a website’s visibility in search engines.
Where is the SEO data stored in Aelo?
In ‘Brand Identity’: in the description, category and list of competitors for whom we expect to be mentioned in the responses.
Is it possible to change the positioning?
It is possible, but the models react with a delay. Associating a product with a new category takes months, not weeks.
Find out which category the models see you in
To start with, you get 250 AeloCoins, without a card. That’s enough to run a scan and test the modules. Once you’ve used them up, you switch to a paid plan. The first scan shows which brands your brand ranks alongside and which ones rank lower than it.
