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What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of optimising a website to improve its ranking in search results, such as those on Google. It is based on three pillars: technical aspects, content and authority, and the results are measured from the moment a link is clicked: by ranking, traffic and what the user does once they land on the page. Ranking matters because the top result on Google receives an average of 27.6% clicks (Backlinko, analysis of 4 million results). SEO, however, does not measure AI chat responses, where the customer is shown company names without having to click.
Author: Karolina Wcisło · Last updated: 24 October 2026 · reading time: approximately 6 minutes
Definition

What is SEO?

SEO involves optimising a website so that a search engine can download, understand and demonstrate high up in the search results for your customers’ queries. A search engine collects web pages, organises them and compiles a list of results for every search query. SEO involves working to ensure your website appears as high up as possible on that list, as the top positions attract the majority of clicks.
For twenty years, this was the main answer to the question of how to gain visibility online. It remains important: a website that ranks highly in search engines usually has more content on which to AI models can also be used as a basis.
Something else has changed. Some queries now end with the response generated by the model, without visiting any page. SEO doesn’t measure this stage, as there’s no click involved. It’s handled by GEO.
SEO in a nutshell

Working to ensure that the website appears high up in search results for queries from your customers.

TechnologySpeed, indexing, address structure, mobile version
ContentPages that respond to the search queries people enter
AuthorityLinks from other websites and trust signals

Full name: Search Engine Optimisation. The term has been in use since the late 1990s.

Range

What are the three pillars of SEO?

Technical SEO, content and authority. This has been the standard classification in the industry for years. It’s worth being familiar with it, as two of these pillars also have an impact on visibility in models.
TechnicalFoundationCan a search engine visit, understand and index the website? Speed, URLs, mobile version, no errors.
ContentAnswersWebsites responding to this, what people are looking for, described in their own language, rather than internal company jargon.
AuthorityTrustLinks from other websites and indicators that you can be trusted. The slowest part and the hardest to fake.
The last two pillars translate into visibility in the models: the content provides text to be quoted, and authority, that is to say mention and links from outside one’s own domain are what the models are based on recommendation. Technical SEO translates, in part, in the sense described as AEO.
Change

How have AI chatbots changed SEO?

SEO still works, but alongside the traditional route via search results, a second one has emerged: asking an AI chatbot a question and making a decision without clicking on a link. None of the positioning tools.
The classic route
1Search query
2List of results
3Clicking on the link
4Visiting your website

SEO works here. Everything can be measured, because there are clicks and page views.

The path through the model
1Question asked of the model
2A ready-made answer with company names
3A decision without clicking on the link

SEO can’t see anything here. There are no visits, so there’s nothing to measure in the statistics.

That is why we are increasingly seeing situations where Search engine rankings are stagnating, whilst organic traffic is falling. According to Ahrefs For queries from AI Overview, the top result received around 34.5% fewer clicks in 2025 than the forecast would suggest. The position report looks good because it only measures the left-hand side of this chart.
Comparison

How does SEO differ from GEO?

SEO focuses on a website’s ranking in search results and tracks clicks, whilst GEO focuses on whether an AI chatbot mentions the brand in a response that does not generate a click. A full comparison of the three metrics, including AEO, can be found in a separate article.
A Comparison of SEO and GEO
QuestionSEOGEO
What does it optimise?The website’s position in the search resultsThe brand’s presence in response
Where can you see the results?List of search resultsModel’s response text
Unit of measurementPosition and clickReference and quotation
Who decides?Ranking algorithmA model based on what it finds
What creates a competitive edgeContent, technical aspects, linksContent, technique, references from outside the domain
Can this be measured in Analytics?YesNo, because there’s no entrance
One does not preclude the other. We compare the three orders side by side in this article SEO, GEO and AEO.
To be honest

What does SEO not cover?

SEO does not measure AI chat responses, mentions without links, or search queries that end without the user visiting the website. This is not a criticism, just a limitation.
It does not measure the models’ responsesRanking tools display a list of results, but they cannot see, Has the model changed brands? in reply, because there’s no click there.
Does not include mentions without a referenceBacklinks count towards the ranking, but the recommendation in the model is also based on reviews and publications without a reference.
Position does not equal visibility in AIThe brand that ranks first in the search engine can not to appear in the models’ responses and vice versa.
A drop in traffic does not necessarily mean a drop in rankingSome search queries now result in a response without the user visiting the page, and the position report will not show this.
FAQ

Questions about SEO

The questions we hear most often when discussing search engine visibility and AI.
What is SEO?

SEO, or Search Engine Optimisation, is the process of optimising a website to improve its ranking in search results. It covers three areas: technical aspects, content and authority – that is, backlinks and trust signals.

Does SEO still make sense?

Yes. For most websites, search engines remain an important source of traffic, and a website that ranks highly in the results usually has more content that AI models can also draw on.

Does GEO replace SEO?

No. These are two parallel metrics that measure different things: SEO ranking and clicks, and the brand’s GEO presence in model responses. Read more in the article What is GEO?.

Positions are holding steady, whilst trading volume is falling. Why?

This is usually because some searches result in a response generated by the model, without the user visiting the webpage. In a 2025 Pew Research study, Google users who were shown an AI summary clicked on the result in 8% of visits, compared with 15% of visits where no summary was shown.

Does SEO work help with visibility in AI?

To some extent. Content and mentions from outside one’s own domain have an impact on both rankings. The position in the results alone does not have a direct impact.

Is AEO part of SEO?

No. It’s a separate concept, although in practice it covers the same elements of a webpage: structure, headings and specific content. Read more in the article What is an AEO?.

How do you measure visibility in models?

By asking the models questions from their own category without specifying the brand name and repeating the same set in due course. We describe the method in methodology.

Can an SEO agency also specialise in GEO?

Yes. The content, technical aspects and structural data are already part of her work; what’s new is the work on references from outside the client’s website. We describe this in the post GEO services at an SEO agency and on a website for SEO agencies.

Is structured data part of SEO?

Yes. Structured data These are tags in the webpage’s code that describe its content in a standardised way, for example, what the company does. Google recommends using the JSON-LD format for this.

What sources is this text based on?

Measure what cannot be seen in the items

Free Account No card required: you get the following to start with 250 AeloCoins and full visibility report Your brand on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. You’ll be able to see whether the AI chatbots mention your brand and who they mention instead. You can find the prices of the plans at pricing.
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Related: What is GEO?, What is an AEO?, differences, dictionary, for SEO agencies.
Aelo
Aelo (aeloapp.io) measures brand visibility on ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity.

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