What is the difference between SEO and AEO?

SEO measures success by ranking position, where a page lands among Google's results for a given search. AEO measures success by whether an AI tool actually quotes or references the content as its answer.

A page can rank well in traditional SEO terms, say position three, and still never get cited in an AI Overview if its answer is buried in the fourth paragraph instead of the first sentence.

The two are not competing goals. Ranking well is still the foundation, since AI tools mostly draw from already-indexed, already-ranked pages, they just add a second layer on top: being quotable, not just rankable.

That quotable-first-sentence structure is standard on every page an automated SEO platform like BlazeHive builds.