What is SEO for AI called?

SEO for AI systems is most commonly called AEO, answer engine optimization, or GEO, generative engine optimization. Both terms describe the same shift: optimizing content so AI tools like ChatGPT or Google AI Overviews cite or summarize it directly.

The terminology is still settling as of 2026, with different marketers and tool vendors preferring one term over the other, though they describe largely overlapping practices.

In practice, it means the same fundamentals as good SEO, clear structure, direct answers, real facts, applied with extra attention to being easily extractable by an AI system summarizing search results.

An SEO automation platform that structures pages for direct answers benefits both traditional rankings and AI citations at the same time.