AEO and GEO, Explained Like You're Family: Found, Quoted, Known
A founder asked me recently to explain AEO and GEO "like I'm your uncle, not your client." Challenge accepted - because the industry has done a genuinely bad job here, wrapping two simple ideas in enough acronyms to scare away the exact small businesses that need them most.
The dinner-table version
Imagine your business is a person at a huge dinner party.
* SEO is being easy to find in the room - standing where people look, wearing a name tag they can read.
* AEO is giving such clear, complete answers that when someone across the table is asked a question, they repeat your words: "Well, as she said, a crown without insurance typically runs..."
* GEO is your reputation arriving before you do - the host already knows who you are, what you do, and that you can be trusted, because your story is consistent everywhere it's told.
Google finds you. ChatGPT quotes you. The model itself knows you. Found, quoted, known.
What each looks like as actual work
AEO in practice: take the questions buyers really ask - from your inbox, not a keyword tool - and answer them on your pages, visibly, first-sentence-first. "Does teeth whitening damage enamel?" deserves a straight answer in the first line, not after four paragraphs of practice history. Then FAQ schema that matches the visible text word-for-word. Machines increasingly detect decorative schema that says what the page doesn't - and in our July re-test of twenty agencies, honestly-matched FAQ implementation was the check almost everyone failed. Almost everyone. That's your opening.
GEO in practice: make your identity machine-verifiable. Organization schema with the same name, address and story everywhere. A real author page for the humans behind the content. Claims that check out when a model cross-references - because cross-reference is exactly what they do. Think of it as building a file about yourself so complete and consistent that the machine never has to guess.
Where people waste money
* Buying "AEO packages" that are just schema plugins switched on. Schema without honest visible answers is decoration - and increasingly, detected decoration.
* Chasing GEO before basic crawlability. In our 335-site study, some businesses were blocking the AI crawlers entirely while presumably wondering why AI never mentions them. Front door first, reputation second.
* Treating this as a one-time project. Answers age. Models re-crawl. The businesses that win treat quotability like hygiene, not like a renovation.
The honest priority order for a small business
1. Crawler access verified (five minutes, free). 2. One clear H1 and honest description per page. 3. Five real questions answered visibly + schema. 4. Entity consistency across site, GBP and directories. 5. llms.txt. Then - and only then - the advanced work. Check where you stand today with Through Machine Eyes, free, no email wall. If your basics are already solid, it will tell you that too - we're comfortable with tools that talk us out of a sale.