Explainer series, 2026 edition
How AEO, GEO and SEO work. Seven mechanism-first guides for B2B founders.
Plain-English explainers on what actually happens between a buyer's question and your pipeline: how search engines crawl and rank, how answer engines pick passages to cite, how AI models decide which brands to recommend, and how to measure all of it. Every mechanism is checked against the platforms' own documentation.
The mechanics
Three engines, three pipelines. Your content has to survive all of them.
- SEOSearch engineCrawlRenderIndexRankClick
- AEOAnswer engineQuestionRetrieveExtract passageAnswerCite
- GEOGenerative enginePromptFan out queriesGround in sourcesSynthesizeRecommend
7 explainers
Read them in order. Each one builds on the last.
How SEO Works in 2026: Crawling, Rendering, Indexing, Ranking and AI Overviews, Step by Step
Search works in stages. Google discovers a URL, crawls it, renders the JavaScript, indexes the content under one canonical URL, ranks it for each query using many ranking systems, then assembles a results page that may include an AI Overview grounded in that same index. A B2B site controls access, rendering, canonicals, content quality, internal links and structured data.
Read the explainer 12 min
How AEO Works: How Answer Engines Turn a Question Into a Cited Answer
Answer engines interpret a question, decide whether to search, run one or more queries, read the pages that come back, pick the passages that answer each part, write a response and attach citations. AEO works on the steps you can influence: being retrievable, writing passages that stand on their own, stating specific facts that others corroborate, and measuring mentions, citations and referral traffic.
Read the explainer 12 min
How GEO Works: How Generative AI Learns About, Retrieves and Recommends B2B Brands
Generative engines know a brand through two paths. Training data shapes what a model believes before anyone asks. Live retrieval, driven by query fan-out and grounding, decides which current pages it reads when a buyer asks. GEO works on both: a clear entity, crawlable facts, independent corroboration and explicit fit with buyer constraints, so the model can name and describe you accurately.
Read the explainer 10 min
How Google AI Overviews and AI Mode Work: How Sources Are Selected and Cited
Google AI Overviews and AI Mode use a Gemini model grounded in Google Search. The model fans a question out into related queries, core ranking systems retrieve pages from the Search index, and the response links to supporting pages. A page is eligible if it is indexed and allowed to show a snippet. Google says no special markup, files or chunking are needed.
Read the explainer 11 min
How AI Crawlers Work: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended
AI crawlers do three jobs: collect training data (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, CCBot), build search indexes that answers cite (OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot, PerplexityBot) and fetch pages when a user asks (ChatGPT-User, Claude-User, Perplexity-User). Google-Extended and Applebot-Extended are control tokens, not crawlers. robots.txt controls each by name, most read raw HTML without running JavaScript, and server logs show what really happened.
Read the explainer 11 min
How Entities and Schema Work: Knowledge Graphs, JSON-LD and sameAs for B2B Brands
Search and AI systems understand a company by linking every mention of its name to one distinct entity with known attributes. Google stores those links in its Knowledge Graph; language models learn them from context. Schema.org JSON-LD states your facts explicitly, sameAs points to your official profiles, and identical facts across the web confirm every mention refers to the same company.
Read the explainer 11 min
How AI Citations Become B2B Pipeline: Attribution Paths, GA4 Setup and What to Report to the Board
AI visibility becomes pipeline through four paths: a buyer clicks a citation, searches your brand after reading an answer, returns directly later, or tells sales an assistant suggested you. Only the first is tracked by default. Measure it by joining GA4's AI Assistant channel, Search Console, self-reported attribution and CRM opportunities, then report sourced and influenced pipeline next to visibility.
Read the explainer 10 min
Side by side
SEO, AEO and GEO compared.
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it optimizes for | Ranking pages in search results | Being extracted and cited as the answer to a question | Being named, described accurately and recommended by AI models |
| Unit of competition | A page | A passage of a few sentences | A brand, understood as an entity |
| Where it shows up | Google and Bing results pages | Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Copilot, featured snippets | ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity answers, with or without web search |
| How the system finds you | Crawling, rendering and indexing | Retrieval from a search index, often through query fan-out | Training data plus live retrieval and grounding |
| Crawlers that matter | Googlebot and Bingbot | Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot, Claude-SearchBot and PerplexityBot | Search crawlers plus training crawlers such as GPTBot and ClaudeBot |
| What wins | Relevance, content quality, links and page experience | Direct, specific, self-contained passages that crawlers can read | Consistent entity facts, independent corroboration and explicit fit with buyer constraints |
| Primary metric | Rankings, clicks and organic sessions | Citation rate and cited pages | Mention rate, share of voice and description accuracy |
| How to measure it | Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, GA4 | Prompt benchmarks, Bing AI Performance, Search Console | Prompt benchmarks with search on and off, GA4 AI Assistant channel, CRM attribution |
Buyer journey
Where each one matters. From first question to shortlist.
| Stage | SEO | AEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Problem framing: the buyer tries to understand a problem and the ways to solve it | Educational guides rank for problem and category searches and bring first visits. | Definitional answer blocks get quoted in AI Overviews and assistant answers. | Models often answer definitional questions from training data, so consistent category language matters. |
| Category exploration: the buyer learns which approaches and vendor types exist | Pillar guides capture searches for types, criteria and how to choose. | Fan-out sub-questions pull in passages on selection criteria, pricing models and trade-offs. | Models start assembling a consideration set from roundups, review sites and vendor pages. |
| Shortlisting: the buyer asks for vendors that fit their size, industry and stack | Integration, industry and use case pages rank for constrained searches. | Pages that state fit in plain sentences get cited for constraint-heavy prompts. | A brand is named only when independent sources confirm the same fit. This is the stage GEO matters most. |
| Comparison and validation: the buyer compares finalists and checks proof | Comparison, alternatives and case study pages rank for vendor-name searches. | Comparison tables and answers on security, pricing and implementation get quoted. | Descriptions draw on reviews and third-party coverage, so profile accuracy decides how you are framed. |
| Decision and internal selling: the buying committee builds the business case | Branded searches lead stakeholders to pricing, security and ROI pages. | Assistants summarize your documentation and policies for each stakeholder. | Accurate entity facts keep the vendor described the same way to every committee member. |
Questions buyers ask us. Answered plainly.
Still unsure? Ask us directly.
What is the difference between SEO, AEO and GEO?
SEO earns positions in search results by getting pages crawled, indexed and ranked. AEO earns a place inside answers by making passages easy for answer engines to extract and cite. GEO improves how generative AI models understand and recommend your brand, through both training data and live retrieval. They overlap heavily, and most answer engines retrieve from a search index before they write.
Do I still need SEO if my buyers use ChatGPT and Perplexity?
Yes. Google says AI Overviews and AI Mode retrieve pages from its Search index using core ranking systems, Copilot draws on Bing, and ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity run their own search crawlers. Pages that cannot be crawled, rendered or indexed are rarely retrieved. SEO is the entry ticket for AEO and GEO, not a separate channel that AI has replaced.
Which should a B2B company work on first?
Start with access and foundations: crawlers can reach and read your pages, Google indexes the right canonical URLs, and your company facts are consistent everywhere. Then add answer blocks to the pages that match buyer questions, and build third-party corroboration. Measure visibility on a fixed prompt set from the start, so you can show what changed.
In what order should I read this series?
Read in the listed order if you are new to the topic: how SEO works, how AEO works, how GEO works, then Google AI Overviews, AI crawlers, entities and schema, and finally how citations become pipeline. If you already run SEO, start with AI crawlers and entities, which are the most common gaps on B2B sites, then read the measurement guide.
How do AI engines decide which sources to cite?
They interpret the question, decide whether to search, write one or more queries, retrieve candidate pages from an index, keep the passages that answer each part, and attach citations to supporting sources. No engine publishes a scoring formula. Pages that are crawlable, direct, specific and corroborated by other sources are the ones most often retrieved and quoted.
Do I need llms.txt or special schema markup for AI search?
Not for Google. Its guide to generative AI features says you do not need AI text files, special markup or Markdown, and that structured data is not required. Accurate Organization and Article markup still helps systems confirm facts about your company, as long as it matches visible content. Treat llms.txt as optional, since evidence that AI crawlers rely on it is thin.
How do I measure AEO and GEO?
Use four layers. Track mentions and citations on a fixed set of buyer prompts across engines. Check exposure in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools AI Performance. Watch the AI Assistant channel and key events in GA4. Then count AI-sourced and AI-influenced pipeline in your CRM using self-reported attribution and agreed definitions.
How long do AEO and GEO take to show results?
Fixes to crawler access and page content can change live AI answers within weeks, once pages are recrawled. Earning third-party coverage and ranking for competitive sub-questions takes months. Changes to what a model learned in training only appear when a new model version is released. Report visibility trends monthly and pipeline quarterly, so early signals are not mistaken for final results.
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