Beyond SEO: demystifying AEO, AIO, GEO and SXO

Most organisations don't know what these terms mean. Even industry experts disagree on definitions. But the confusion matters because these acronyms reflect a fundamental shift in how people discover content online.

The Search Landscape Has Changed

Traditional SEO focused on ranking your website on search engine results pages. Get to position one on Google, drive traffic, measure clicks and conversions. That playbook no longer works.

By early 2026, 47% of Google searches include an AI overview. 60% end without a click because AI answers the question directly. People ask ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini for information instead of just using Google. These systems synthesise answers from multiple sources rather than returning a list of links.

Your brand can rank highly on Google and still be invisible to a growing segment of your audience. Fixing that invisibility means understanding how content discovery now splits across answer engines, generative AI and experience-driven search. Each of these acronyms tackles a different piece of that puzzle.

What These Acronyms Mean

The terminology is frustratingly inconsistent, but here's what each concept represents.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) makes your content the definitive answer to user questions. Whether someone asks Google Assistant, Alexa or types into a search bar, AEO ensures your content appears in featured snippets, knowledge panels and "People Also Ask" sections. The goal isn't traffic but trust. AEO requires concise answers (typically 40 to 60 words), structured data and schema markup, FAQ and how-to formats, and focus on conversational queries.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) targets AI systems that compose answers rather than retrieve them. When someone asks ChatGPT about topics in your industry, GEO determines whether your brand gets mentioned, cited and recommended. It's about achieving brand visibility and positive sentiment inside AI-generated responses through clear contextual content structure, authority signals and presence in trusted data sources AI models reference.

AIO (AI Optimisation / AI Overviews) has two meanings that add to the confusion:

1. AI overviews are Google's specific feature showing AI-generated summaries at the top of search results

2. AI optimisation is the broader practice of using AI across the entire content lifecycle from planning and creation to quality assurance and publishing

For practical purposes, AIO represents the operational shift of integrating AI tools into your content workflow whilst simultaneously optimising for AI-powered discovery platforms.

SXO (Search Experience Optimisation) combines traditional SEO with user experience principles. Ranking high means nothing if visitors immediately leave your site. Search engines increasingly measure success through user behaviour signals like bounce rate, dwell time and engagement metrics. A fast, intuitive, conversion-focused experience isn't just good for users but essential for maintaining visibility.

You may also encounter LLMO (large language model optimisation), GSO (generative search optimisation) and GAIO (generative AI optimisation). These describe the same challenges from different angles and are often used interchangeably with GEO and AIO.

What This Means in Practice

Understanding these terms matters because each one points to a specific action your organisation needs to take.

1. Structure content for AI discovery.

   Organise content in clear, logical sections. Write in natural language that answers specific questions. Enhance with proper schema markup and structured data. Optimise for entities and semantic search, not just keywords.

2. Build authority that AI systems recognise.

   Large language models draw from trusted sources. Ensure your content appears in authoritative industry publications, professional repositories and documentation, verified knowledge bases and peer-reviewed or expert-validated sources.

3. Optimise the complete user journey.

   Getting found is only the beginning. Load times must be under three seconds. Navigation must be intuitive across all devices. Content must match the intent that brought visitors there. Conversion paths must be clear and frictionless.

4. Measure what matters.

   Traditional SEO metrics like rankings, traffic and click-through rates remain important. But add mentions in AI-generated responses, brand sentiment in LLM outputs, user engagement signals, conversion rates and business outcomes.

5. Use AI tools strategically.

   Don't just optimise for AI systems but leverage AI in your content operations. Research trending topics and questions in your industry. Generate content outlines and drafts. Analyse competitor positioning in AI responses. Test how your content appears in different AI platforms.

The Platform Perspective

Most content platforms were built to publish pages and track traffic, not to structure content for AI ingestion or manage workflows where machines are co-creators. Your platform needs to handle schema markup at scale, maintain semantic relationships between content, and let teams collaborate with AI tools without sacrificing governance. Whether that's Optimizely's agentic frameworks, Umbraco's MCP integration, or Kentico's structured content capabilities, your platform either enables this shift or becomes the constraint.

Moving Forward

More acronyms will come. The principle stays the same: optimise for how people find and use content now.

If you're balancing traditional SEO with AI optimisation strategies or building frameworks your teams need to execute, let's talk. At MSQ DX, we help enterprise organisations execute this shift with the right platforms and expertise.

In our next article, we explore UCP and how agentic commerce is enabling transactions within AI conversations, an essential reading for e-commerce leaders.