What is AEO/GEO and How Does it Impact a SaaS Business in 2025
The rise of the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and integrated AI Overviews from platforms like Google is reshaping how customers research, evaluate and select software. Traditional search is not dropping, but how customers are finding things is becoming different. It’s reported that Google saw a 22% increase in annual search traffic, but AI Overviews are now a substantial portion of search results (estimated at 18%).
What is AEO/GEO and how does it fit in a Marketing Strategy?
Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) are similar to Search Engine Optimization (SEO), they are simply nuanced in how we need to think about how these play together in an overall Marketing strategy. There may be individual strategies for these areas, but they all need to play together to be effective in engaging with customers in their overall journey. Ideally, SEO/AEO/GEO is not planned in isolation of other marketing activities, as they will need PR, Influencer and Brand to all work together to build a company’s reputation and brand positioning.
SEO is the foundation to your Digital Strategy
I’m going to assume everyone knows what SEO is, so we're not going to dive deep into that. But it is the foundational element of what you are doing today and layers together with AEO and GEO. Think of it like a house, SEO is the core foundation, the bedrock of your digital strategy that focuses on your website health, keyword relevance in your industry, and the signals you give to the internet that you are an authority in an area with signals like backlinks. A poor foundation won’t allow the other critical elements of AEO and GEO to work. SEO gets us in the game and sets us up for success.
AEO is Optimizing Specific Answers Customers Have in Specific Ways
AEO is focusing on answers that are relevant to very specific items that people are looking for. This is the details of the structure of our house: why type of framing is being used, what is the wiring, what is the grade of metal roof, what plumbing fixtures are required. In AEO, we are focused on the very specific questions customers have about your industry and your product, and the structure and formatting of your content. We are sweating the details of the specific tactical elements to make sure everything holds together (what is the specific cost benefit of using copper wire versus aluminum wire over with regards to efficiency, weight and long term durability in the North East United States). We use Q&A formats, bulleted lists, data tables, and H2 structures to make sure information is extractable for direct answer placements.
GEO is Building Your Brand Credibility and Reputation
GEO is the strategic layer. You are concerned with building your deep topic authority and brand credibility across the internet. You take established concepts like EEAT and double-down on what your brand stands for. You need to be an expert in your field, but you also want to: 1) show how you are an expert (expert authorship, primary research studies), and that 2) others see you as an expert (third party reviews, mentions by people in communities, being cited by others for your expertise). In our house analogy, this is the reputation of the builder. That you are not only building a house that is structurally sound and has the individual components organized, but that you are known as being a quality builder that is reputable.
Breaking Down SEO, AEO and GEO In a Simple Way
To provide a clear, at-a-glance reference for strategic planning and team education, the following table distinguishes the three disciplines across key operational aspects. (It’s a table, see what I’m doing here?)
| Search Engine Optimization | Answer Engine Optimization | Generative Engine Optimization | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank high in traditional search results pages to drive website traffic. | Be featured as direct, concise answers. | Be cited, summarized and recommended as a source of authority. |
| Platforms | Google, Bing | Featured snippets, Voice assistants | AI Chatbots, AI Overviews |
| Metrics | Organic traffic, keyword rankings, CTR, bounce rate | Snippet capture rate, voice answer placements | Citation volume, referral traffic, Brand search, Share of voice |
| Tactics | Keyword research, backlink building, website core metrics, core product and blog content | Schema markup, headers structure, question research (extended keyword) | Primary research, SEO+PR, community engagement |
How is AEO/GEO Impacting Your SaaS Business in 2025
Folks are needing to rethink their overall strategies as they are planning budgets and allocating resources. One of the big issues that I’ve found in conversations with SaaS marketers is that the trend of rising cost-per-clicks (see chart below) and declining organic traffic is making people sweat as they are building budgets and plans on how to address SEO/AOE/GEO. CPCs have increased every year except for Covid and in 2023. This poses a challenge for performance and demand generation as many folks rely on paid search as a core driver of lead volume. As CPCs increase, this put pressure on organic volume and other sources of leads to offset rising costs. Anecdotally, and through what I’ve observed at companies I’ve worked with, the opposite has happened and organic volumes have been facing similar downward pressures on the volume they are driving.
As AI search becomes more prevalent as a research and buying tool, being present in traditional performance media and running SEO keyword focused content is not going to cut it from a GTM perspective. Software providers need to rethink their brand strategy and how they differentiate in the market. They must have a perspective on their industry, be bonafide experts on topics related to them and get others to talk about them. This isn’t cutting down on the amount of work that is required, but SaaS companies need to focus in on what makes them different and to develop more proof points and authority in this area.