SEO, GEO, AEO or LLMO: which one does your business actually need?
Owners keep asking me the same question in different words. "Do I need SEO or this new AI thing?" "Should I hire a GEO consultant?" "Someone offered me AEO services. Is that real?"
The definitions are covered elsewhere, including on my page comparing SEO and LLMO. This piece is about the decision itself: what to buy, in what order, and from whom.
Four names, mostly one job
SEO gets a page ranked in Google. GEO (generative engine optimization) gets a business cited when an AI writes an answer. AEO (answer engine optimization) makes a business the direct answer in snippets, voice and AI results. LLMO (Large Language Model Optimization) is the term I use for the whole effort of being known and recommended by AI models.
The labels came from different moments in search. The work underneath overlaps far more than the names suggest. A business with messy facts, thin pages and no third-party proof fails all four at once. Fix those, and all four improve together.
So the useful question is not "which acronym?" It is "where is my business actually weak, and who can fix that?"
A decision guide by situation
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Hardly any Google traffic, few reviews | Classic SEO and local listings | AI systems lean on the same web signals. There is nothing for them to find yet. |
| Ranking well in Google, missing from ChatGPT | GEO / LLMO work | The foundation exists. The gap is entity clarity, citable answers and third-party mentions. |
| AI describes you wrongly | An entity and citation audit | Wrong answers usually trace to contradictory facts across the web, not to your own pages. |
| Local business, customers ask "who's near me" | Local SEO plus AEO | Google Business Profile, reviews and direct answers to local questions do most of the work. |
| Not sure where you stand | A measured baseline | Buying any service before measuring is guesswork with a monthly fee. |
Consultant, agency or both?
An AI search optimization agency sells execution: content, listings, schema, outreach. A GEO consultant or LLMO consultant sells diagnosis and direction: what is wrong, in what order to fix it, and how to know it worked.
If you already know what's wrong, an agency can be the right buy. If you don't, start with a diagnosis. Paying a team to produce content before anyone knows why AI ignores you is how businesses spend a year and end up exactly where they started.
Many owners need both, in sequence. A consultant sets the plan and the measures, and then a team carries it out. I do the diagnosis myself and can carry out the plan through my done-for-you packages: AI Visibility Launch at $2,500 and AI Visibility Growth at $1,500 a month. You can also take the plan to your own team.
What not to buy
Three offers deserve suspicion, whatever acronym they use.
Guaranteed AI mentions. Nobody controls what a model says. Anyone promising a fixed number of ChatGPT recommendations is promising something they cannot deliver.
Hundreds of AI-written pages. Volume without substance gives AI nothing worth quoting and can damage the Google traffic you already have.
AI work that ignores Google. Google's AI Overviews sit on top of Google's own index. Dropping SEO to chase AI answers can cost you the traffic that pays the bills today. I explain why traditional agencies often struggle here in Why SEO Agencies Fail at AI Search.
How to judge whoever you hire
Ask four things. How will you measure where we stand today, in Google and in AI answers? What will you change off our website, not just on it? How will you diagnose a wrong AI answer? What can't you promise?
A good answer to each is concrete and repeatable. I've answered the longer version of this list in public in Questions to Ask a GEO Consultant.
Where I'd start
Run the free website audit to see how machines read your site. If the result is unclear, or you want AI systems tested directly, the AI Authority Audit is a fixed $1,500 with twelve deliverables and a ranked fix list. Then decide what to buy, from me or anyone else.
The answers to the most common buyer questions on this subject are collected on the knowledge base, and the service itself is on my SEO consultant page.
Common questions
Is GEO the same as AEO?
Not quite, but close. AEO grew out of featured snippets and voice search, where the goal was to be the single direct answer. GEO is about being cited when an AI writes a new answer. In practice the same work, clear facts, citable answers and trusted mentions, serves both.
What does an LLMO consultant do that an SEO consultant doesn't?
An LLMO consultant measures and works on what AI models say about a business: whether they identify it correctly, describe it accurately and recommend it for the right questions. That includes sources off your website, such as directories, reviews and press, that classic SEO often treats as secondary.
Should a small business hire an AI search optimization agency?
Only once someone has measured where the business stands. If the diagnosis shows the problem is execution, an agency can help. If nobody has diagnosed it, start there, because a team producing work in the wrong order costs more than the diagnosis.
How much do AEO services or GEO work cost?
It varies widely across the market. My own prices are published: the AI Authority Audit is $1,500, AI Visibility Launch is $2,500 one-time and AI Visibility Growth is $1,500 a month. Every price is on the pricing page.
About the author. Siamak Kalhor is an AI marketing and LLMO consultant in Los Angeles with more than forty years of experience in marketing strategy. He advises professionals and e-commerce leaders on becoming the answer AI assistants give. Get in touch, or connect on LinkedIn.