By Katie Ibberson, SEO Executive at Dialled In

Between SEO, B2B, B2C, PPC, and so many more, digital marketing in 2026 can feel like a minefield of new terminology and jargon to keep you and your business ahead of the game.

At Dialled in, we are here to make marketing simple but effective, taking out the jargon to leave you with a clear roadmap to what success could mean for your business. But simple does not need to mean missing out on staying ahead of the industry. This is where understanding SEO vs AEO could make you stand out in 2026 and beyond.

What is SEO in Digital Marketing?

So, to start, let’s review the staple SEO.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, the practice of optimising your website for what your unique customers really want. SEO helps ensure your website is as discoverable as possible in search platforms such as Google, Bing and Yahoo. Through building keyword-driven content on a reliable and efficient website, site crawlers will begin to see the value you offer customers, pushing you to the top of those search pages (SERPs).

Although this is an overview, there is much more to SEO. To dive further into the relevance SEO could have for your business, check out our ‘Your Product Won’t Sell Itself: Why SEO Still Matters’ post and get started in understanding the foundations of SEO principles with Demystifying Google E-A-T.

What is AEO in Digital Marketing?

Now, AEO may seem like a mysterious counterpart to SEO, and in many ways, they do work together quite nicely.

So, what is AEO in digital marketing? AEO stands for Answer Engine Optimisation. Primarily, it is a strategy in digital marketing that focuses on optimising online content to be seen by AI assistants (sometimes referred to as LLMs) such as ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Alexa, and Google’s Gemini assistant.

Whilst SEO focusses on getting your business to rank in the well-known 10 blue links in a search engine, AEO focusses on the answer-first and direct nature of AI-driven search.

As AI has seen a rapid and very public rise in the media, you may not have considered how it could impact your business in terms of customer acquisition, lead generation and brand awareness. AI is increasingly changing the way customers search every day, from voice search and AI chat prompting to zero click searches through Google’s AI overview feature. The building trend is very much suggesting that AEO is, in fact, the new future of digital marketing.

So, if you’re asking yourself, ‘Do I need AEO?’, the answer likely is – yes, if you want to stay competitive and make the most of your marketing budgets. To read more about the fundamentals of AEO and how to get started, check out our ‘AEO Marketing Fundamentals: An AEO Starter Guide’.

Note: Before we move on, if you have spent any time researching the growing trend in AEO, you have likely come across it’s twin – GEO.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. You might be wondering ‘is this another acronym for me to learn’ and, although technically yes, GEO and AEO may have subtle differences, they are largely interchangeable terms.

SEO vs AEO: What is The Difference Between SEO & AEO?

SEO	AEO
Traffic Goal	Rank your website in the highest possible position in search engine results pages, including features such as: Search engine business directory, People also ask, Image results, Featured snippet	Get your website or brand cited (linked to) or mentioned in AI-generated answers and voice search to generate traffic and brand trust/ authority.
User intent/ Behaviour	Relies on traditional search behaviours that users will conduct their own research to find desired information from top-ranking results in a search engine	Adapts to changes in behaviour in which users prompt AI software to generate an answer to their query with cited sources, sometimes referred to as ‘zero-click searches’
Success Metric	Increase in search engine rankings and positions in featured snippets, people also ask features, and/ or image results, leading to an increase in organic traffic	Increase in AI brand mentions, cited sources, and placements in AI-generated responses and overviews, leading to an increase in organic traffic.

SEO vs AEO FAQs

Will AEO replace SEO?

The short answer – no.

SEO still represents the integral quality and authority-building metrics that are important to any business’s website. Once you have built a strong SEO presence, you can strengthen your brand awareness with AEO to achieve greater online visibility on AI platforms.

Is AEO better than SEO?

The simple answer is no; different is not necessarily better. However, it is crucial to stay on top of trends and developments in the industry to ensure you are not at risk of underselling your company. AEO targets different goals from more traditional SEO, accounting for new and developing trends.

Can AEO and SEO work together?

Yes, and they should! SEO lays the foundation for a strong AEO strategy to build upon. There are several ways that SEO and AEO rely heavily on each other. Including:

Domain authority: LLMs rely on domains that are perceived as trustworthy and authoritative in the same way as SEO. By focusing on the E-A-T principles in SEO, you set yourself up to be a reliable source to be cited in AEO.

Keyword strategy: Both SEO and AEO rely on site crawlers to pick out keywords and search terms in your site’s pages. By establishing strong SEO principles with high-quality keyword-focused content, you will be able to target both SEO and AEO visibility.

Link building: It is well established that SEO rewards strong link building as an indicator of trustworthy and relevant content. Similarly, AEO takes your linking profile very seriously. For AI search engines, strong and relevant link building reinforces your structured data and marks your content as a trusted source of information for a particular query.

Content clarity: Both SEO and AEO rely on site crawlers to read and understand your content. Just like when considering your user experience, it is important to use structured data like header tags, content pages, breadcrumbs, alt tags and NAP (name, address, phone number) analysis to improve the readability of your site.

 At Dialled In, we build SEO strategies that don’t just chase rankings ; they drive real, measurable business growth. If you’re ready to connect a great product with the right audience, let’s talk.

Call us on 0114 312 2330, email us at [email protected], or contact us here.

Read more about SEO strategy to build your online visibility:

AEO Vs SEO: What is the difference between SEO and AEO?