AEO vs GEO vs LLMO: three names, one discipline
AEO, GEO and LLMO describe the same practice: improving how often and how favourably a brand appears in AI-generated answers. AEO emphasises the answer, GEO the generative engine, LLMO the model. Use whichever your client already uses, and spend the saved argument on measurement instead.
Where each term came from
AEO — answer engine optimisation. Coined in the SEO industry, emphasising the output: the answer the user reads. It's the most widely used term commercially and the one most agencies put on a rate card.
GEO — generative engine optimisation. Emerged from academic work studying how generative engines select sources. Emphasises the system rather than the artefact. Tends to appear in research and in more technical positioning.
LLMO — large language model optimisation. The least precise of the three, because most citation behaviour is driven by retrieval rather than by the model's weights. A page can be cited by a model whose training predates its publication, which is a retrieval fact, not a model fact.
Do the tactics differ?
No, and anyone claiming a distinct GEO methodology separate from AEO is differentiating on vocabulary. The workstreams under all three names are the same: be accurately described on trusted third-party sources, structure content so passages stand alone, establish the entity clearly, and measure with enough samples to have an interval.
Where a real distinction does exist
Not between the acronyms, but between the surfaces. Optimising for Google AI Overviews is mostly downstream of classic index quality, because AI Overviews are built on the Googlebot index. Optimising for ChatGPT is more about third-party presence, because it leans harder on user-generated sources. Optimising for Doubao is about Douyin presence and has almost nothing to do with your website.
That's the axis worth arguing about. It changes what you'd actually do.
Practical advice
See this for your brand
Nostimates shows you how your brand shows up across twelve AI engines and search — in a dashboard, or as data in your own tools. Tell us what you want to measure.