Direct answer
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) helps search systems find and understand content. Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) focuses on providing clear answers that systems can retrieve. GEO measures discovery, source selection and representation in generative answers. Large Language Model Optimisation (LLMO) has no single settled meaning; anyone using the term should explain what they mean by it.
In plain language
Think of a shop. SEO helps people find it on a map. AEO makes the frequently asked questions at the door easy to understand. GEO checks whether a digital assistant describes the shop correctly. LLMO is like a word on a sign whose meaning can change from one business to another.
Why this matters
Choosing the wrong label leads to measuring the wrong thing. One team may measure ranking while believing it measures representation accuracy. Another may rewrite an answer but forget whether a crawler can reach the page.
Do not confuse
- SEO: the conditions for being found and understood in search systems.
- AEO: a clear, usable answer structure for direct questions.
- GEO: access, retrieval, citation and representation outcomes in generative systems.
- LLMO: an ambiguous umbrella term that must be defined in the document where it is used.
What should you do?
- Write down the problem before choosing a label.
- Treat technical access, content, identity, evidence and measurement as separate work packages.
- Define ambiguous terms in contracts and reports.
- For every success claim, name the surface and metric that were measured.
- Do not generalise platform-specific advice to every system.
How do you audit it?
- Does the service label match the work actually performed?
- Is the measurement target ranking, an answer, a citation or representation accuracy?
- Are the model, language, country and time stated?
- If LLMO is used, is it explicitly defined?
- Is there an unsupported universal claim that SEO is unnecessary?
Limit
Industry use of these terms may change. This record proposes a working distinction within NOMOS GEO; it does not claim to be the industry's single official terminology.
Remember in one sentence
Say what you are fixing first; name it afterwards.
Sources for this record
- S01Aggarwal et al., *GEO: Generative Engine Optimization*Research
- S02Google Search Central, *SEO Starter Guide*Provider documentation