What is SEO?
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is the process of making your website more visible to the people you want to find it by ranking higher within search engine results.
When you type something into Google, it recognises the keywords you’ve used and scours the internet to find the most relevant, reliable results that include them.
By optimising your website and content, you are essentially waving to Google: “Hey, over here, we know about that.”
How Does SEO Work?
When you search online, the goal is to find what you need, fast.
Google, the most popular search engine, wants to send people to websites that are helpful, accessible, trustworthy, quick to load and easy to use.
If every website that came up when you searched was slow, spammy, or hard to navigate, people would stop using Google.
SEO isn’t all about keywords. Search engines look at how people interact with your website; the smoother their digital experience is, the higher you rank.
Here’s what Google looks for:
- Staying Power: If your website loads quickly and is easy to read, people stay a while. If it’s slow or confusing, they close the tab. If Google notices quick exits, your rankings take a hit.
- Frictionless Journeys: When your navigation is easy, visitors explore. High engagement signals strong credibility to Google.
- Set Up for the Small Screen: These days, most browsing is done on phones. If your text is tiny or buttons get cut off on mobile screens, visitors jump ship, and Google takes this into account when ranking your website.
When you prioritise usability, you boost your visibility.
On-Page SEO
On-page SEO is everything on your website itself, and refining it to ensure your digital experience is seamless for visitors and makes sense to search engines.
Here’s what on-page SEO looks like in practice:
- Helpful and engaging written content
- Clear titles and headings
- Fast-loading pages
- Mobile-friendly layouts
- Frictionless navigation
- Clean code and logical structure
- Internal links that add value
Search engines are looking for quality and clarity. When you use clean code and correct tags, you make it easy for Google to understand what your page is about, so it can confidently recommend you to the people searching for what you do.
Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is everywhere else you appear online that isn’t your website, including:
- Backlinks. Links to your website on other people’s websites. These act like digital character references.
- Social media content. Using the same keywords in your social media content as on your website means you’ll show up in two search results rather than just one, and a consistent tone and brand voice build trust with your audience and search engines.
- Reviews. Genuine customer testimonials on reliable platforms.
Off-page SEO is all about trust. It helps users and search engines understand that your website is legitimate and active, which improves its ranking.
SEO isn’t about outsmarting the computer; it’s about being the best possible resource for your audience.
Build a website that humans like, and search engines will follow.
What is AEO?
AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation) is SEO’s chattier friend.
AI tools like Gemini and ChatGPT are becoming the go-to places to get lightning-fast information online.
While SEO focuses on getting your website to rank well in search engine results, AEO is the practice of structuring your content so AI tools understand and trust it enough to quote it in their answer to user questions.
How Does AEO Work?
When you ask an AI tool a question, it scans through dozens of pages in seconds, synthesises a single, conversational response, and then adds clickable links next to its answer to show where it pulled the information from. These are called digital citations.
Instead of matching keywords like search engines do, AI engines scan content for contextual, direct answers to user questions, and if it can’t easily find them, it moves on to the next website.
For example, if someone types “When was the telephone invented?” into Gemini, and your website says “Once upon a time, on a rainy Tuesday, in Boston, Massachusetts, a young man by the name of…” instead of “March 7, 1876”, AI will hit skip and find a website that answers the question quicker.
On-Page AEO
Just like traditional SEO, optimising for AI engines requires a two-pronged approach.
Here’s what on-page AEO looks like in practice:
- Direct Q&A Formats: Writing headings as clear questions, followed immediately by a 40- to 60-word answer that the AI can easily extract.
- Clear Schema Markup: Using behind-the-scenes code to label important data, like prices, dates, or names.
- Bite-Sized Layouts: Digestible lists, bullet points, and tables that an AI can pull straight into its response, rather than searching for an answer in a wall of text.
- Conversational Tone: Writing like a real human talking to another real human. People talk to AI tools colloquially; your content should mirror real-world dialogue.
Off-Page AEO
Following in the footsteps of SEO again, AEO values trustworthiness.
AI tools are intelligent, the clue’s in the name, so they don’t just take your word for it when you claim to be an expert on your website; they cross-reference your business and look for things that vouch for you, like backlinks and reviews, to make sure you’re legitimate and reliable before they recommend you in their response.
Off-page AEO includes:
- Consistent Company Information: Keep your business name, address, and phone number identical across directories so AI models don’t get confused by conflicting information.
- Third-Party Reviews: Genuine customer testimonials on reliable, external platforms are a green flag for AI.
- Authoritative Mentions and Backlinks: Featuring in industry publications, forums, and on other trusted websites. Every time a credible site links to or mentions your brand, it builds your digital authority and AI’s trust in you.
The Differences Between SEO and AEO
While SEO and AEO are a great team, they do have a few differences:
- Goals: The goal of traditional SEO is to get your website’s link to appear at the top of a search engine results page. The goal of AEO is to format your information so clearly that AI trusts it enough to quote it.
- How They Find You: SEO relies heavily on matching keywords that users type into a browser. AEO is more focused on context and intent; it looks for direct, conversational answers to questions.
- User Experience: With SEO, users browse a directory of options and choose which link to click. With AEO, users are given a single, synthesised answer alongside a link showing where the facts come from.
What SEO and AEO Have in Common
The purpose of search engines and answer engines is the same: to help people find what they are looking for.
Google rewards you when your website is fast, logical, and easy to read. AI tools reward you when you answer real user questions clearly.
Neither of them wants keyword-stuffed fluff written by a machine for a machine.
Technology will continue to evolve, but creating genuinely useful digital experiences for real people will never go out of style.
