SEO (search engine optimisation) is the work of ranking your website in traditional search results, mainly Google. AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation), sometimes called GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), is the work of getting your business cited and recommended inside AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. They share most of their foundations but reward some different signals, and a Kenyan business in 2026 needs both because its customers now use both.
What does SEO do?
SEO makes your pages easy for Google to find, understand and rank, then earns clicks from the results page. Its levers are technical health (speed, indexing, structure), relevance (content that matches what people search for), and authority (links and mentions from other sites). Success is measured in rankings, organic traffic and the enquiries that traffic produces. Our SEO service covers this end to end.
What does AEO do?
AEO makes your business one of the small number of sources an AI engine trusts enough to quote when someone asks a question in your category. Instead of ten blue links, the user gets one written answer that names a few businesses and cites a few pages. AEO works to be among those names and pages. Success is measured in how often and how accurately your business appears in AI answers, and in the enquiries that follow. Our AEO and GEO service is built around this.
What is the same in SEO and AEO?
- A fast, crawlable site. AI engines retrieve pages much as Google does; if a page is slow or blocked, it is not cited. One study found 63% of ChatGPT agent visits bounced because of HTTP errors, redirects, slow loading or bot blocking (Search Engine Land via Superlines).
- Clear, specific content. Both reward pages that answer a question with facts rather than adjectives.
- Consistent business information. Name, location, services and contact details that match across your site, Google Business Profile and directories build confidence for both.
- Authority from other sites. Links help SEO; mentions and citations on third-party sites help AEO. The activity that earns them is similar.
What is different?
Where the answer sits on the page. Google will rank a page whose answer appears halfway down. AI engines strongly prefer the opening: 44% of ChatGPT citations come from the first 30% of a page. AEO pushes the answer to the top.
Structured data. Schema markup is a modest ranking factor in SEO. For AI citation it correlates far more strongly: 61% of pages ChatGPT cites carry structured data, against 25% of Google’s top results.
Ranking is not required. Research by Ahrefs found that 28% of ChatGPT’s most-cited pages have zero organic visibility in Google, and that 83% of AI Overview citations come from outside Google’s top ten. A page can be invisible in SEO terms and still be the source an AI engine quotes.
Third-party sources matter more. Between 68% and 84% of AI citations come from sources other than the brand’s own site. In SEO your website carries most of the weight; in AEO your presence across the web does.
Measurement. SEO has mature tools for rankings and traffic. AEO is measured by querying the engines directly and tracking whether you appear, which is newer and more manual.
Why does this matter more in Kenya than elsewhere?
Because Kenyan adoption of AI tools is the highest measured anywhere: 97.5% of internet users used one in the past month (DataReportal, 2026). Yet very few Kenyan businesses have done any AEO work. The combination of very high usage and very low competition is unusual and will not last.
What should a Kenyan business do?
Treat them as one programme with two outputs. Fix the shared foundations first: speed, structure, consistent business facts, Google Business Profile. Then apply the AEO-specific layer to your most important pages: answer first, question-style headings, FAQ sections, schema markup. Then build third-party presence through listings, associations, reviews and local media. Finally, measure both: Search Console for Google, and a monthly set of test queries in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity for AI visibility. If you want to see where you stand on both today, book a free audit.
Frequently asked questions
Is AEO replacing SEO?
No. Google still handles the large majority of searches, and SEO remains the foundation. AEO adds a layer on top for the growing share of people who get their answer from an AI tool or an AI Overview without clicking.
What is the difference between AEO and GEO?
They overlap heavily. AEO covers the full range of answer engines, including Google AI Overviews and featured snippets. GEO refers specifically to generative AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude. Most practitioners treat them as one discipline.
Can a small business in Kenya do AEO?
Yes. The highest-impact steps, such as consistent business facts, a complete Google Business Profile, direct answers at the top of pages and FAQ sections, cost little and suit small businesses well.
How do I measure AI search visibility?
Build a list of 20 to 30 questions your customers ask, run them monthly through ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, and record whether your business is named and which pages are cited. Track the share of questions where you appear over time.
