What Do We Call Optimizing for AI Search Experiences?
This is a companion piece to something I wrote on Edit History.
The digital marketing industry isn’t evolving quietly—it’s eating itself alive.
Okay, maybe that’s dramatic. But if you’ve spent time in marketing circles lately—especially those obsessed with search—you’ve seen the fractures.
Some say:
“SEO is dead.”
“No, SEO is just dying slowly.”
“Actually, SEO is immortal.”
“AI has obliterated Google.”
“AI is the only thing keeping Google alive.”
“GEO is the next frontier.”
“GEO is a made-up fad.”
“It’s AISO, not GEO.”
“It’s AEO, not AISO.”
“No one uses Google anymore.”
“AI is the new crypto—overhyped and ready to pop.”
And so on.
Beneath the noise is a deceptively simple tension:
If we’re optimizing for platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Bing Copilot, are we still doing SEO?
And if not—what do we call it?
This debate isn’t theoretical for me. I’m in it. I’ve advocated for certain terms. I’ve argued definitions. I’ve tried to shape the narrative.
Which ones? I’ll let you guess.
The Acronym Showdown
Let’s get our terms straight. Here’s the current search acronym soup:
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
AIO – Artificial Intelligence Optimization
GEO – Generative Engine Optimization
AEO – Answer Engine Optimization
AISO – Artificial Intelligence Search Optimization
SXO – Search Experience Optimization
SEvO – Search Everywhere Optimization
Rather than define these myself (and risk injecting even more bias), I turned to five sources: Google, ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Wikipedia.
For Google, I pulled both the AI Overview result and the first organic website listing.
I asked each source the same question for each term. Then I asked a final one:
Is there any consensus here?
Let’s get into it.
🔍 What Is SEO?
Every platform agreed on this one.
According to Google, Wikipedia, and all four AI models, SEO is about improving a website’s ability to rank in search engines—typically Google—to earn unpaid, organic traffic.
Not one of these sources mentioned generative AI, large language models, or AI-powered experiences. The answers sounded like they could’ve been pulled from a 2016 Moz blog.
Consensus? Yes.
Modernized? Not at all.
SEO, as currently defined, still centers on websites, keywords, and Google rankings.
Which makes you wonder—are the definitions staying still while the SERPs themselves evolve?
What Is Artificial Intelligence Optimization (AIO)?
This one’s a total mess.
Most sources—Google, Claude, Perplexity—define AIO as improving how AI functions. That means optimizing AI models, refining algorithms, and improving performance.
ChatGPT straddled two definitions: one about enhancing AI systems, another about using AI to optimize processes.
Then there’s Wikipedia. Its version is totally different:
AIO, it claims, means shaping content to be more intelligible to LLMs and AI-based platforms.
So we’ve got three definitions competing:
Optimize AI itself
Use AI to optimize stuff
Optimize for AI tools
Consensus? No.
Clarity? Also no.
AIO is either a tech term, a marketing strategy, or a philosophical shrug.
What Is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
This is the term getting the most buzz right now—and also the one most narrowly defined.
According to Search Engine Land, ChatGPT, Google, Wikipedia, and the rest:
GEO means optimizing content on your own website to appear in AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and similar tools.
The emphasis here is squarely on on-site content.
There’s no mention of brand authority, third-party citations, earned media, or anything beyond your domain.
Which is odd—because when you look at where AI tools actually pull from, it’s often not your site.
Consensus? Yes.
But too limited? Definitely.
If GEO is just “content updates for robots,” we’re setting ourselves up for a shallow framework.
What Is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)?
This term is unclear at best, contradictory at worst.
The top organic result for “answer engine optimization” is a Reddit thread. The top comment calls AEO “silly” and defines it as “optimizing for language models instead of search engines.”
Meanwhile, Google’s AI overview paints AEO as an older concept, tied to voice search, FAQ markup, and zero-click answers.
ChatGPT and Perplexity echo that—blending in AI, snippets, and voice assistants like Alexa and Siri.
Claude offers a hybrid of the two: optimize content so AI tools can extract answers directly.
Wikipedia? There is no standalone AEO page. But GEO and AIO pages treat AEO as a synonym.
Consensus? None.
Confusion? Maxed out.
AEO seems caught between the past (voice search) and the future (LLMs)—and failing to claim either.
What Is AISO (Artificial Intelligence Search Optimization)?
AISO is trying to split the difference between SEO and AI-first platforms.
Some sources (like ChatGPT and Perplexity) define AISO as tailoring content for AI search environments: ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing, etc.
Others (Google, Claude) take a weird turn, describing AISO as using AI to do SEO, not optimizing for AI results.
Worse still, some definitions mix up AISO with “AI SEO”—which is not the same acronym, and not helpful.
Wikipedia lumps it in with GEO and AEO, which doesn’t clarify anything.
Consensus? Barely.
Promise? Some.
If AISO can escape the “AI for SEO” confusion, it might actually work as a term for AI visibility strategy.
What Is SXO (Search Experience Optimization)?
SXO is often described as SEO + UX. Improve the ranking and improve what happens after the click.
But a more interesting take—cited by Ahrefs—is that SXO means:
Optimizing a brand’s full presence across all touchpoints users encounter on their search journey, whether or not they start (or end) on Google.
This broader definition acknowledges that users don’t follow a linear funnel anymore. They bounce between TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Google, Gemini, and LLMs.
Google’s AI overview didn’t distinguish SXO from SEO. Claude and ChatGPT mostly stuck to the UX-enhancement framing.
Consensus? Not really.
Potential? High—if we let go of the narrow UX definition and embrace a bigger idea of brand search presence.
What Is SEvO (Search Everywhere Optimization)?
The dark horse. The wildcard. The acronym that might actually reflect how people behave in 2025.
SEvO suggests this:
Search doesn’t just happen on Google anymore. People search on TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, YouTube, Instagram, ChatGPT, and more.
So if we’re optimizing for where users actually search—not just traditional engines—shouldn’t our strategies reflect that?
All the AI tools seem to agree here. Perplexity, Claude, ChatGPT, and Google AI Overview all define SEvO as expanding SEO’s scope to include all search-based discovery, no matter the platform.
Consensus? Surprisingly yes.
Naming problem? Absolutely.
Nobody knows how to say “SEvO.” Is it “See-voh”? “Sev-oh”? Or just… SEO 2.0?
So What Should We Call It?
After all this—what do we call the act of making your brand show up in ChatGPT, Gemini, and everywhere else people search?
I’ve written thousands of words now and here’s the most honest answer I can give:
I don’t know yet.
Every term has tradeoffs:
SEO feels dated, but still reigns
GEO is gaining traction, but too narrowly defined
AEO is a fragmented relic
AISO has potential, but suffers from acronym confusion
SXO has the right scope, but fuzzy consensus
SEvO reflects reality best—but branding is an issue
For now, I’m using SXO—as defined by Ahrefs—as my umbrella term:
Optimizing a brand’s visibility across every search platform, not just Google.
But I’m watching closely. This war of acronyms is far from over.
And the SERPs themselves? They’re already evolving faster than any of these definitions can keep up.
We’ll see which term wins.
Or if something entirely new emerges.