SEO vs AEO: Differences and Complementarities

Organic CTR has dropped 61% on queries where Google displays an AI Overview. HubSpot, the absolute reference in B2B SEO, lost between 70 and 80% of its organic traffic between late 2024 and early 2025. Meanwhile, visitors from AI responses convert 4.4 times better than those from classic organic search.

These figures don't mean SEO is dead. They mean the rules of the game have changed. And those who understand how SEO and AEO work together will have a decisive advantage over those clinging to a binary view of the problem.

This guide won't sell you one against the other. It will dissect their real differences, their overlap areas, and how to combine them for a strategy that holds up in 2025.

Two fundamentally different objectives

The confusion between SEO and AEO often comes from a poor understanding of what each discipline seeks to accomplish.

SEO aims to generate traffic. The ultimate goal is to get the user to click to your site. You optimize to appear in results, hoping that a percentage of those who see you will click on your link. Success is measured in sessions, unique visitors, page views.

AEO aims to generate mentions. The goal is for the AI to cite you as a source or recommend you as a solution. The user may never visit your site — and that's acceptable, because the mention itself creates value: awareness, trust, influence on the purchase decision.

This difference seems simple on paper. In practice, it changes everything: the optimal content format, the metrics to track, the very definition of success.

Criteria	SEO	AEO
Main objective	Generate web traffic	Obtain mentions/citations
Target	Google, Bing (classic engines)	ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, AI Overviews
Displayed result	List of clickable links	Generated response with sources
Query type	Short/long keywords	Conversational questions
Key metric	Position, CTR, traffic	Citation rate, AI share of voice
Preferred format	Long, detailed content	Direct, structured answers

What 2025 data teaches us

Recent data allows us to move beyond speculation. Here's what we actually observe.

Classic SEO traffic remains massive but is eroding. 53% of web traffic still comes from organic search. That's considerable. But the average CTR for position 1 has dropped from 28% to 19% after AI Overviews deployment. And on queries where an AI preview appears, CTR falls to 0.61% — versus 1.76% without AI.

Zero-click searches are exploding. 58.5% of Google searches in the United States generate no click to an external site. The user finds their answer directly in the results — featured snippets, knowledge panels, or now AI Overviews. This trend existed before AI, but it's accelerating.

Being cited changes everything. Brands mentioned in AI Overviews get 35% more organic clicks than those not featured. And 91% more paid clicks. Exposure in the AI response acts as an amplifier for other channels.

AI visitor quality surpasses classic SEO. Users who arrive via a conversational AI recommendation convert 4.4 times better than those from traditional organic search. They are more engaged, better qualified, closer to purchase intent.

Why SEO remains essential for AEO

Some announce SEO's death. That's an analytical error. SEO hasn't become useless — it has become the foundation on which AEO is built.

AIs feed on search results. ChatGPT uses Bing for real-time search. 87% of its citations correspond to Bing's top 10. Google's AI Overviews draw from organic results: 97% of cited sources come from the top 20. If you're not well-positioned in SEO, you don't exist for AI RAG systems.

Domain authority transfers. AIs give more credit to high-authority sources. This authority is built through classic SEO mechanisms: quality backlinks, domain history, trust signals. A site with a DA of 20 may have the best content in the world, it will be cited less than a competitor at DA 60.

Indexation remains a prerequisite. For an AI to cite you, it must first be able to find you. SEO technical best practices — sitemap, correctly configured robots.txt, loading time, clean HTML structure — remain the foundation of all visibility.

What changes with AEO

If SEO lays the foundations, AEO adds a specific optimization layer. Here are the adjustments that make the difference.

Content shifts from "best page" to "best answer"

In traditional SEO, you build the most comprehensive page possible on a topic. You cover all angles, add images, videos, comparison tables. The goal: be the reference resource that Google will place at the top.

In AEO, the AI isn't looking for the best page. It's looking for the best answer to a specific question. When a user asks "Does hotel X have free parking?", the AI wants a sentence that answers directly — not a 3,000-word guide about Brooklyn hotels.

Concretely, this means integrating "answer capsules" into your content: standalone paragraphs of 50-100 words that directly and completely answer a specific question. These blocks are what the AI extracts and cites.

Structure becomes critical

AIs parse your content programmatically. A clear hierarchy (H1 > H2 > H3), ordered lists for processes, bullet lists for related items — all this helps the AI understand the information's organization.

Structured data (schema.org) takes on increased importance. FAQ Schema, HowTo Schema, Product Schema allow AIs to unambiguously understand what each element of your page represents.

Queries become conversational

Classic SEO targets keywords: "SMB accounting software", "CRM comparison 2025". AEO targets natural questions: "What accounting software do you recommend for a 15-person SMB?"

Keyword research transforms into identifying the questions your audience asks. Question-answer tools (Answer the Public, AlsoAsked) become more relevant than traditional search volume tools.

Metrics evolve

Traffic and positioning remain useful, but they're no longer enough. New metrics emerge:

• AI Visibility Score — Frequency of appearance in AI responses for your target queries
• Citation Count — Number of times your site is cited as a source by AIs
• AI Share of Voice — Percentage of AI responses in your industry that mention your brand
• Citation Position — Where you appear in the source list (first source vs last)

Hybrid strategy: how to combine SEO and AEO

The right approach isn't choosing between SEO and AEO. It's building a strategy where both reinforce each other.

Step 1: Audit the current situation

Before any optimization, assess your starting point:

• Current SEO positions on your priority queries
• Presence in Google AI Overviews (if applicable in your country)
• Mentions by ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity on your industry queries
• Analysis of competitors cited by AIs in your market

Step 2: Identify dual-potential content

Some content can perform in both classic SEO and AEO. These are generally:

• Complete guides on topics where you have expertise
• Detailed FAQs answering common questions from your audience
• Comparisons and analyses with proprietary data
• Structured educational resources (tutorials, methods)

Step 3: Restructure for AI without hurting SEO

Adding answer capsules and structured data doesn't negatively impact SEO — on the contrary. Better-structured content is also better understood by Google.

For each strategic page:

• Identify the 3-5 main questions it answers
• Create a standalone paragraph for each answer
• Place these answers early in the content, under explicit H2s
• Add appropriate schema markup (FAQPage if FAQ format)

Step 4: Develop topical authority

AIs favor sources that demonstrate deep expertise. A single article on a topic isn't enough. You need to build content clusters:

• A comprehensive pillar content on the main theme
• Satellite content covering each sub-aspect
• Logical internal linking between content pieces

This approach simultaneously improves your topical authority in SEO and your perceived credibility by AIs.

Step 5: Diversify mention sources

AIs cross-reference information. Being mentioned on multiple trusted sources strengthens your credibility. Invest in:

• Press relations to get citations in recognized media
• Participation in expertise platforms (testimonials, case studies)
• Presence on sources AIs consult (Wikipedia if eligible, specialized forums)

Key takeaways

SEO and AEO are not in opposition. They are two layers of the same digital visibility strategy.

SEO builds the foundations: domain authority, indexation, positioning in results. Without it, you don't exist for AI search systems.

AEO adds a specific optimization layer: content structure, answer capsules, structured data, conversational queries. Without it, you exist but you're not cited.

Companies that will succeed in 2025 are those who master both. Organic CTR is dropping, but brands cited in AI Overviews get 35% more clicks. Visitors from AIs convert 4.4 times better. Investing in a hybrid strategy isn't optional — it's a competitive advantage to build now.

Studies show that AEO-optimized content generates 14% more CTR than classic SEO pages. The complementarity is measurable.

Start by auditing your current situation on both fronts. Identify quick wins — often, restructuring existing content is enough to improve AI visibility. And progressively build a presence that works as well for Google as for ChatGPT.