GEO, SEO and AEO: What to Commission and What to Ask First

Start with your customer's decision

In this guide, we use SEO for organic discovery work, AEO for helping provide useful answers and GEO for observing and improving how a business is represented in generative answers. These working labels overlap: a professional proposal should define what will be done and how it will be checked.

Google considers optimization for its generative experiences to remain SEO. We therefore recommend commissioning work based on the problem and deliverable, rather than a new acronym.

Define a market you can serve

For a Chilean business, start with one service, a coverage area and a buyer profile. Gather real sales questions about coverage, terms, implementation, compatibility and support. If you also serve Mexico or Colombia, validate commercial and language differences before duplicating pages. Translation does not replace that research.

Request deliverables you can review

Ask for a baseline with queries, platforms, dates and retained answers; an issue inventory with URLs; and a content plan based on information your business can substantiate. Each change should have an owner, priority and acceptance criterion.

The budget should separate diagnosis, implementation and tracking. Clarify who writes, validates facts and publishes, and what happens when access is unavailable. If ChatGPT Search presence is offered, ask the provider to distinguish its search rules from OpenAI's documented training preferences.

Assess progress against a specific decision

We recommend agreeing on an initial work cycle with a defined scope and a subsequent review. A useful outcome tells you what was fixed, which evidence changed and what should happen next. A report containing only an unexplained score, an isolated favorable answer or a promise of leadership does not allow you to assess the service. Also require access to your deliverables and a change log your team can continue to use.