Short answer
SEO gets you found in search results. AEO gets you quoted when Google answers a question directly. GEO gets you named when somebody asks an AI tool for a recommendation. For a plumber they are mostly the same work done properly, and SEO is still where you start.
Somebody has probably emailed you about AEO or GEO in the last few months, usually with a warning that you are about to become invisible. Here is what the three acronyms actually mean, in order of how much they should concern you.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimisation. Being found in the ordinary search results and in the map when somebody looks for a plumber.
For a plumbing business that means a complete Google Business Profile, real reviews, a fast website, and a page for each service and area that matters to you. It has worked the same way for years and it still works now.
What is AEO?
Answer engine optimisation. Being the source Google quotes when it answers a question directly, rather than just listing links.
You will have seen this without naming it. You search something, and above the results there is a box with an answer in it, often pulled from one website. That box is what AEO is about.
For a plumber the practical version is: write the answer first, then explain. If somebody searches how much does it cost to replace a hot water cylinder, a page that opens with a plain two sentence answer is far more quotable than one that opens with twenty years of proud family history.
What is GEO?
Generative engine optimisation. Being named when somebody asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to recommend a plumber.
This is the newest of the three and the one being sold hardest. It matters because a slice of people genuinely have stopped searching and started asking. It is not yet a majority, but it is not nothing.
The mechanics are different from ranking. These tools are trying to answer confidently without being wrong, so they favour businesses they can verify from several independent places. Your own website saying you are the best plumber in town counts for nothing. Your details matching across your profile, your site and a handful of other listings counts for a lot.
So which does a plumber need?
All three, in that order, and here is the part nobody selling AI packages will tell you: they are mostly the same job.
Consistent business details help you rank, help you get quoted and help you get named. A complete Google Business Profile does all three. Genuine reviews do all three. A page that answers a real question clearly does all three.
The work does not split neatly into three products. It splits into one body of work with three kinds of payoff.
What is actually different about each
There are real differences, and they are narrower than the marketing suggests:
- SEO cares about your site being fast, your pages existing, and other sites linking to you.
- AEO cares about how a page is written. Answer at the top, clean sentences, a real FAQ rather than a wall of prose.
- GEO cares about corroboration. Being mentioned and listed accurately in places that are not your own website.
That last one is the only one with genuinely extra work in it, which is why it is the only one charged as an add-on here rather than being folded into the SEO work.
What I would tell you to ignore
Anybody guaranteeing you a position in ChatGPT. There is no placement to buy and no way to promise one.
Anybody selling AEO as a separate product. Writing a page so it answers the question is not a premium service, it is writing the page properly.
Anybody telling you your website is now pointless. The AI tools are reading the web. If your site is thin, there is nothing for them to read about you.
The honest summary
If you have a half finished Google Business Profile and a slow website, none of these three acronyms is your problem. Fix those and you have done most of the work for all of it.
If those are genuinely sorted and you want to go further, GEO is where the newest ground is, and it is worth doing deliberately rather than hoping.