Glossary · last updated 2026-05-27
SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Also known as: Search Engine Optimization, organic search optimization
The discipline of getting pages to rank in the organic (unpaid) results of search engines, historically Google, increasingly also Bing as it powers AI engines. The parent practice from which AEO, GEO, AIO, and LLMO all branch.
SEO is the original discipline: structure a page so a search engine ranks it well for queries the page is relevant to. Tactics span technical fundamentals (crawlable URLs, fast pages, semantic HTML, structured data), on-page (titles, headings, content depth, internal linking), and off-page (backlinks, brand mentions, entity signals).
The classical worldview was page-centric: pages have authority, links pass authority, domains accumulate authority. The 2023-2026 shift moved SEO toward an entity-centric worldview, where the question is "does the engine recognise this author and organisation as authoritative on this topic" rather than "how many links does this URL have." E-E-A-T, entity SEO, and topical authority are the framings that dominate modern SEO thinking.
For an AEO/GEO programme, SEO is still the foundation under the AI-search layer. AI engines retrieve from the same web crawl that classical search uses; pages that classical search ranks well are statistically more likely to be in the AI engine's retrieval set. The right framing in 2026: don't abandon SEO, layer AI-search optimisation on top.
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