If you have spoken to a digital marketing agency recently, you have probably heard a new acronym or two. SEO has been around for years. Now there is AEO and GEO as well, and each tends to arrive with its own monthly fee.
Here is what they mean without the sales pitch, and what they mean for someone selling flats in Indiranagar or filling beds in a PG in Kothrud.
SEO: being found in search results
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It means making your website easy for Google and Bing to find, understand and show when someone searches.
When a buyer types "3 BHK flat for sale in Indiranagar", Google shows a list of results. SEO is the work of making your page one of them. That includes technical basics, like pages that load quickly and carry sensible titles, and content, like listings with real descriptions and pages about the localities you work in.
For property businesses in India, the plain truth is that portals like 99acres, MagicBricks and Housing.com hold many of the broad searches. You are unlikely to outrank them for "flats in Bangalore". You can compete for narrower searches, the ones that name a locality, a society, a budget or a need. That is where a small firm wins, and it is what locality pages are for.
AEO: being the answer, not just a link
AEO stands for answer engine optimisation. The idea is that search increasingly gives an answer directly, without the person clicking anywhere.
You have seen this. Ask Google "what is carpet area" and it may put an answer at the top of the page, taken from someone's website. Ask a voice assistant a question and it reads out one answer, not ten links. The AI-written summaries Google now shows above some results work the same way.
AEO means writing pages so that a clear answer can be lifted from them. In practice:
- Put the question in a heading and answer it in the first sentence or two below it
- Use plain, specific language: numbers, place names, units
- Keep one idea to a paragraph, so a sentence still makes sense on its own
GEO: being read by AI assistants
GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. "Generative" refers to AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, which generate an answer in their own words after reading sources.
GEO is about making your site something these tools can read and are willing to cite. Part of it is technical. Many AI tools read only what your server sends and do not run the code that builds many modern pages, so a site that fills itself in after loading can look empty to them. The rest is the same as good SEO: clear facts, consistent business details and pages worth quoting. There is more on this in how AI assistants find a property agent.
Be wary of anyone who says they can get you "into ChatGPT". There is no form to submit and nobody to pay. You can make your site readable. What the assistant says is up to the assistant.
What all three have in common
Strip away the acronyms and all three reward the same things:
- Pages that arrive with their text already in them
- Facts stated plainly: price in rupees, carpet area, BHK, locality, and the RERA number where it applies
- A clear statement of who you are, where your office is and how to reach you, the same everywhere online
- Writing that answers real questions from your own experience
- A site that is quick on a phone
A site that does these things well is doing SEO, AEO and GEO at once. They are not three jobs. They are three names for being a clear, trustworthy source.
How not to get oversold
If an agency proposes separate packages for SEO, AEO and GEO, ask what each package does that the others do not. Often the honest answer is "not much". Ask to see the work, not the report: which pages will be written, which technical problems will be fixed, and how you will be able to check.
Be careful with promises too. Nobody can guarantee a position on Google, and nobody can guarantee what an AI assistant says. If someone does, read why a guaranteed page one should make you walk away before you sign.
One thing to do this week
Pick the question clients ask you most. For a PG owner it might be "what exactly is included in the rent?" For a broker in Indiranagar it might be "what does a 2 BHK rent for around here?" Write a short page that answers it honestly, with the question as the heading and a direct answer right below it.
Then add what only you know: the exceptions, the things that surprise people, what you tell clients when they are sitting across the desk from you. That one page is SEO, AEO and GEO in a single piece of work, and it costs nothing but an hour.
