SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of improving a website so it ranks higher in search engines like Google. This involves refining technical elements, site structure, content, and keywords so search engines can easily understand and recommend your site. Good SEO helps your audience find you online, drives more qualified traffic, and builds long-term visibility.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) focuses on how AI models — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews — describe, recommend, and reference your business when generating an answer. This includes keeping your business description consistent everywhere you appear online (your site, directories, social profiles), earning mentions and citations from other websites, and using structured data that ties your name, services, and location together as one clear, identifiable entity. Strong GEO means AI tools describe your business accurately and recommend it when someone asks a broad question like "best [service] in [city]." GEO is the broader, slower-moving entity-reputation work.

AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the practice of optimizing your content so it gets pulled into AI-generated answers — from tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews. This means structuring content in clear, direct question-and-answer formats, using accurate schema markup, and writing authoritative answers to the questions your customers are actually asking. As more people search through AI assistants instead of traditional search bars, AEO is becoming just as important as classic SEO for getting found. AEO differs from GEO in that it targets specific pieces of content to be cited, rather than your overall reputation across the web.

Traditional SEO optimizes for ranking in a list of links; AEO optimizes for being the answer itself, often without a click at all. AI tools tend to favor content that's structured, specific, and easy to extract — like well-formatted FAQs, clear headings, and direct answers in the first sentence. The two work together: strong technical and content SEO gives AI systems a well-understood site to pull from, while AEO-specific formatting increases the odds your content gets chosen and cited.

Squarespace has solid built-in SEO tools: you can customize page titles, meta descriptions, URL slugs, and image alt text with your target keywords. It also automatically generates a sitemap and includes SSL on every plan, which covers two important technical SEO boxes without any setup. Clean navigation, mobile-responsive design, and fast-loading images round out a strong technical foundation.

Start by claiming and fully completing your Google Business Profile, then keep it updated with accurate hours, services, and photos. On your site, build dedicated pages for each neighbourhood or service area you serve, and weave in local keywords naturally throughout your content. Consistent contact information across your website and online directories, plus a steady stream of customer reviews, also strengthens your local search signal.

Add a clear FAQ section to key pages, written in natural question-and-answer format with direct, specific answers — this is exactly the structure AI tools look for. Squarespace automatically adds basic Organization schema, but for FAQ, Service, or Local Business schema you'll need to add JSON-LD markup manually through Code Injection (Settings → Advanced → Code Injection), since Squarespace doesn't generate these types on its own. Keeping your content accurate and up to date also matters, since AI tools are more likely to cite sources that are current and trustworthy.

Not necessarily, since they overlap and reinforce each other more than they compete. A well-optimized page with accurate metadata, local content, and a strong FAQ section is doing all three at once. Most businesses see the best results by building a solid SEO foundation first, then layering in local SEO for local reach and GEO and AEO for AI visibility