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GEO vs. AIO vs. LLMO - What Are We Calling This New Organic Optimization Strategy? - Firebrand
Ahoy, matey! We’re entering uncharted waters — new lands where old maps are no longer accurate.
Just as Magellan once sailed beyond the horizon, naming newly discovered routes as he went, today’s marketers are navigating the unknown frontier of AI-driven discovery. In this vast, shifting landscape, the familiar search engine is no longer the only gatekeeper of organic web visibility.
AI chatbots powered by large language models are surfacing content directly to users, bypassing a growing share of the clicks and impressions that traditional SEO once delivered in spades. But what do we call this new discipline, this next organic optimization strategy? That’s the question at the heart of this post. We’ll explore the competing terms — AI Optimization (AIO), Large Language Model Optimization (LLMO), and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — and break down what we think each actually means by comparing them against a set of considerations to declare a winner.
Search Volume Comparison
When considering adoption of a term, either in general or for marketing purposes, we always like to get the Search Volume and other metrics from SEMrush to get a sense of how many others are looking for this term on Google (USA). Keyword difficulty (1-100 scale) can tell us how many other websites are targeting each term, which reveals that this term potentially already exists in a vastly different context.
Generative Engine Optimization
Large Language Model Optimization
Avg. Monthly Search Volume (Google)
Keyword Difficulty (0-100)
Top 10 Google Search Results and Semantic Considerations
Google Search of “AIO”
One major issue with adopting “AIO” as our new category of optimization is that this already exists as an abbreviation for “all-in-one” / “all-in-one liquid coolers” for computing systems as indicated from the Google AI Overview. Additionally, there is a company that makes an AI-powered lending platform. These findings explain the super-high search volume (74,000).
We don’t want to be competing with established products or companies. Even if we could wedge into the top rankings over time, there would be a large amount of irrelevant impressions when a user is looking for these instead of the new SEO strategy.
Google Search of “AI Optimization”
Google Search of “GEO”
“GEO” means a lot of different things which means this is not a great term to adopt. During our research, there was no AI Overview on Google, but there was a rich snippet for Gene Expression Omnibus from Wikipedia. The top five organic positions on Google consist of a variety of things: two non-profits (doing different things), a global sustainability organization, a stock symbol, and a dictionary definition for “earth/ground.”
This range of meanings is unfortunate because if we were to adopt the full spelling (“generative engine optimization”) the abbreviation would be almost useless compared to how unique and clear “SEO” has become.
Google Search of “Generative Engine Optimization”
Google Search of “LLMO”
Google Search of “Large Language Model Optimization”
What Do Other Subject Matter Experts Say?
We compiled this short list of respected publications and what camp they are in.
What Does ChatGPT Think About This Debate?
We asked ChatGPT to produce a score sheet of websites that say it should be called “GEO” vs “AIO” vs “LLMO” by comparing the top 100 Google Ranked sites. And although it could not produce a nice scoresheet of data, this is what it returned:
In summary, Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) stands out as the leading term embraced by industry professionals and scholars alike for optimizing content visibility in AI-driven search environments.
And the Winner is… Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Just as Darwin once encountered strange new species and was faced with the task of naming and classifying them to make sense of an unfamiliar world, marketers today are confronting a new digital ecosystem shaped by AI.
After surveying the emerging terminology and weighing clarity, relevance, and traction, we believe the strongest contender is Generative Engine Optimization (while also avoiding “GEO” by itself as an abbreviation because of the many existing and differing definitions).
While LLMO was a close second and may serve as a useful synonym in the near term, its more technical phrasing and lower search volume (20 monthly searches in the U.S. compared to 590 for Generative Engine Optimization\_)\_—suggest it may not resonate as broadly or intuitively.
The gap in meaning between the acronym LLMO and its full form further muddies the waters. Generative Engine Optimization, on the other hand, clearly conveys its purpose: optimizing for the generative engines that are now shaping how people discover, evaluate, and engage with content.
If we’re choosing a flag to plant on this new frontier, this is the one we believe is most likely to endure.
No matter what \_you\_ decide to call it, optimizing your content for generative AI platforms requires a precise strategy — one that’s very similar to traditional SEO. Firebrand’s Digital Marketing experts can chart a course that maximizes visibility for your tech brand.
© 2025 Firebrand Communications LLC
Original source: https://www.firebrand.marketing/2025/04/geo-vs-aio-vs-llmo
This is an LLM-optimized cache with preserved navigation context and semantic structure.