The first one you have heard of. SEO means showing up on Google when somebody searches for what you do. That still matters, and it is still where most people find a business.
The second one is newer and nobody has explained it to you yet, so here it is. More and more people now ask ChatGPT or Gemini instead of searching. When they do, the assistant does not show a list of ten. It names two or three businesses. Being one of those is a different piece of work, and it has a clumsy name: GEO, or Generative Engine Optimisation.
The practical difference is that assistants need your information laid out in a way they can read and quote. Most small business websites have none of that, which is the good news. It is still cheap to be one of the few that does, and both builds include it as standard.
- Google looks for
- Links, content, speed, relevance
- Assistants look for
- Clear facts they can quote
- Good news
- About half the work serves both
- How long
- Google 3 to 6 months. Assistants, often weeks.