Beyond SEO: How AEO and GEO Are Redefining Visibility for Restaurants and Local Businesses

From search results to competent answers, visibility today means showing up across Google, AI, and everywhere decisions are made

The Discovery Game Has Changed — Have You?

There was a time when ranking on Google was the goal. If your restaurant showed up on the first page of search results, you were winning. Everything revolved around SEO — keyword research, backlinks, and fast-loading websites. And it worked.

But the rules have changed...

People no longer just “search.” They ask. They scroll. They expect answers before they even finish typing. They rely on voice assistants, AI chatbots, reviews, and forums. They get recommendations from tools that don’t even require them to click.

If your digital strategy is still built entirely around traditional SEO, you're competing in just a small corner of the internet. Meanwhile, others are showing up across multiple layers of discovery, faster, smarter, and more consistently.

Welcome to the new framework:

SEO → AEO → GEO

And if you’re not working across all three, you’re not playing the full game.

1. SEO: Search Engine Optimization

Let’s be clear — SEO still matters. It’s the foundation. It’s how your website becomes visible on Google when someone types in “best tacos near me” or “vegan brunch in Portland.”

Search Engine Optimization helps you capture intent-based traffic — people actively looking for what you offer. It drives long-term visibility and gives you control over your message. But today, it also faces fundamental limitations.

Search engine results pages (SERPs) are more crowded than ever. You’re competing with paid ads, Google Maps, shopping results, and answer boxes. Organic results are being pushed further down, and clicks are declining.

If you want SEO to work today, you need to be sharper:

• Focus on particular, local keyword clusters (“wood-fired pizza in Silver Lake” instead of “best pizza”).

• Optimize your Google Business Profile — hours, photos, menus, reviews, bookings.

• Improve mobile experience — nearly all food-related searches happen on phones.

• Build internal links between your blog, your menu, and your ordering pages.

• Make sure your site loads fast — every second counts.
  

SEO is still powerful — but it’s not fast, and it’s not always enough.

2. AEO: Answer Engine Optimization

Here’s where the shift begins.

AEO is about showing up in Google’s direct answers, featured snippets, knowledge panels, and FAQs. These are “zero-click results” — the user gets their answer without ever visiting a website.

For example, if someone types “What’s the best time to visit a cevichería?”, and your content appears in the answer box, you've earned that trust — even if they don’t click.

This requires a different approach. You’re not just writing blog posts. You’re writing answers.

• Structure your content with clear questions and concise answers (40–60 words is ideal).

• Use subheaders, bullet points, and lists to make scanning easy.

• Add schema markup like FAQPage or HowTo so Google can understand your content more easily.

• Avoid fluff. Be helpful, direct, and informative.
  

AEO rewards clarity, formatting, and structure — not style. You’re helping Google help the user, and that makes you valuable.

The click may be gone, but the brand impression stays. In many cases, that’s more valuable than traffic.

3. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization

This is the frontier few businesses are preparing for — but it’s already here.

GEO is about optimizing your presence for generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, Google SGE, Perplexity, and Bing AI. These engines don’t show search results — they create responses.

And if your business isn’t part of the information they pull from, you don’t exist in their world.

Generative AI sources data from across the web: forums, reviews, blogs, directories, and public datasets. It synthesizes everything into a single, conversational response.

So your job isn’t just to optimize your own site. It’s to exist in the places these engines read from.

• Get cited on Reddit, Quora, Tripadvisor, niche food blogs, Google Reviews.

• Encourage thoughtful, descriptive reviews — not just “great food!” but “this café has the best almond croissants I’ve had in Seattle.”

• Share fact-based content: menus, prices, locations, specialties, credentials, sustainability practices.

• Ensure your brand name, product categories, chef names, and services appear clearly in structured formats across multiple platforms.
  

GEO is about being referenced, not just being present. It’s about being trusted by the tools your audience is now relying on to make decisions — even when they never visit your site.

The majority of restaurants and small businesses are still locked into the SEO mindset. A few are experimenting with AEO. Almost none are seriously addressing GEO.

That gap is an opportunity.

Those who embrace all three — SEO, AEO, and GEO — are setting themselves up to dominate not just search results, but the entire decision-making journey of their audience.

If you're only optimizing your own website, you're only part of the conversation.

Discovery now lives across multiple platforms. It starts in Google, jumps to Reddit, lands on ChatGPT, and loops back through your Google Business reviews. Being present across that landscape isn’t just good marketing. It's survival.

And it’s how the most visible, most recommended, and most talked-about businesses are winning, often without spending a dollar on ads.