SEO vs LEO: Which Actually Works Better?

What is SEO and how does it work?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) helps search engines understand your content. It also helps users to discover your site. Getting on the first page of search engine results for important keywords is the main goal in SEO strategy. SERP (Search Engine Results Page)  has always been incredibly important as a marketing channel because, currently, organic search delivers 53% of all website traffic. But the landscape of digital discovery is changing. Website traffic is going down in the age of AI. You need to know how to use different tools to boost your brand’s presence. 

What is LEO and why is it gaining attention?

Language Engine Optimisation (LEO), sometimes called GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation), focuses on visibility within AI-powered tools. Unlike optimising for traditional search engines, LEO focuses specifically on helping brands get found, cited and trusted by tools like ChatGPT or Gemini. 

AI-driven chatbots and LLMs are creating a huge shift in online discovery. They are becoming a viable, and often more effective, alternative to traditional search engines. People have always used Google to take them to a website to answer their queries; LLMs summarise and directly provide answers, creating what's effectively a zero-click search experience. 

Why does this matter? AI-generated answers are increasingly becoming users' first - and sometimes only - interaction with a brand. For instance, ChatGPT alone has 800 million users and processes 1 billion daily prompts. This is serious growth for a product that only launched in late 2022. The increasing popularity of AI-powered search means that organisations failing to optimise for LLM visibility risk becoming erased from the conversation.

SEO vs LEO

Traditional SEO still drives eyes to your website, but LLMs reward trust. In the world of AI search, backlinks are becoming ‘brand mentions’, optimised sites are now ‘recognised names’ and instead of ranking, your brand should be ‘referenced’. 

Celia Harding, founder of LEOPRD, says being mentioned is more important than being first: “LLMs care about who’s talking about you. Good site structure still matters, as it helps AI to understand your brand, but visibility now depends more on presence than page rank.” 

Our research found that 63% of all AI brand citations came from earned media or third-party signals. If you want to feature on LLMs, then editorial mentions, awards and reviews are where to focus your efforts. 

How to Become More Visible to LLMs

Can SEO and LEO work together?

Far from being competing methodologies, traditional SEO services and emerging LEO can work as complementary strategies. In fact, data shows that businesses implementing both optimisation techniques experience stronger overall digital visibility in 2025's fragmented search landscape.

How to integrate both strategies

While optimising for Google and Bing with high-quality content, technical SEO, and backlinks remains foundational, it's more critical to adapt for AI-driven tools. ChatGPT, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot pull from a blend of web content, structured data, and conversational cues. 

Beyond that, social search on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram now plays a major role in how consumers find and engage with brands. A unified strategy means creating content that ranks well in search results. It should also be structured, cited, and formatted so AI tools can understand and share it. 

Essential integration tactics include:

• Using structured data and metadata to help LLMs better understand your content 
• Training AI models to recognise and cite your brand through consistent media coverage and published content
• Developing content that spans both traditional search topics and AI-friendly conversational formats

AI tools redefine how information is surfaced and trusted. While high domain authority still matters, on-site SEO is losing ground to more dynamic signals - like mentions on reputable media sites and context-rich content that aligns with natural language processing. 

LEO performs better with more conversational prompts that reflect how users interact with tools like ChatGPT. One huge advantage that AI holds over SEO is the information that LLMs use to perform the search. Whereas SEO optimises for 3-4 keywords, the average prompt in ChatGPT is around 30 and the results are more in-depth and relevant to what people are searching for. As human users become more skilled at writing prompts, discovery will depend less on structured metadata and more on narrative relevance, credibility, and presence.

LEO is the Future of Brand Visibility

When comparing SEO and LEO, the question shouldn’t be which works better - it's how effectively you can harness both approaches. LEO is becoming a vital tool for brands who want to get noticed by LLMs while traditional SEO is decreasing in importance. What others say about you carries more weight than what you say about yourself. 

As AI-powered platforms like Google’s Gemini, Meta’s Llama, and Apple’s Siri redefine how consumers engage with digital content, the opportunities for brands to stand out have never been greater. These tools aren’t just changing search -they’re reshaping discovery itself.

You can understand more about how AI is reshaping brand visibility in LEOPRD’s ground-breaking report. 

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