SEO, AEO, and GEO: what does a B2B supplier actually need?
Why supplier discovery still starts with useful, crawlable first-party answers, not a separate AI-search trick.
5 min read
The acronyms describe overlapping discovery surfaces
SEO usually refers to search-engine discovery. AEO and GEO are used for answer engines and generative search. A supplier does not need three unrelated content programmes.
The buyer still asks a commercial question: who can supply this product, for this application, in this market, with this proof? The first-party answer must be specific enough for a person, a crawler, or an answer tool to understand.
Start with pages that answer the buying decision
Useful product, category, application, capability, location, comparison, and guide pages should connect the answer to specifications, documents, company proof, and a relevant next step.
Clear headings, internal links, structured data, accurate entities, crawl access, performance, and current facts support both conventional search and AI-assisted discovery. An llms.txt file does not replace this work.
Measure each surface honestly
Search rankings, Search Console queries, AI-answer checks, crawler activity, page engagement, and enquiries are different measurements. They should not be blended into one visibility score.
A result from one provider or one bounded query sample says what that check found at that time. It does not prove a universal rank, citation, or demand outcome.