The way people search for information online is changing faster in 2024-25 than at any point since the smartphone revolution. AI-powered search tools — from Google's AI Overviews to Perplexity AI to Bing Copilot — are reshaping the search landscape, and Indian SMBs need to understand what this means for their digital visibility.
The Three New Disciplines: AEO, GEO, and LEO
AEO: Answer Engine Optimisation
Answer Engine Optimisation is the practice of structuring content to be selected as the answer by AI-powered search interfaces — particularly Google's AI Overviews (formerly Search Generative Experience), which now appears at the top of many Google search results. When someone asks Google "best digital marketing agency for law firms in India," Google's AI assembles an answer from web content it deems most authoritative and relevant. AEO is about making your content the one that gets cited.
AEO strategy involves: clear question-and-answer structured content, comprehensive coverage of the specific topic (Google AI tends to cite pages that cover a topic thoroughly), proper structured data markup (especially FAQ and How-To schema), and demonstrated E-E-A-T signals that make your content trustworthy enough for AI to cite.
GEO: Generative Engine Optimisation
Generative Engine Optimisation extends AEO to cover pure-play AI assistants like Perplexity AI, ChatGPT browsing, Claude, and Gemini. Unlike traditional search engines that return a list of links, these tools generate synthesised answers citing multiple sources. GEO is about being one of the sources these AI tools cite when your potential customers ask about your industry, your services, or your competitors.
GEO strategy involves: ensuring your brand has a strong factual presence across authoritative web sources (not just your own website), building citation from credible publications and directories, maintaining accurate information on Wikidata and similar structured knowledge sources (Subodh Bajpai is listed on Wikidata as Q138498338 precisely because structured, authoritative data helps AI tools represent entities accurately), and creating content that AI models can parse and cite clearly.
LEO: Local Entity Optimisation
Local Entity Optimisation is the discipline of ensuring your business is accurately and consistently represented as a local entity across Google's Knowledge Graph and AI systems. When someone in Gurugram asks their AI assistant "who are the best digital marketing agencies near me," the AI draws on its understanding of local business entities — their locations, services, reviews, and authority signals. LEO ensures your business is well-represented in this entity data.
LEO strategy involves: Google Business Profile optimisation, consistent NAP (Name, Address, Phone) data across all directories, building topical relevance signals for your local area, and ensuring your structured data (schema markup) accurately describes your business as a local entity.
What This Means for Indian SMBs
Indian internet users are rapidly adopting AI-powered search. Data shows that AI Overview usage in India has grown faster than in most markets, driven by smartphone penetration and a population that is highly comfortable with conversational search interfaces. For Indian SMBs, this means two things:
First, the opportunity: AI-powered search tends to be less dominated by brand and budget than traditional paid search. A well-written, genuinely authoritative piece of content from a small business can be cited by Google's AI Overview in a context where that business would never have appeared in paid search results at reasonable cost. The playing field is, in some ways, more level.
Second, the threat: businesses that do not adapt their content strategy for AI search will see declining organic visibility even if they maintain traditional SEO rankings. The click-through rate from AI Overview positions is different from traditional organic positions — users who get their answer in the AI Overview may not click through at all. This shifts the goal from ranking to being cited.
Practical Steps for Indian SMBs
The practical implication of AEO, GEO, and LEO for Indian SMBs is not that you need to completely overhaul your content strategy. It is that you need to layer AI-optimisation thinking onto your existing SEO approach.
Audit your existing content for question-answer structure. Ensure your FAQ sections are comprehensive and marked up with FAQ schema. Build your structured data presence systematically — Google Business Profile, Wikidata for entities of sufficient notability, consistent citations across directories. Create llms.txt files on your website to provide AI crawlers with structured information about your business. And most importantly, create content that genuinely answers the questions your potential customers are asking AI tools.
Media Dynox's Approach to AI Search
At Media Dynox, we have integrated AEO, GEO, and LEO into our standard SEO methodology. Subodh Bajpai's personal Wikidata entity (Q138498338) is an example of this practice — structured, authoritative data about a business entity that AI tools can accurately represent. Every client engagement now includes a structured data audit, an AI citation opportunity analysis, and content recommendations specifically oriented toward AI-powered search visibility.
The Bottom Line
AEO, GEO, and LEO are not replacing traditional SEO — they are layering onto it. The fundamentals still matter: authoritative content, technical performance, local signals, and E-E-A-T. But the additional layer of AI search optimisation is now necessary for any Indian SMB that wants to maintain — and grow — its organic digital visibility through 2025 and beyond.