ASO vs SEO vs GEO vs AEO for apps: one strategy, four surfaces.

A parent in Jaipur wants a maths app for an eight-year-old. She asks ChatGPT, which names three apps and links to one of their websites. She searches Google for the name, sees an AI Overview and a Play Store result, opens the listing, reads two reviews and installs.

Four surfaces in one decision. Most apps are optimising one of them.

The four disciplines

Where they overlap

One positioning sentence. "A maths practice app for kids aged six to ten, built for short daily sessions." Put that sentence, or a close version, in the store short description, the website's first paragraph and the page AI crawlers read. AI assistants repeat what they can read clearly; store algorithms match what users type. Consistency helps all four.

One keyword map. What people type into the Play Store, into Google and into ChatGPT overlaps more than you'd think. Research it once, then decide which surface each phrase belongs to.

Proof. Ratings sell installs in the store. Specific numbers get quoted by AI Overviews and assistants. Reviews and stats do double duty.

Where they pull apart

ASO rewards tight, keyword-dense titles. SEO and GEO reward readable pages that explain things properly. Don't paste store copy onto your website, or website copy into a 30-character title.

The failure modes differ too. A store listing can fail on Android vitals. A website can fail by being a JavaScript shell that AI crawlers can't read, or by blocking the wrong crawler.

What to fix first

Start with one wedge and earn the right to expand, instead of spreading thin across four channels. For most early apps the wedge is the store listing: that is where the install happens and where every other surface eventually sends people. Our own portfolio passed 700,000 installs on store discovery alone, with no ads, before AI assistants recommended apps at all.

Next, make sure the website is readable by AI crawlers and states the positioning sentence plainly. Then publish answers to the questions your users actually ask. Clicks from informational searches are getting scarcer: Seer Interactive measured organic click-through on AI Overview queries falling from 1.76% to 0.61%, but brands cited inside the overview earned about 35% more organic clicks than brands that weren't. Being the cited answer is now the goal, not just ranking beneath it.

How to measure each surface

• ASO: store listing CTR by traffic source, installs from search, rating and vitals in Play Console.
• SEO: clicks and impressions in Search Console, plus Bing Webmaster Tools, because Copilot draws on Bing.
• GEO: a fixed list of 20 to 50 prompts checked monthly in ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity, plus AI referral traffic in GA4.
• AEO: which of your queries show an AI Overview, and whether you are cited in it.

Each surface has a tool here: the ASO checker, the Play rating and CTR calculators, the AI crawler checker, the GA4 AI traffic regex and the zero-click calculator. Start with whichever surface is weakest.

Questions people ask

What is the difference between ASO and SEO?

ASO optimises an app's store listing for app store search and conversion. SEO optimises web pages for search engines like Google and Bing.

What is GEO for apps?

Making sure AI assistants like ChatGPT and Gemini can read about your app and recommend it, mainly through a crawlable website, clear positioning and mentions on sources they trust.

Should an app invest in ASO or SEO first?

Usually ASO, because the install happens in the store. Add SEO and GEO once the listing converts well.