I've done SEO since 1999, long enough to watch the industry do this every few years: a real shift happens, and then a hundred vendors invent competing jargon to sell it back to you. AI search is a real shift. The jargon around it is mostly noise. Let me decode the noise first, then tell you what actually gets an electrician cited.
The acronyms, decoded
Here's the whole alphabet soup in one place, so the next sales pitch can't baffle you with it:
- AI Overviews (AIO). The AI-written answer box at the top of many Google searches. This is the big one for local businesses.
- SGE (Search Generative Experience). Google's original name for AI Overviews before it launched. Same thing, older label. It's now growing into a full "AI Mode."
- AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). Getting your business picked as the answer an AI engine gives.
- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization). Showing up inside generative engines, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Bing Copilot, and AI Overviews.
- LLMO (LLM Optimization). Being a source that large language models pull from. An LLM is the "large language model" (the AI) behind tools like ChatGPT.
- RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation). The method most of these tools use: instead of guessing from memory, they fetch real web pages and cite them. This is why your website still matters, a lot.
- The engines themselves. ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews and Gemini, Microsoft's Bing Copilot, and Claude. Different front doors, same underlying need: content they can read and trust.
The secret the acronyms hide: it's mostly the same work
Strip away the labels and AEO, GEO, and LLMO describe one job: make your site so clear, credible, and well-structured that an AI can read it, trust it, and quote it. That overlaps almost entirely with what already ranks you in normal search. Because these engines use RAG, fetching and citing real pages, the businesses winning in AI answers are overwhelmingly the ones already strong in regular search and local listings. There's no separate secret channel. There's the same foundation, tuned a little further.
Why this matters for electricians specifically
Electrical work is exactly the kind of thing people now ask AI about. "Why does my outlet spark?" "Do I need a permit to add a subpanel?" "Who installs EV chargers near me?" The AI writes an explanation and, for the local ones, names or cites a few businesses. That's a homeowner at the exact moment of deciding who to call, and if the AI hands them a name, that's a lead you either won or lost before they saw a single normal result. Our client Newman Electric gets cited by Google's AI Overviews for EV charger and electrical queries in their market, which is the same reason their phone rings from regular search: they built the trust signals the engines look for.
How electricians actually show up in AI answers
Ignore the acronym wars and do these, in order:
- Answer real questions on real pages. A dedicated page per service (panel upgrades, EV chargers, rewiring, emergency), written to answer the questions homeowners actually ask, gives the AI something clean to quote. A single vague "Services" page gives it nothing.
- Add schema markup. Structured data tells the engines exactly what your business is, what you do, and where, in a format they read directly. It's plumbing for AI.
- Win local and reviews. AI Overviews lean heavily on Google's local data and reviews. A complete Google Business Profile and a steady flow of reviews feed the AI as much as they feed the map.
- Show real credentials. Licensing, real authorship, years in business, these are the trust signals (often called E-E-A-T) that make an engine comfortable citing you over an anonymous competitor.
- Get mentioned elsewhere. When other credible sites reference you, the engines take it as corroboration. Citations across the web reinforce that you're real and reputable.
If you want the deep, tactical version of getting cited, here's the full guide to earning AI Overview and ChatGPT citations, with the schema, declarative-content, and citation-network specifics.
Where this is heading
Google is expanding AI Overviews into "AI Mode," a fuller conversational search, and the assistants are getting more agentic, able to compare options and even tee up the booking. The direction is clear: more searches will end with the AI handing over a recommendation instead of a page of blue links. The businesses named in those recommendations will be the ones that are genuinely findable, structured, and trusted. That's not a new game; it's the same one, with higher stakes for being invisible.
The bottom line
Don't let anyone sell you a mysterious new channel with a fresh acronym. AEO, GEO, and LLMO are names for one job: be the clear, credible, well-structured electrician the AI can read and trust. Do the real-pages, schema, reviews, credentials, and citations work, and you show up in AI answers for the same reason you show up in the map. Skip it, and you're invisible in both.
Want to know whether ChatGPT and Google's AI can even find your business today? Get a free SEO report on your business and your market, it covers where you stand in normal search and AI answers both, and you work with me directly, 27+ years in. Or call: 1.877.362.3077.
