Short answer

Both share the fundamentals: crawling, indexing, useful content and a consistent entity. They differ in three things. The yardstick they measure the work with (rankings and traffic, versus what AI answered before and after). What they have to defend (a link-building or mass-content retainer, versus a measurement). And where they start (with strategy, versus with observation). Neither is better in the abstract; it depends on whether you need a new layer on top of SEO that already works, or someone who looks only at this.

What they share

A model with search retrieves documents from an index before it answers. That is why whatever makes a website crawlable, clear and relevant serves classic search and AI search alike. A good SEO agency already knows how to do that, and a GEO agency that ignores it will not last.

Where they differ

The yardstick. An SEO agency shows you rankings, impressions and clicks. It is what it knows how to measure and what its tools return. A GEO agency shows you what AI answered to twelve buying questions, with date and source, before and after. They are different data and they lead to different decisions.

What they have to defend. An agency that lives off a link-building retainer or mass content production tends to recommend more of the same, because that is what it knows how to deliver. An agency that only does GEO has nothing to defend except the measurement: if the problem is a pricing page, the recommendation is a pricing page.

Where they start. SEO usually starts with strategy and keywords. GEO starts by observing: what buyers ask AI and what it answers today. The strategy comes out of that.

The promises. Neither should promise rankings or mentions. In practice, SEO vocabulary (“ranking”, “first page”) is sometimes carried over to GEO as if a generated answer could be controlled. It cannot.

When each one makes sense

  • You already have an SEO agency that works, and the question of AI comes up. Ask it to add a measurement layer with saved questions and answers. If it cannot show you original answers, complement it with an external diagnosis.
  • You have no SEO and your website is small. A 100% GEO agency will make you solve the fundamentals anyway (crawling, indexing, pages that answer), because without them the measurement makes no sense.
  • Your problem is that AI describes you wrongly or recommends someone else. That is an entity and sources problem; a GEO agency measures it directly.
  • Your problem is classic organic traffic. That is SEO. Do not call it GEO.

How to check before you hire

Ask either of them for their smallest diagnosis and see whether it includes what a proposal must contain: unbranded questions, full answers, sources and a second date. The agency’s label matters less than the deliverable.

Our position

We are Spain’s first 100% GEO agency: this is all we do. From SEO we use what is still needed for an AI to find you, and all our work is measured with the same yardstick: what AI answers about your brand before and after. We do not sell classic SEO, advertising or web design, which is why we can recommend what the measurement says, not what we know how to deliver.