Last updated: July 2026
Learn
AEO vs SEO
AEO (answer engine optimization) measures AI citations; SEO measures Google rankings. Only about 12% of ChatGPT-cited URLs rank in Google's top 10 — most teams need both dashboards, which SearchDock provides in one platform.
Why both dashboards matter
The 12% problem
Only about 12% of the URLs ChatGPT cites rank in Google's top 10. Ranking and being cited are two different games. Most teams pay for two tools to play both. SearchDock is one.
SearchDock tracks Google rankings from Search Console and AI citations from multi-pass prompt sampling in one nav — Websites, Pages, Keywords, Competitors, GSC, and Crawl alongside your AEO Score.
Source: independent analyses of ChatGPT citation overlap with Google top-10 results (2025–2026). SearchDock measures both channels so you see the full picture.
What is the difference between AEO and SEO?
SEO tracks positions in search engine results pages and clicks from Google. AEO tracks brand mentions and URL citations inside AI-generated answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and AI Overviews.
The metrics diverge: a page can rank #1 and never be cited, or rank #20 and dominate AI recommendations for the same query.
Why do rankings and citations diverge?
AI models weight freshness, passage extractability, and entity clarity differently than Google's ranking algorithms. They also sample training data and live retrieval sources that do not mirror Google's index.
Only about 12% of the URLs ChatGPT cites rank in Google's top 10. Ranking and being cited are two different games. Most teams pay for two tools to play both. SearchDock is one.
Do you need separate tools for AEO and SEO?
You can, but most mid-market teams pay for Semrush plus an AI visibility tool. SearchDock combines rank tracking, GSC, technical crawl, and multi-pass AEO sampling in one subscription from $49/mo.
One nav: Websites → Pages, Keywords, Competitors, GSC, Crawl, plus AEO Score.