SEO, AEO and GEO: what they all mean for your salon
Search didn't stop working, it changed shape. People now ask a question and get an answer, so if your salon isn't in that answer, you're not on the shortlist.
SEO didn’t die, the answer did the changing
For a long time, getting found online was simple. Someone typed “hairdresser Bondi” into Google, you appeared in the list, they picked one and rang.
That still happens. But a lot of people now ask a question instead. “Where should I get a balayage done near me?” “What’s a fair price for a full head of foils?” “Which salon in my area is good with curly hair?”
Instead of ten blue links, they get an answer. Sometimes written out for them. Sometimes with two or three salons named. Then they ring one of those.
So the list hasn’t disappeared. What’s changed is that the answer often arrives before anyone clicks. If you’re not in the answer, you’re not on the shortlist.
What AEO and GEO actually mean
Two acronyms, same idea, slightly different angles.
AEO is answer engine optimisation. It means setting up your online presence so an answer engine can lift a clear, accurate answer from you. Answer engines include Google’s AI summaries, voice assistants like Siri and Alexa, and the chat tools people ask for recommendations.
GEO is generative engine optimisation. It’s the newer one. Generative engines are the AI tools that write an answer for you, such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google’s AI overviews. GEO is about being one of the businesses those tools mention when someone asks for a recommendation.
In practice they overlap. Whether you call it SEO, AEO or GEO, the work is much the same: be clear about what you do, where you do it and who you do it for, in places the machines can read and trust.
Why this matters more for salons than most businesses
A salon is a local business with a short decision window. Most people aren’t researching hairdressers for six months. They want somewhere good, close by, and available soon.
That makes salons very well suited to answers. The questions people ask have short, factual answers:
- Which salons near me do balayage?
- Who’s open on a Sunday?
- Do they take walk ins?
- What do they charge for a cut?
- Which one is good with kids?
Here’s the rub. An AI tool answering those questions can only use what it can find. If your prices, hours, services and suburbs aren’t clearly stated anywhere, it fills the gap with someone else’s salon.
There’s a review layer too. AI answers lean on what other people say about you, not just what you say about yourself. Reviews, local listings, mentions in articles and directories all feed in.
What actually works now
Most of it is unglamorous. Which is good news, because you can start this week.
Be specific about what you do
“Beautiful hair, every day” tells a machine nothing. “Balayage, foils, keratin smoothing and curly cuts in Newtown” tells it plenty. List your services by name, using the words clients use.
Put your details in plain writing
Prices, opening hours, parking, whether you take walk ins, whether you do kids’ cuts, which payment types you accept. If you’d rather not publish prices, say that you offer quotes and explain how to get one. Empty space gets filled by guesswork.
Sort out your Google Business Profile
For most salons this is the single most important thing. Correct hours, current services, good photos and a steady trickle of reviews. It feeds Google Search, Google Maps and the AI answers built on top of them.
Keep everything consistent
Your website, Google profile, socials and any directories should agree on the basics: name, address, phone, hours, services. Contradictions make a business look unreliable, to people and to machines alike.
Answer questions on your own site
Write short, plain answers to the questions clients actually ask. Do you do walk ins? How long does a colour take? What should I do before an appointment? Real questions, real answers, on a page you own. This is the AEO part, and it’s good for the humans reading it too.
Give the machines something to quote
A short about section that says who you are, where you are and who you look after is more useful than three paragraphs of mood. So is a simple FAQ page.
One thing worth saying: none of this replaces good work and good reviews. AI tools are trying to recommend businesses people are happy with. You can’t optimise your way out of a bad reputation.
Where to start this month
If you do nothing else, do these:
- Update your Google Business Profile. Hours, services, photos, and reply to your reviews.
- Add a services list to your website with real names and, if you’re comfortable, prices.
- Write one FAQ page with the ten questions you get asked most.
- Check your details match everywhere they appear.
- Ask two happy clients for a review, and keep asking each month.
That’s the foundation. Once it’s in place, the rest of your marketing has something solid to stand on.
