GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of making sure that when ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews answer a question, they find your business, describe it correctly and cite it as a source. It does not replace SEO; it builds on top of it.
“Who is the best at this?” used to be typed into Google, and the answer was ten blue links. Today the same question is asked more and more often to ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity, and for many searches Google itself places an AI-written summary above the links. These answers name three or four businesses. GEO is the work of making one of those names yours.
A short definition
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization): Making a website and a company's information easy for generative AI tools to find, understand correctly and cite as a source in their answers. It is also called “generative engine optimisation”, “AI SEO” or “GEO SEO”.
The term spread with an academic paper published in 2023, titled GEO: Generative Engine Optimization. The study measured that adding citations, quotations and statistics to a page could increase its visibility in AI answers by up to 40%. In other words, this is not only a matter of technical settings; how the content is written changes the result too.
The difference between GEO, SEO and AEO
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Google and Bing result lists | Featured snippets, voice assistants | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews |
| Measure of success | Ranking and clicks | Being the answer in the box | Being mentioned in the answer and cited as a source |
| User | Clicks through from the list | Reads the answer, often does not click | Reads the answer, looks into the businesses named |
| Core work | Keywords, technical structure, links | Short, clear questions and answers | Bot access, structured data, quotable content, consistency across external sources |
The three are not competitors. Because AI tools that search the web build their answers largely from search results, a solid SEO foundation is a prerequisite for GEO. We explain in detail where the two part ways in Is ranking in Google the same as being mentioned by AI?
Where do AI tools learn about your business?
There are two separate routes, and in GEO it matters to tell them apart:
- Training data. The broad web crawl read while the model is being trained. Getting in here is slow and indirect; a change you make today only shows up in later model versions.
- Live web search. When ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews receive a question, they search the internet, read a few pages and write the answer from them. This is where GEO really works, because your site is being read at that moment.
Each of the bots doing this reading has a name: for OpenAI, GPTBot (training), OAI-SearchBot (search) and ChatGPT-User (opening a page the user asked for); for Anthropic, ClaudeBot, Claude-SearchBot and Claude-User; for Perplexity, PerplexityBot. Google's AI Overviews use the regular Google crawl.
What does GEO involve on your site?
You will find the page-by-page application of the six headings below in the checklist What should your site have so AI describes you correctly?
1. Keeping the door open for bots
The problem we come across most often is the simplest one: a security plugin, a CDN or an old robots.txt rule is quietly blocking AI bots. A site that blocks search bots cannot get into those answers, however good its content is. It is also possible to block the training bot and leave the search bot open; that is a matter of preference.
2. Writing company information in a form machines can read
Name, address, phone number, opening hours, services and service area sit on the page as plain text, but AI can struggle to connect them correctly. Structured data (schema.org markup, JSON-LD) provides this information with labels: “this is a business, this is its address, these are the services it offers”.
3. Content that answers the question directly
AI tools do not quote long promotional copy; they quote the paragraph that clearly answers a question. Answering questions such as “How long does it take?”, “Who is it for?” or “What does the price depend on?” in the first sentence on a service page makes that page quotable. Sentences containing numbers, dates and sources are quoted more often.
4. The llms.txt file
llms.txt is a file placed at the root of a site that summarises the company and its important pages for AI tools in plain text. It was proposed in 2024; it is not yet an official standard, and it is unclear how much each tool takes it into account. It is easy to prepare and does no harm, but do not expect it to deliver results on its own.
5. Giving the same information in external sources
AI does not get to know a business from its own website alone. If your name, address and what you do are written differently on your Google Business Profile, LinkedIn, industry directories, news articles and customer reviews, the tool cannot tell which one to believe. Consistency is the invisible but most effective part of GEO.
6. Checking that nothing has broken
A plugin update can change robots.txt; a new theme can delete the schema. If these settings are made once and forgotten, the breakage is only noticed months later. That is why in GEO Support the settings are checked every morning.
What not to do
- Hidden text shown only to AI. Search engines have long treated this as manipulation; there is a risk of penalties.
- Keyword stuffing. AI picks the clear answer, not the repetition of the same word.
- Starting without measuring. If you do not know which questions you are missing from, the work cannot show whether it touched the right place.
- Trusting a service that gives guarantees. AI answers vary by person, location and time. A “number one” guarantee is not a measurable promise.
How is GEO measured?
You can see your Google ranking with a tool; in AI answers, instead of “ranking”, what is measured is the mention rate. The method is simple, but it needs to be done regularly:
- Choose 5-20 questions your customers might ask. Example: “Which companies build business websites in Birmingham?”
- Ask these questions, worded the same way, to AI tools that search the web.
- Count how many times your business and your competitors are mentioned in the answers, and which pages are cited as sources.
- Repeat the same measurement every month; the difference shows after each change.
If your company is not mentioned at all, we list the most common reasons in Why doesn't ChatGPT mention my company?
We carry out this measurement every month in our AI Visibility service. If you want to see where to start, the free AI visibility check scans your site through the eyes of AI bots and reports whether you are mentioned in the questions you choose.
In short
GEO is not new magic; it is doing what a good website should do anyway, in a way AI can read: opening the door to bots, labelling company information, writing clear answers to questions and giving the same information everywhere. What makes the difference is doing this regularly rather than once, and measuring the result.
Frequently asked questions
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. AI tools that search the web build most of their answers from search results. A page that never shows up in Google is unlikely to be cited in an AI answer. GEO is a layer added on top of a solid SEO foundation.
How long does GEO take to show results?
The technical part (bot access, structured data, llms.txt) is done in a few days. How soon it shows up in AI answers depends on when the tools recrawl your site and on what other sources say about you; it usually takes weeks. Be wary of any service that guarantees a timeframe or a position.
Does a small business need GEO?
Yes, if your customers do research before they decide. Questions like “a reliable accountant in Manchester” or “software for chemical companies” are now also asked to AI tools. Businesses working in a local or narrow field often find it easier to appear in these answers, because there is less competition.
Are AEO and GEO the same thing?
Close, but not the same. AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is an older term; it is about writing short, clear answers for Google's featured snippets and voice assistants. GEO targets generative AI tools that write their own answer from several sources. In practice most of the work overlaps.
What should you look for in a GEO service?
Three things: does the work start with measurement (which questions you are mentioned in, where your competitors stand), are the changes listed for you clearly, and is the result measured again every month with the same questions? A service that guarantees “number one in ChatGPT” is promising something it cannot measure.
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