DefinitionOptimising content so it gets cited and summarised by AI-driven search experiences such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity, rather than only ranking in classic blue links.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of optimising content so that it gets cited and summarised by AI-driven search experiences such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity and Copilot, rather than only ranking as a classic blue link. The term is young, the research behind it is thin, and much of what is sold under the label is repackaged SEO with a higher price. That is not a reason to ignore it: AI answers now sit on top of a growing share of searches, and whether your pages are among their sources is a real commercial question.
What GEO is not: a separate discipline with its own secret rules. The systems that answer questions retrieve pages from a search index, often the same one that produces the organic results, and summarise the ones they consider clear and trustworthy. A page that is slow, blocked, thin or ambiguous does badly in both worlds. My working view is that GEO is mostly solid technical and content SEO, plus two things classic SEO sometimes neglected: being unambiguous about who you are (entity clarity) and writing pages that are easy to quote.
Why GEO matters
When an AI Overview answers a question, the click often does not happen. Several studies report lower organic click-through rates where an overview appears, though the size of the effect varies by study and query type, so treat any precise percentage with caution. What does seem consistent is that the pages cited inside the answer keep receiving some traffic, and that brands named in it gain visibility without a click. For a webshop the question is no longer only “do we rank for warmtepomp kosten” but “when someone asks ChatGPT what a heat pump costs, is our guide a source, and is our brand mentioned”.
For B2B the effect may be larger. Buyers increasingly ask an assistant to shortlist suppliers before they search at all. A manufacturer that is clearly described on its own site, consistently named across the web and cited in a few trade sources has a reasonable chance of being on that shortlist.
How to measure AI visibility
This is where the field is weakest, because the engines do not report on themselves the way Google does. Search Console counts clicks from AI Overviews as ordinary web clicks, so a CTR drop on informational queries is often the first visible symptom. GA4 can show referrals from chatgpt.com and perplexity.ai if you build a channel group for them; the volumes are usually small but growing.
For the picture inside the answers I use Ahrefs Brand Radar. It tracks how often a brand, domain and specific pages are mentioned or cited across AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot, the prompts that triggered them, and the competing brands that appear alongside: something close to a share of voice for AI answers. I also check manually: a dozen prompts a buyer would realistically type, run monthly in each assistant, with notes on which sources were cited. It is crude, but it is the quickest way to see what prospects are being told.
Common GEO mistakes
Buying “AI optimisation” before fixing the basics. A Magento shop whose category pages render blank without JavaScript, or whose robots.txt blocks the relevant crawlers, has no GEO problem; it has a crawling problem.
Blocking AI crawlers by reflex. Blocking GPTBot or PerplexityBot is a legitimate choice for a publisher protecting content. For a shop that wants to be recommended, it removes you from the conversation. Decide deliberately, per bot.
Writing for the machine instead of the reader. Pages padded with “according to experts” phrasing and invented statistics read badly and tend to be exactly the thin content these systems skip.
An inconsistent entity. Three different company names across the site, LinkedIn and the Chamber of Commerce entry, no Organization markup, no about page that says plainly what the company does. An AI system cannot confidently recommend a business it cannot identify.
Treating llms.txt as a fix. The proposed llms.txt file is cheap and harmless, but no major engine has confirmed using it. Add it if you like; do not report it as an achievement.
How I handle GEO for clients
I fold it into the existing SEO work rather than selling it as a separate project, because most of the levers are the same. The technical layer comes first: crawlability for the relevant bots, server-rendered content, fast pages, clean canonicals, and structured data that describes products, organisation and FAQs correctly. That is standard technical SEO, and it is where most shops fall short.
Then entity clarity: one consistent name, address and description everywhere, an about page that states what the company does, for whom and where, and the same facts in Organization markup. Then citable pages: for the questions buyers actually ask, a page that answers each one in the first paragraph, with specifics and a clear heading structure. For a webshop that usually means buying guides and comparison pages next to the categories, which is also the content that earns links and ranks in classic results. Measurement is a Brand Radar baseline plus a monthly prompt check, reported next to the Search Console numbers. The honest promise is better visibility in both kinds of result, not a guaranteed mention in ChatGPT.
Frequently asked questions
Is GEO different from SEO?
Mostly no. The systems behind AI answers retrieve pages from search indexes and prefer what classic ranking rewards: crawlable, fast, clear, trustworthy pages. If your SEO is good, you are most of the way there; if it is not, GEO tactics will not rescue it.
What is the difference between GEO and AEO?
Answer Engine Optimization is the narrower practice of structuring content so a direct answer can be extracted from it: clear questions, concise answers, FAQ and structured data. GEO is the broader goal of being cited by generative systems, which includes AEO tactics plus brand, entity and authority work.
Should I block AI crawlers?
If you sell products or services and want to be recommended, generally not. If you publish content you do not want used for model training, you can block training bots while still allowing search-oriented ones, since several providers now separate the two. The list changes often.
How long does GEO take to show results?
Nobody can say with confidence yet. Page changes can appear in AI Overviews within weeks, because they follow Google’s index. Assistants with their own browsing behave less predictably, and brand mentions depend partly on sources outside your site. Set a baseline, measure monthly, and expect a gradual trend rather than a switch.