GEO & AI Search
What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? A Practical Guide
What generative engine optimization (GEO) is, how it differs from SEO, and how to get your business cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your business easy for AI assistants to find, understand and cite. When a buyer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot or Google AI Overviews for a recommendation, the assistant builds its answer from sources it can retrieve and trust. GEO is the work of making your website, and the places that mention you, part of those sources.
How GEO differs from SEO
Search engine optimization targets a ranked list of links. GEO targets the answer itself. The foundations overlap: both need pages that load quickly, can be crawled and say clearly what you do. The difference is in emphasis.
- Direct answers. AI assistants quote short, self-contained answers. Pages that answer a question in the first sentence or two are easier to cite.
- Consistent facts. Your company name, services, location and description should match across your site, LinkedIn, directories and press mentions, so the model does not have to guess which version is right.
- Third-party mentions. Assistants often cite review sites, directories, news articles and forum threads. Being mentioned there matters as much as your own pages.
- Machine-readable structure. Structured data (schema.org) and files such as llms.txt help crawlers understand what each page is about.
If you already invest in SEO, most of that work carries over. GEO adds a layer on top rather than replacing it.
How to check your AI visibility
Start by asking AI assistants the questions your buyers ask. For example, "Which companies build AI chatbots for clinics?" or "Best fintech app development company for startups". Record whether your company is named, which competitors appear, and which pages are cited. Run the same prompts each month so you can see change over time.
Tools such as Semrush, Ahrefs and Ubersuggest now include AI visibility reports that automate part of this, but a manual check across a fixed list of prompts is a fine place to start.
Where to start
- Make sure AI crawlers can reach your site. Check robots.txt and make sure important content does not depend on JavaScript to appear.
- Rewrite key service pages so the first paragraph says plainly what you do, for whom and where.
- Add FAQ sections that answer the questions buyers ask, and mark them up with FAQPage structured data.
- Publish an llms.txt file that summarizes your company and links to your main pages.
- Align your company description across LinkedIn, Google Business Profile and industry directories.
- Earn mentions on sources assistants already cite in your industry.
How long GEO takes
Technical and on-page changes can show up within weeks, once the pages are recrawled. Mentions on third-party sites take longer to build, usually months of steady work. Treat it like SEO: a program, not a one-off task.
We run GEO as a service, starting with an AI visibility audit. See generative engine optimization services for what that includes.
