What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?

GEO in plain terms

Generative engine optimization, or GEO, means shaping your website and your wider web presence so that AI systems that write answers, such as Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search, Gemini and Perplexity, can find your business, understand what it does and mention it accurately. In Australia and the UK the same term is spelled optimisation.

You will also see answer engine optimization (AEO) and LLM SEO. The names overlap. They all describe the same goal: being a source that AI answers draw on, and being described correctly when they do.

How GEO differs from SEO

Traditional SEO aims to rank pages in a list of results. AI search often returns a written answer, sometimes with links to the sources behind it. That changes what success looks like: a mention or citation can matter as much as a ranking, and a wrong description of your business is a new kind of problem.

What Google says you need

Google's guidance on AI features and your website is direct. A page can appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews and AI Mode if it is indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Google states there are no additional technical requirements, and no special optimisations, new machine-readable files or special schema are needed. Inclusion is not guaranteed.

That means you can ignore anyone selling a secret file or markup trick for AI visibility. The work is the fundamentals, kept in good order.

What to do in practice

1. Let the right crawlers in. If your robots.txt or hosting blocks crawlers, you cannot appear. See how to get recommended by AI assistants for what OpenAI and Perplexity document.
2. Make the answer easy to find. Put a clear, direct answer near the top of the page, under a heading that matches the question.
3. Keep business facts consistent. Name, services, areas served and contact details should match across your website, Google Business Profile and listings.
4. Use structured data honestly. It must describe what is visible on the page. Google notes it can make pages eligible for richer results but does not guarantee them.
5. Build real authority. Mentions and links from credible, relevant sources help every kind of search.
6. Test and record. Ask the questions your customers ask, in each assistant, and keep a dated record of what comes back.

How to measure GEO

Measurement is still imperfect. Google says traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode is included in the Web search type in Search Console, so it is not reported separately. For other assistants, look for referral visits in your analytics and run a regular manual check of the questions that matter to your business.

A simple routine works: choose 10 to 20 questions customers actually ask, run them monthly in the assistants you care about, and note whether you are mentioned, how you are described and which sources are cited. Our AI SEO service includes this kind of repeat testing.

What GEO cannot promise

AI products change often, and each makes its own choices. No agency can guarantee that your business will be named in an answer. What you can control is whether your site is accessible, clear and trustworthy, and whether the information about you is correct.