What is GEO (generative engine optimisation) and how is it different from SEO?

Where does the term GEO come from?

It was popularised by a 2023 research paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, which studied how the content of a page affects whether AI answer engines use it. The term has since been picked up widely, sometimes alongside others like AEO (answer engine optimisation) or AI search optimisation. They describe roughly the same thing.

How is GEO different from SEO?

The goal is different. SEO is about appearing in a list of search results and earning the click. GEO is about being one of the sources an AI tool reads, trusts and mentions when it writes an answer, which may or may not include a link.

The audience behaves differently too. People ask AI tools longer, more specific questions, such as "who builds websites for small hotels in Scotland and roughly how long does it take". A page that answers each part of that clearly, with the answer near the top, is easier to use than a page written around a two-word keyword.

How much of GEO is just good SEO?

A lot. Google says plainly that its AI features follow the same fundamentals as normal search, and that no special markup or files are needed. If your pages cannot be crawled and indexed, no amount of GEO helps.

Where GEO adds to SEO is breadth. Different AI tools rely on different indexes and crawlers. Google's tools use Google's index. ChatGPT search uses OpenAI's crawler and third-party search providers, which makes Bing matter. Perplexity runs its own crawler. Being solid in all of them, not just Google, is part of the job.

What does GEO work actually involve?

For a local business, it usually looks like this:

• Access: making sure the crawlers behind AI search are allowed in, and that important content is in the page HTML rather than only loaded by scripts.
• Indexing everywhere: Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools set up, sitemaps submitted, and changes reported quickly.
• Answer-first content: pages that answer real customer questions directly, with the answer in the opening lines.
• Structured data: schema markup that states plainly who the business is, what it offers and where.
• Consistent details: the same name, contact details and description on the website, Google Business Profile, Bing Places, social profiles and directories.
• Third-party mentions: reviews and genuine mentions on other trusted sites, which AI tools use to confirm a business is real.
• Measurement: tracking visits from AI tools and testing real prompts each month.

How do you measure whether GEO is working?

Two ways, used together. First, analytics: visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com and similar sites show up as referrals, and some AI tools also tag their links with a source. That tells you when people click through from an AI answer.

Second, prompt testing. Write down 20 or 30 questions your customers would really ask, then run them through ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Mode once a month in a fresh session. Record whether you were mentioned, how you were described and which sources were cited. Over a few months the pattern is more useful than any single answer.

What should I ask a GEO provider before hiring them?

Good questions to ask anyone offering GEO, including us:

• What exactly will you change, on my site and off it?
• How will you measure it, and how often will I see the results?
• What happens if AI tools still don't mention me after six months?
• Do you promise rankings or mentions? (The honest answer is no.)

What can GEO not do?

It cannot guarantee that any AI tool will mention you. These tools change often, their answers vary between sessions, and nobody outside the companies that run them controls what they say. Be wary of anyone who promises otherwise.

What it can do is remove the reasons you would be left out: pages that cannot be read, details that conflict, and questions your site never answers.

Is GEO worth it for a small local business?

The groundwork is, because it is the same groundwork that helps you in Google and Bing. A clear, fast, well-structured site with consistent business details pays off whichever way people search.

Beyond that, it depends on your customers. If the people you serve are already asking AI tools for recommendations, it is worth being ready. Our AI search visibility service is built around exactly this groundwork, and our guide to what llms.txt is covers one of the most talked-about parts of it.