GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is about whether an AI assistant names your business or links to your page when someone asks a question. Think of ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot, Claude and the AI features in Google Search. GEO work makes your pages easy for those services to find, read and use as a source.
The term comes from a research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues, first published in November 2023 and accepted for the KDD 2024 conference. The paper calls these systems generative engines: they gather information and use a language model to summarise it into a single answer.
Why does it matter?
Someone who asks an AI assistant gets a summarised answer, sometimes with a few source links. If your information is not among the sources the assistant finds, you do not appear in that answer. In its guide to generative AI features, Google writes that optimising for those features is still SEO. GEO builds on a sound SEO foundation.
Example
Suppose a heating installer in Amersfoort wants to be named when someone asks “which heat pump suits a 1930s house?”. With GEO, the installer makes sure the website answers that question itself, that AI search bots may fetch the page, and that the business name, address and speciality match on the website and in its business profiles.
Common mistake
Assuming a separate file or special code will do the job. Google writes that its AI features do not require new AI text files or special markup. Nobody can guarantee a mention either: each platform decides what it shows.
Read more in What is GEO? and SEO, GEO and AEO: what is the difference?.