What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and how is it different from SEO?
GEO is the practice of understanding and improving how your brand appears in answers from AI assistants. Here is how it relates to SEO and where to start.
When someone asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity or Grok for advice, they usually get one written answer instead of a page of links. That answer might name a handful of brands, recommend one of them, cite a few sources, or leave you out entirely. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of understanding and improving how your brand shows up in those answers.
This article explains what GEO is, how it relates to search engine optimization (SEO), and where it makes sense to start.
Where the term comes from
The phrase "Generative Engine Optimization" was popularized by a 2023 academic paper of the same name, which studied how the content of web pages affects their visibility in answers written by large language models. It has since become the common label for a practical question every marketing team now faces: when people ask an AI assistant about our category, what does it say about us?
How AI answers are produced
It helps to know, in simple terms, where an assistant's answer comes from:
- What the model learned during training. Large language models are trained on large amounts of text. What they "know" about a brand reflects how that brand was described in that text, up to the model's training cutoff.
- What the assistant retrieves at answer time. Many assistants can search the web and read pages before answering. Those answers often cite their sources and can reflect recent changes much faster.
- How the question is phrased. "Best CRM for a ten-person agency" and "affordable CRM with a Turkish interface" can produce different brand lists, even from the same assistant.
Because answers are generated rather than looked up, they also vary. The same question can get a different answer tomorrow, from another assistant, in another country or after a model update.
GEO and SEO compared
GEO is not a replacement for SEO. It is a different lens on a similar goal: being found by people who are looking for what you offer.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you appear | A ranked list of links on a results page | Inside a written answer, often as a named recommendation |
| What success looks like | A high position and a click | Being mentioned, mentioned early, described accurately and cited |
| Typical measurement | Rankings, impressions, clicks | Repeated checks of real questions across several assistants |
| Stability | Rankings move, but gradually | Answers can differ between checks, assistants and model versions |
| Main signals | Relevance, links, technical health | Clear and consistent facts, third-party mentions, citable sources |
A few differences deserve a closer look.
There is no single "position one". An assistant may list five options, recommend one, or answer without naming any brand. Whether you are mentioned, how early you appear and how you are described all matter.
Accuracy is part of visibility. An answer that names you but gets your pricing, market or product wrong can do more harm than good. GEO means checking what is said, not only whether you are named.
Your competitors are in the same answer. On a results page you compete for clicks; in a generated answer you are often compared with competitors in a sentence or two. Share of mentions, meaning how often you are named compared with them, becomes a useful measure.
One check proves little. Because answers vary, a single screenshot of a good (or bad) answer is an anecdote. Measuring GEO means asking the same questions repeatedly and looking at trends.
What your SEO work still does for you
Much of what makes a site good for search engines also helps with AI assistants:
- Pages that crawlers can fetch and read, with the important text in the HTML.
- Clear, specific content that answers the questions your customers actually ask.
- A good reputation on other sites: reviews, press coverage, industry lists and directories.
- Structured data that states facts about your organization and products in a machine-readable way.
Assistants that search the web often rely on search indexes, so strong SEO can feed directly into better AI answers. GEO adds the step that SEO tools do not cover: checking what the assistants actually say.
Common misconceptions
- "GEO is a trick for gaming AI models." Hidden text, keyword stuffing and fake reviews are as risky here as they are in search. The durable approach is making accurate information easy to find and verify.
- "If we rank well on Google, AI assistants will recommend us." The two are often related, but it is not guaranteed. Assistants summarize many sources and may favor brands that are described more clearly or more often elsewhere.
- "There is nothing to measure." Answers vary, but they can be sampled systematically. Asking a fixed set of questions on a schedule turns a moving target into a trend you can follow.
Where to start
- Write down the questions your customers ask before they buy, in their own words and languages.
- Ask several assistants those questions and note who is mentioned, in what order, and how you are described.
- Correct what is wrong or missing, starting with your own website and the profiles you control.
- Repeat the same questions over time, so you can tell a real change from normal variation.
That last step is where a tool helps most. Our article on how Geovium measures AI visibility explains how we turn repeated checks into scores you can compare over time.