Q: What exactly is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

A: GEO is the discipline of improving a brand’s visibility in AI-generated answers. While SEO gets you ranked in traditional search results, GEO ensures your entities, facts, and content are selected and cited in platforms like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Bing Copilot, and Perplexity.

So, if your brand isn’t being cited inside those AI-generated answers, you’re becoming increasingly invisible to a growing percentage of your audience. And that’s where Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) comes in.

TL;DR: SEO gets clicks from rankings. GEO gets citations in AI answers. Both are essential.

Q: Why does GEO matter right now?

A: Classic search engine optimization (SEO) still plays a crucial role, but it no longer guarantees visibility. That’s because AI-powered results, like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT responses, Gemini results, Bing Copilot answers, and Perplexity citations, now sit above or alongside traditional search listings.

AI Overview placements in Google grew 116% since early 2025, now appearing in ~13% of all queries.

Nearly half of all global searches already feature some kind of AI-enhanced element.

Rankings in AI Overviews can shift by 30% in a single week, highlighting volatility.

TL;DR: AI results outrank everything else. If you’re invisible in AI answers, you’ll lose visibility.

Q: How does GEO fit alongside SEO and AIO?

A: It’s easy to confuse GEO with other disciplines, but think of GEO as an addition to, not replacement for, SEO and AIO. Each has a distinct role:

GEO: Targets selection and citation in AI-generated answers, ensuring your entities, facts, and content are aligned with what AI trusts. A strong GEO strategy prepares your entities, facts, structure, and sources so AI systems cite you in their answers.

SEO: Focuses on ranking in traditional organic results (SERPs), and optimizes crawlability, content depth, UX, and links to rank in classic organic results.

AIO (AI Optimization): Formats schema, summaries, and modular content so AI surfaces can parse and present content cleanly.

TL;DR: Together, AIO, GEO, and SEO disciplines form a full-spectrum search strategy. A brand that aligns them gains the most durable visibility.

Q: Where do SEO and GEO overlap?

A: As our infographic shows, there’s a large shared core of optimization tactics that serve both SEO and GEO:

• Schema markup: Use structured data for products, reviews, FAQs, and services so engines and AI systems understand your entities.
• Core Web Vitals: Page speed, interactivity, and stability are still baseline requirements for trust and usability.
• E-E-A-T signals: Experience, expertise, authority, and trust, surfaced via author bios, credentials, and citations, matter for both traditional rankings and AI citations.
• FAQ and Q&A sections: Answering questions in natural language improves SERP snippets and AI selection.
• Content freshness cadence: Regularly updating pages helps maintain rankings while keeping AI engines citing current information.
• Topic clusters and hub pages: Organizing content around entities and relationships improves discoverability across both search and AI.
• Accessibility and WCAG compliance: Improves usability for humans and ensures AI systems can parse cleanly.

These tactics remain foundational. If they’re missing, both your SEO rankings and your GEO citations will suffer.

TL;DR: Strong SEO fundamentals are the price of admission for GEO success.

Q: How do I do GEO?

A: At a high level, GEO spans three areas: technical foundations (entities, schema, feeds), content architecture (modular, evidence-driven, authored), and offsite signals (reviews, knowledge panels, third-party citations). Together, these determine whether AI systems trust, select, and cite your brand.

GEO Tactics

Where GEO diverges is in the tactics designed specifically for AI engines and large language models (LLMs):

• AI crawler policies and llms.txt: Publish allowlists or restrictions for AI crawlers and indexes, ensuring your content is accessible under the right conditions.
• Wikipedia and third-party knowledge citations: AI engines lean heavily on neutral, high-authority references. Securing citations in Wikipedia or credible third-party sources increases your likelihood of being trusted and cited.
• AI answer coverage and citation gap analysis: Track where AI assistants cite competitors, then create content assets to close those gaps. This is analogous to SEO “keyword gap analysis,” but focused on generative answers.
• Conversational Q&A content with cited facts: AI engines prefer modular, well-sourced answers. Build content that mirrors this style: neutral tone, citations to credible sources, and TL;DR summaries.


• UGC footprint in trusted communities: Mentions on Reddit, Quora, and Stack Exchange often surface in AI answers. Building authentic presence in these communities boosts your offsite authority.

These tactics directly influence whether AI answers select and cite your brand, as opposed to SEO-only tactics that remain critical for organic performance, but don’t directly influence AI citation: keyword targeting and mapping, SERP CTR optimization (titles, meta descriptions), backlink acquisition and digital PR, domain authority and PageRank building, rank tracking and cannibalization control. Neglecting these would weaken overall visibility, but they won’t get you cited in AI answers without GEO-specific work.

TL;DR: GEO works when technical, content, and offsite elements reinforce each other, and GEO-only tactics address what SEO alone cannot: trust and citations in AI answers.

Q: Which tactics are SEO-only (and don’t impact GEO citations)?

• Keyword targeting and mapping.
• SERP CTR optimization (titles, meta descriptions).
• Backlink acquisition and digital PR.
• Domain authority and PageRank building.
• Rank tracking and cannibalization control.

TL;DR: SEO-only tactics remain critical for organic performance but won’t get you cited in AI answers.

Q: Can you give me an example?

Imagine an ecommerce brand selling outdoor furniture:

SEO: Ranking for best outdoor patio sets through keyword targeting and backlinks.

AIO: Ensuring PDPs have clean schema, descriptive alt text, and modular summaries.

GEO: Securing citations in AI Overviews and ChatGPT answers by aligning product data across Merchant Center, Wikipedia, and Reddit.

TL;DR: Together, SEO, AIO, and GEO drive visibility across SERPs, AI answers, and community ecosystems.

Q: How do you measure GEO success?

We track:

• AI citation share by product, service, or location.
• Appearance rates in AI Overviews and modules.
• CTR from generative engines (where available).
• Assisted conversions and revenue lift.
• Calls, bookings, or directions for local businesses.

Tools: GA4, HubSpot/Salesforce, call tracking systems.

TL;DR: GEO is measurable and revenue-linked.

Key Takeaways

• GEO is a complementary discipline, not a replacement for SEO.
• Shared core tactics (schema, Q&A, E-E-A-T) remain essential.
• GEO-only tactics (citation gap analysis, Wikipedia/UGC citations, llms.txt) secure AI visibility.
• SEO-only tactics (keywords, backlinks, CTR) remain critical for organic traffic.
• The future belongs to brands that integrate SEO + AIO + GEO.