What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of getting your brand mentioned and recommended in answers that AI tools write. These tools include ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode. “Generative” means the AI generates, or writes, a new answer instead of showing a list of links. GEO aims to put your brand in that answer and make sure the answer describes it correctly.

You may also see GEO called “GEO SEO,” “generative AI SEO” or “AI search engine optimization.” They all mean the same kind of work. This guide explains what GEO means, how AI tools choose what to say, how GEO differs from SEO, and what the work involves.

What does “generative engine” mean?

A generative engine is an AI tool that writes answers. It runs on a large language model. That is an AI system trained on a huge amount of text so it can write like a person.

A normal search engine finds pages and lists them for you. A generative engine reads pages and turns them into one written reply. It may add links to some of the pages it used.

One common mix-up: the “geo” in GEO has nothing to do with geography, maps or local search. It is short for generative engine optimization.

Where did the term GEO come from?

The term came into use in late 2023, as AI tools began to write answers with links to their sources. It spread quickly after Google launched AI Overviews in the US in May 2024. Many businesses then saw AI-written answers at the top of Google for the first time.

Today, GEO is one of several names for this work. Others include AEO, AI SEO and LLM SEO. The names differ, but they all aim at the same result: your brand named in AI answers.

How do generative engines choose what to say?

Most AI tools follow roughly the same steps when they answer a question:

1. Read the question and work out what the person wants.
2. Search for more information. Many tools run several related searches in the background at the same time. This is often called query fan-out.
3. Read the pages that come back and pick out the useful parts.
4. Write the answer, mixing those pages with what the model learned in training.
5. Add links to some of the pages it used.

So the AI’s view of your brand comes from two places. One is what it learned in training. The other is the pages it finds when it searches. Both come mostly from what the web says about you.

Different AI tools lean on different sources, though. Our study of 10,000 AI answers compared Google’s AI Overviews and ChatGPT across the same 10,000 US keywords:

Google’s AI Overviews lean heavily on pages that already rank well in Google. ChatGPT pulls from a much wider set of pages, and many of them sit far down Google’s results or don’t rank at all. In our study of 10,000 AI answers, 74.44% of the pages AI Overviews linked to were in Google’s top 100 for the same search, but only 30.19% of ChatGPT’s were. The two tools also favor very different kinds of sites. A GEO plan built for one of them can miss the other completely.

How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO (search engine optimization) is the work of ranking your pages in a list of search results. GEO is the work of getting your brand named inside an AI-written answer. That answer links to only a few pages: in our study of 10,000 AI answers, Google’s AI Overviews linked 4.94 pages per keyword on average, and ChatGPT linked 2.35.

They overlap a lot. For Google’s AI answers, SEO is the base. A page has to be in Google’s index, its stored copy of the web, and able to rank before the AI can use it. The higher it ranks, the better its odds: in our study, Google’s AI Overviews linked to 49.19% of the pages ranked #1 for the same search, but only 9.83% of pages at #10 and 3.05% at #20. But GEO goes further. It cares about what other websites say about your brand, not only about your own pages. It also has to cover tools like ChatGPT, where Google rankings matter less.

GEO does not replace SEO. You need both. For a full side-by-side, see how GEO differs from SEO.

What does GEO work involve?

GEO is not one tactic. It is a full strategy that covers every place AI gets its information. In practice, it looks like this:

1. Research the questions. Find out what your buyers ask AI at each step, from “what causes this problem?” to “which brand should I pick?”
2. Check today’s answers. Ask each AI tool those questions, more than once. Note which brands it names, what it says, and which pages it links to. Our free AI visibility audit does this step for you.
3. Get onto the pages AI uses. These are the reviews, “best of” lists, comparisons and articles that feed the answers. Most of them are on other people’s websites, not yours.
4. Get onto the pages that rank in Google. This matters most for AI Overviews and AI Mode, which lean on Google’s top results.
5. Keep your own site clear. Describe your products, prices and customers in plain words. Make sure AI tools are allowed to read your pages.
6. Track the results. Check the answers again each month and adjust the plan.

What GEO can’t do

A few things to keep in mind before you start:

• No one can guarantee a mention. AI answers change from one ask to the next. GEO raises your odds, but it doesn’t give you control.
• There is no shortcut. Buying guest posts (paid articles placed on other sites) won’t do it on its own. Only 2% of the websites AI Overviews used as sources were in a catalog of sites that sell guest posts.
• Special files and code are not needed for Google. Google’s AI features use the same index as normal search. You don’t need a special AI file or markup to be eligible.
• Your own site is only part of the job. AI relies on what the whole web says about you, so the work has to reach beyond your own pages.

GEO, AEO and AI visibility

You will often see GEO next to answer engine optimization (AEO). The two overlap heavily, and most people use them for the same work. Both aim for the same result, which is AI visibility. Here is what AI visibility is and how to measure it.

If you run an online store, a software company or a trade business, see AI SEO for ecommerce, AI SEO for SaaS or AI SEO for contractors.

Get your free AI visibility audit

GEO starts with knowing where you stand. Our free audit shows where you stand in AI today, what your buyers ask AI, and how to close the gap. Get your free AI visibility audit.