Definition
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the practice of structuring a brand's online presence — facts, sources, citations and content — so generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews describe, cite or recommend it accurately when someone asks a related question.
How it works
Generative engines answer a question by synthesizing information pulled from across the web — including your own site, third-party mentions, structured data, and other sources they consider authoritative. GEO work focuses on making a brand’s facts unambiguous and well-structured (schema markup, clear “about” statements), building genuine third-party citations and mentions (digital PR plays a direct role here), and maintaining consistent facts about the brand across the sites AI systems draw from.
Why it matters
People increasingly ask AI tools questions that used to go straight to Google — "who's a good [service] in [city]", "what's the difference between X and Y". If an AI system has no clear, trustworthy source of facts about your business, it simply won't mention you, no matter how well you rank in classic search. GEO is a genuinely new visibility layer, not a rebrand of SEO — though it depends on the same crawlable, well-structured web that SEO builds.
Examples
- ChatGPT correctly describing what a business does and where it operates, based on clear on-site facts
- An AI Overview citing a company's own page as a source for a factual claim
- A brand appearing in an AI-generated "best options for X" answer because of consistent, verifiable third-party mentions