What is GEO (generative engine optimization)?

GEO, or generative engine optimization, is the practice of making a business easy for AI assistants to understand, trust and recommend. Where traditional SEO aims to rank a page on a results list, GEO aims to be the answer — one of the handful of names a model like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Copilot gives when someone asks it who to use. The levers are different, too. Instead of chasing keywords and backlinks alone, GEO focuses on making you a clear, verifiable entity (consistent name and details, Organization schema, an llms.txt file), letting AI crawlers read your site, and publishing plain, answer-ready content the model can quote. The goal is simple to state and hard to fake: when the question in your category gets asked, the assistant reaches for you.

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FAQ

Is GEO just a new name for SEO?No, though they overlap. Good SEO still helps — a crawlable, authoritative site is a foundation for both. But GEO adds signals SEO never cared about: whether AI crawlers are allowed in, whether your identity resolves to one consistent entity across the web, whether your content is phrased so a model can lift a direct answer, and whether you are cited on the third-party sources assistants trust. Treat GEO as a layer on top of solid SEO, not a replacement.

Who needs to care about GEO?Any business whose buyers have started asking an assistant for recommendations instead of scrolling Google — which is a fast-growing share across local services, professional services, SaaS and ecommerce. If a meaningful number of your prospects now open ChatGPT or Perplexity to decide who to call or buy from, GEO decides whether your name comes up at all.

How do I start with GEO?Run a free Cited scan — it checks the AI-search readiness signals on your website (crawler access, llms.txt, structured data and answer-ready content) and lists the fixes to make first.

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Most businesses score under 40/100 and have no idea. Find your score in 15 seconds, then fix it.

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