What is GEO? The complete guide to Generative Engine Optimisation
The shift from links to answers
For 25 years, SEO meant ranking in Google's blue links. But a fundamental shift is happening: 800 million people now use ChatGPT weekly, and 47% of Google searches show AI Overviews. Buyers aren't clicking links — they're reading AI-generated answers. If your brand isn't in those answers, you're invisible to a growing share of your market. GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the discipline of making your brand appear in these AI-generated responses. It's not about keywords and backlinks — it's about authority, structured data, and being the kind of source that AI engines trust enough to cite.
How AI engines decide what to mention
AI engines don't rank pages — they synthesise answers. When someone asks ChatGPT 'What's the best project management tool?', it doesn't return a list of links. It generates a paragraph that mentions specific brands. The brands it mentions depend on several factors: how often the brand appears across authoritative sources (Wikipedia, G2, TechCrunch), whether the brand has structured data (Schema.org markup), how fresh the content is (AI platforms prefer content updated within the last 6 months), and whether comparison content exists ('X vs Y' pages are cited 32.5% of the time).
GEO vs traditional SEO
Traditional SEO optimises for Google's crawler — a bot that follows links, reads HTML, and ranks pages. GEO optimises for language models — systems that read the entire internet and decide which brands to mention in text responses. The key differences: SEO uses keywords and backlinks; GEO uses brand authority and citations. SEO targets position 1 in search results; GEO targets being mentioned at all. SEO results are links; GEO results are direct answers. SEO traffic is measurable via analytics; GEO visibility requires testing across multiple AI platforms. You need both — traditional SEO still drives the majority of web traffic, but GEO is growing fast and represents a new channel you can't ignore.
Five strategies to improve your GEO score
1. Add Schema.org markup to your key pages (Organization, Product, FAQ, HowTo). Content with proper schema sees 30-40% higher AI citation rates. 2. Create comparison content. Write 'Your Product vs Competitor' pages. AI engines love structured comparisons. 3. Get mentioned on Wikipedia and high-authority sites. 47.9% of ChatGPT citations come from Wikipedia. 4. Refresh your content quarterly. AI platforms prefer content that's 25.7% fresher than what traditional search rewards. 5. Build presence on Reddit and review platforms. Perplexity heavily weights Reddit threads and G2/TrustPilot reviews.
How to measure your AI visibility
You can't improve what you can't measure. Use a tool like ChatCite to test your brand across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. The tool generates buyer-intent prompts for your industry and checks if AI engines mention your brand. You get a 0-100 visibility score per engine plus a prioritised action plan. Run audits monthly to track your progress as you implement GEO fixes.
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