What is generative engine optimisation?
GEO is optimisation for answer engines, the AI tools that search the web and write a single response with sources attached. The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues, later accepted at KDD 2024, which reported that targeted changes to content could boost its visibility in generative engine responses by up to 40%.
How is GEO different from SEO?
GEO and SEO overlap heavily, because most AI answer engines search the web first and then write from what they find. The main differences are in what counts as winning.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank high in a list of results | Be cited or named inside an AI answer |
| Unit of success | A page and its position | A passage, fact or brand mention |
| Main measure | Rankings, clicks, impressions | Citations, mentions, share of voice |
| Where it shows | Search results pages | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews and similar |
Which GEO techniques have evidence behind them?
The original GEO paper tested several rewriting methods on its own benchmark. Adding quotations from relevant sources, adding statistics and citing credible sources gave the largest gains, with quotation addition improving its main visibility measure by about 41% over the unedited baseline.
Keyword stuffing, a classic old SEO tactic, scored slightly below the baseline. The authors also found that what works varies by subject area, so these are starting points rather than rules.
How do you start with GEO?
- 1Make sure your pages can be crawled and indexed, since AI answers are mostly built from pages search systems can already find.
- 2List the questions people in your space ask AI assistants, in the words they use.
- 3Ask those questions in the main AI tools and note who gets cited.
- 4Rewrite key pages so the answer comes first, with specific facts, figures and named sources.
- 5Repeat the same questions on a schedule to see whether your citations change.
Frequently asked questions
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. Most AI answer engines rely on web search results, so a page that ranks and is indexed is more likely to be found and cited. GEO is best treated as an extra layer on top of solid SEO.
Is GEO the same as AEO or LLMO?
Broadly, yes. Answer engine optimisation (AEO) and large language model optimisation (LLMO) are other names for much the same idea. GEO is the term used in the original research paper.
Do I need special files or markup for GEO?
Not for Google. Google says no new machine-readable files, AI text files or special schema are needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Clear, well-structured, crawlable content matters more.
Can GEO guarantee my site gets cited?
No. AI answers change between runs and between tools, and each engine chooses sources in its own way. GEO improves your chances; it cannot promise a citation.