Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring your content and online presence so AI assistants can find, understand and cite your business in their answers. It builds on SEO and cannot guarantee a mention, but it improves your chances.
How AI assistants find sources
Tools such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google’s AI features retrieve web pages, then summarise them. They tend to favour clear, factual, well-structured pages from sources that appear trustworthy and are easy to crawl.
Eight practical GEO steps
- Open with a direct, factual answer to the question each page covers.
- Use clear headings that match real questions.
- Add FAQ sections with concise answers.
- Add schema markup for your organisation, services, FAQs and articles.
- Make sure AI crawlers are not blocked in robots.txt.
- Keep your business name, location and description consistent across your website, LinkedIn, directories and profiles.
- Publish original, first-hand material such as case studies, data and checklists.
- Earn mentions and reviews on respected third-party sites.
Technical basics still matter
Fast, crawlable, indexable pages are the foundation. Submit your sitemap to Google and Bing, since Bing’s index is widely used by other tools.
What GEO cannot do
No one controls what an AI model says, and results vary by prompt and over time. Treat GEO as improving your chances, and measure it by testing the same questions regularly.
Frequently asked questions
Is GEO different from SEO?
GEO builds on SEO. It adds a focus on clear answers, entities, structured data and third-party mentions so AI tools can cite you.
Can you guarantee ChatGPT will recommend my business?
No. AI answers are not controllable. Good structure, trustworthy content and mentions improve your chances.
Need help with this?
Our GEO & AEO (AI Search) service can handle this for you. Request a quote.