The short definition
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of getting AI search engines to use your content in their answers and, above all, to recommend you. When someone asks ChatGPT which vendor to choose, the answer names a few. GEO works to put you among them.
SEO and GEO, side by side
| Aspect | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank high in the list of results | Get cited or recommended inside the answer |
| What gets evaluated | The whole page | Specific passages: an answer, a fact, a comparison |
| What matters | Relevance, links and technical performance | A clear answer, verifiable facts and your brand's presence in other sources |
| Where it is measured | Search Console: impressions, clicks and position | ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini answers to a fixed set of questions |
Being cited is not being recommended
An AI can use your site as a source and recommend someone else. We have seen it: Perplexity named 16 vendors in a category and none of them was the company whose site it was citing. The content existed, but it was written in a way the AI used to explain the topic, not to recommend whoever wrote it.
What makes a page citable
- The answer in the first two sentences, before the context.
- Facts with their source and date, not loose claims.
- Headings that are real questions your customers ask.
- FAQs and structured data (schema), so machines know what each thing is.
- Your brand named clearly next to what you sell and where you sell it.
- A site AI crawlers can read: a robots.txt that doesn't block them and a plain-text version (llms.txt).
How it is measured
With a fixed set of buying questions, the same every month and in every language and market, asked to ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini. For each question we record who they recommend, which sources they cite and whether you show up. Because it repeats the same way, changes can be put down to the work and not to the luck of a single answer.