What generative engine optimization is
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of shaping your content and reputation so generative AI search engines select, quote and cite you in their answers. The term comes from a 2023 research paper, “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, by researchers from Princeton and IIT Delhi among others, which tested what makes a page more likely to show up in AI-generated answers.
GEO vs AEO vs SEO
| SEO | AEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a link | Be the answer | Be quoted in the generated answer |
| Where | Google, Bing | AI assistants, snippets, voice | ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, AI Overviews |
| Measured by | Rankings, clicks | Mentions, citations | Visibility in generated answers |
In practice AEO and GEO are the same job with two names. Both depend on SEO, because generative engines search the web before they write. More in AEO vs SEO.
What the research says works
The GEO paper tested nine ways of rewriting a page and measured how visible it became in generated answers. Three stood out:
- Quotations from credible people or sources.
- Statistics in place of vague claims.
- Cited sources that back up what the page says.
Those raised visibility by up to about 40%. Keyword stuffing, the old SEO habit, did little or nothing. Clear, fluent writing also helped. Our page work follows this: answer first, then the numbers, the quotes and the sources.
Our GEO services
- Prompt tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews, weekly.
- GEO page rewrites: direct answers, statistics, quotations and sources on the pages that should be cited.
- New pages for prompts where a rival is cited and you aren’t: comparisons, alternatives, guides.
- Crawler access: robots.txt, rendering, structured data and llms.txt. Check yours with our free audit.
- Off-site mentions on the lists, reviews and communities generative engines draw from.
- SEO underneath it all, because a page that doesn’t rank doesn’t get read.
See which software brands generative engines favor today in the AEO Index, and our first client’s results.
