What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?

GEO, also called AI SEO, is the work of getting your business cited inside AI answers rather than only ranking in the blue links. Here is what it is, what seems to help, and an honest word on the hype.

Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the practice of shaping your website so that AI answer engines quote and cite your business. Some people call it AI SEO. The goal is simple: when someone asks an AI a question your business could answer, you want to be the source it pulls from and names. It is the natural next step on from classic search, and right now it is early enough that the rules are still being written.

Search is changing shape. People used to type a query and pick from a list of blue links. More and more, they ask Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity and read the answer the machine writes back. GEO is how you stay visible when the answer arrives pre-written and the links sit underneath it.

How GEO differs from classic SEO

Classic SEO is about ranking. You want your page in the top handful of results so a person clicks through to your site. The unit of success is a position on a results page.

GEO is about being cited. The AI reads across many sources, writes one answer, and names the pages it leaned on. The unit of success is being one of those named sources, quoted in the answer itself. Sometimes the person never clicks at all. They just read the answer, see your name attached to it, and remember you.

The two overlap heavily, and that is the most important thing to grasp. An AI engine leans on much of the same signal a search engine does: clear content, a trustworthy site, a recognisable brand. GEO is less a new discipline and more a new shop window for work you should be doing anyway. Our SEO service and our GEO work share most of the same foundations.

Why it matters now

Two things have shifted at once.

First, behaviour. A growing share of people ask an AI instead of running a search. They want the answer, not ten links to sift through. If the AI does not mention you, you are invisible to that person, even if you would have ranked first on a classic results page.

Second, the search engines themselves now answer in prose. Google AI Overviews sit above the blue links and summarise the page for you. The link is still there, but it competes with an answer that may have already satisfied the reader. Being inside that answer is the new front row.

None of this means classic SEO is dead. It means there is a second surface to be visible on, and the businesses on both win the most attention.

What actually seems to help

GEO is new and nobody can promise a result, so treat this as informed practice rather than a formula. That said, a clear pattern is emerging, and most of it will look familiar.

Clear, well-structured content

AI engines favour pages that answer a question directly and are easy to parse. A plain heading, a direct answer in the first line, then the detail. If a human can skim your page and find the answer in seconds, a machine usually can too.

Being genuinely quotable and factual

The model is looking for a clean, accurate sentence it can lift. Specific facts, real numbers and clear definitions get quoted. Vague marketing copy does not. Write things that are true and worth repeating.

Strong entity and brand signals

An entity is just a thing the AI recognises as real and distinct, like your business name. The more consistently your brand shows up across your site, your listings and the wider web, the more confidently an engine can name you.

Structured data (schema)

Schema is a small block of code that labels what each part of your page is: this is a business, this is a price, this is an FAQ. It does not guarantee a citation, but it makes your content easier for a machine to read correctly. You can see the vocabulary at schema.org.

The same fundamentals as good SEO

A fast, well-built site with real expertise behind it and a trustworthy reputation. There is no GEO shortcut that skips these. If your SEO foundations are weak, GEO has little to stand on.

An honest reality check

This is the part most pages selling GEO leave out, so here it is plainly.

It is early. The way AI engines pick and cite sources changes often, and no two of them work the same way. What helps in ChatGPT may not be what helps in AI Overviews. Anyone claiming a settled playbook is guessing with confidence.

It overlaps heavily with good SEO. For most businesses, GEO is not a separate budget line. It is doing the SEO fundamentals well and writing content a machine can quote. If someone sells you GEO as a brand-new service untethered from your SEO, be cautious.

Nobody can guarantee AI placement. There is no equivalent of buying an ad slot inside an AI answer, and there is no button that puts you there. Any agency promising guaranteed citations in ChatGPT or AI Overviews is selling something it cannot deliver. We will not, and you should walk away from anyone who does. What we can do is build the foundations that give you the best honest chance.

What good practice looks like

• Answer real questions clearly: structure pages around the questions people actually ask, with the answer up top.
• Write to be quoted: short, factual, specific sentences a model can lift cleanly.
• Be consistent everywhere: same name, same facts, same details across your site and listings.
• Add schema where it fits: label your content so machines read it correctly.
• Keep the SEO fundamentals strong: GEO is built on the same ground, so do not neglect it.

If you want the wider picture of how an agency approaches this kind of work, our guide on what an SEO agency does covers the day-to-day, and GEO sits inside that same effort.

How we think about it

We treat GEO as part of doing search properly, not a bolt-on with a separate invoice. We build sites that are fast, clearly structured and easy to quote, keep your brand consistent, and add schema where it earns its place. Nobody controls what an AI cites. What we control is giving your content the best chance to be the source it picks.

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