What Is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?
Getting cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews, and how it differs from traditional SEO.
AEO & AI Search
The shift in behaviour
A growing share of buyers now ask an AI assistant for recommendations before opening a search engine. In that interaction there may be no results page, no ten blue links, and no click. There is an answer, and possibly a citation.
GEO is the practice of making your brand the thing that gets cited in that answer.
How models choose sources
Language models draw on training data and, increasingly, live retrieval. Both favour sources that are already authoritative, clearly structured, factually precise, and frequently referenced elsewhere.
In practice this means traditional authority is the entry requirement. Sites nobody links to and nobody ranks do not get cited.
What to actually do
Publish clear, extractable definitions and answers. Maintain factual precision, since models penalise ambiguity when selecting sources. Strengthen entity signals so the model understands who you are. Earn citations on the sources models draw from. Implement llms.txt. Track your citation share across platforms.
Key takeaways
- GEO targets citation in AI answers, not clicks from results pages
- Traditional authority is the entry requirement for AI citation
- Factual precision and clear structure improve extraction odds
- Track citation share; it is measurable and most competitors do not
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