What is GEO? A working definition for marketing teams
What generative engine optimization means, how it relates to SEO, and what a useful first task looks like.
Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the work of making information easier to discover and accurately use in AI-generated answers. For a business, that includes relevant brand mentions and citations, but it also includes checking whether an answer describes the product correctly.
Consider a buyer asking which CRM fits a small agency with a limited implementation budget. An answer might name your product, cite your pricing page, do both or do neither. Those are separate observations, with different implications for the next edit.
Where the term comes from
The research paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, published at KDD 2024, proposed a framework for measuring and improving source visibility in generative-engine responses. Its experiments used a defined benchmark and evaluation method. They are not a recipe that guarantees inclusion in today's consumer products. Original GEO paper.
In this blog, we use GEO as a practical working term for content, technical access and measurement work around AI answers. It is not a separate paid placement or a standard certification.
How it relates to SEO
SEO and GEO overlap because search-enabled AI answers can draw on web pages. Google says its established SEO practices remain relevant to AI Overviews and AI Mode. It requires no special AI schema or new machine-readable text file for inclusion. Google Search Central.
The reporting questions differ:
| Question | Useful observation |
|---|---|
| Can someone find the page in search? | Indexing, search impressions, clicks and relevant queries |
| Does an AI answer name the business? | Brand mention and recommendation context |
| Does it cite your page? | Captured citation URL and the claim it supports |
| Does the discovery help the business? | Identifiable referrals and qualified outcomes |
Search results are not always a list of ten links, and AI answers do not always recommend brands. Keep the actual surface and question in view rather than forcing every result into the same model.
What a useful GEO task looks like
Suppose a software pricing page omits the minimum annual commitment. Buyers repeatedly ask whether the product fits a monthly budget, and AI answers give conflicting information.
The task is concrete: confirm the current terms, publish them on the pricing page, reconcile contradictory pages, and check whether the same questions receive accurate answers afterward. A paragraph claiming the product is “the perfect solution” supplies none of the missing facts.
Other tasks might include publishing verified compatibility information, explaining service exclusions, correcting a directory listing or making an important page accessible. These improve information quality. Which changes affect citations on a particular platform remains a hypothesis to test.
For ChatGPT search, OpenAI documents OAI-SearchBot separately from its GPTBot training crawler. Review their access settings according to your publishing policy. OpenAI crawler documentation.
Measure a small panel before buying a large program
Choose ten questions from sales, support or customer research. Run them on two relevant AI surfaces under recorded conditions. Save the answers and sources, then record mentions, citations and factual errors separately.
Do not describe the result as your share of all AI searches. It is visibility in that panel. Platform data may cover another population: Microsoft's AI Performance preview, for example, reports citations across supported experiences. Bing Webmaster Tools announcement.
Keep a report of the evidence, the page to change and the buyer question that change should resolve. After shipping it, repeat the panel and inspect identifiable referrals. Use the measurement guide for counting rules.
Choose the first page to improve
Start with a repeated, commercially relevant question that your business can answer with evidence. Check the existing page before commissioning another article. Give the answer an owner, a source and a review plan.
The content workflow shows how to turn that question into a brief. The investment guide helps decide whether the opportunity deserves a pilot.
Sources checked October 4, 2026. The examples are illustrative; no content format guarantees inclusion or revenue.