Generative engine optimisation (GEO): what it is and what actually works

What is generative engine optimisation?

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of improving how often, and how accurately, your content is used and cited in answers written by AI search tools. A generative engine is a search tool that writes an answer in its own words, usually with links to the pages it drew on, instead of only showing a list of results.

The term comes from a 2023 research paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (opens in a new tab), which treated these engines as a black box and tested ways content creators might improve their visibility in the answers. Since then, agencies have used the label for everything from sensible technical SEO to services that cannot deliver what they promise. This guide separates the two.

GEO vs SEO vs AEO: what is the difference?

Answer engine optimisation (AEO) is an older industry term for shaping content so it can be given as the direct answer to a question, for example in a featured snippet or a voice assistant. GEO extends the same idea to AI-written answers. Neither replaces SEO; both depend on it.

The honest summary is that most of GEO is good SEO and good writing. Google's guidance on AI features (opens in a new tab) says there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode: a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet.

How do AI search features find and cite pages?

Most AI search features work in two steps. First they retrieve pages from a search index or by fetching them live. Then a language model writes an answer from what it retrieved and links to some of those pages. If your page is not in the index the tool uses, it cannot be cited.

• Google AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on Google Search. Google says they may use a query fan-out technique, issuing multiple related searches across subtopics and data sources to build a response (Google Search Central (opens in a new tab)).
• ChatGPT search relies on OpenAI's OAI-SearchBot. OpenAI states that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers (OpenAI crawlers (opens in a new tab)), and that its crawler may obtain URLs from a third-party search provider or by crawling other pages (OpenAI publisher FAQ (opens in a new tab)).
• Microsoft Copilot sends generated search queries to the Bing search service to ground its responses in web data (Microsoft Learn (opens in a new tab)), so being well indexed in Bing matters.
• Perplexity uses PerplexityBot to surface and link websites in its search results, and Perplexity-User to fetch a page when a user's question needs it (Perplexity crawlers (opens in a new tab)).

Our companion guide, how AI assistants decide which business to recommend, covers each crawler and the robots.txt choices in more detail.

What a business can actually do

These steps are ordered by how much they usually matter. The first decides whether you can be cited at all; the rest decide how useful and accurate the citation is.

1. 1Check crawler access and indexing. Make sure robots.txt does not block Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot from pages you want found. Confirm the pages are indexed in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
2. 2Put the answer first. Open each important page with two or three sentences that answer its main question directly, then explain. AI tools and readers both benefit from a clear opening.
3. 3State facts plainly. Say what you do, where, for whom and how to get in touch, in plain sentences. Write definitions as 'X is ...'. Do not bury key facts in images, PDFs or sliders.
4. 4Give each topic its own page. A dedicated page per service, location and common question is easier to retrieve and quote than one long page that covers everything.
5. 5Add what only you know. Explain your process, what is included, who the service is not for and the mistakes you see customers make. Google's guidance on helpful, people-first content (opens in a new tab) describes content created primarily for people, not to manipulate rankings.
6. 6Keep business details consistent. Use the same business name, address, phone number, hours and service list on your site, your Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles.
7. 7Keep structured data accurate, not exotic. Structured data helps search engines understand a page, but Google says no special schema is needed for its AI features, and markup must match what is visible on the page.
8. 8Earn mentions elsewhere. AI answers are assembled from several sources, so reviews, trade association listings and coverage on other sites can appear alongside, or instead of, your own pages.

What is hype, and what should you be wary of?

Because AI search is new and hard to measure, it attracts confident claims. Here is how common ones compare with what the platforms themselves say.

How do you measure AI search visibility?

A single screenshot proves very little, because the same question can get a different answer an hour later. AI search visibility tracking means running a fixed set of prompts on a schedule and logging the conditions each time, so you can compare like with like.

1. 1Write 20 to 50 prompts your customers would realistically type, mixing broad questions ('best accountant for small businesses in Leeds') with specific ones about your services.
2. 2Run each prompt in each tool you care about, using a clean browser profile where possible.
3. 3Log the conditions: date, tool and mode, country or city, signed in or not, and device.
4. 4Record the result: whether you were mentioned, whether you were cited with a link, which page was cited, which competitors appeared and whether the facts about you were correct.
5. 5Repeat monthly with the same prompts, and change one thing on your site at a time so you can link cause and effect with more confidence.

Pair the log with platform data. Google includes traffic from AI features in the Web search type of the Search Console Performance report. Bing Webmaster Tools has an AI Performance report (opens in a new tab) showing citations across Microsoft Copilot and AI-generated summaries in Bing. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to referral URLs, so those visits can be separated in your analytics.

Treat the results as a sample, not a ranking. A steady rise in citations across a stable prompt set is meaningful; one good answer is not.

Where to start this week

• Check robots.txt for rules that block search crawlers you want, and confirm key pages are indexed in Google and Bing.
• Rewrite the opening of your five most important pages so each starts with a direct answer.
• List your business details and correct any mismatch across your site and profiles.
• Set up a prompt log and run it once to get a baseline before changing anything else.

You can run our free website and AI search check on your home page for a quick technical read-out. If you want help with an AI visibility audit and ongoing tracking, our SEO and AI visibility service covers both, without promising rankings or citations that no one can guarantee.