What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?
- Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
- Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making a brand appear in the answers that AI assistants generate, rather than in a ranked list of links. It covers the technical work that lets a model reach and parse a site, the content work that makes passages worth quoting, and the authority work that gives an engine reason to trust the source it is quoting.
01 In practice
The distinction from search optimisation is the unit of victory. A search engine returns ten results and a brand wins by being clicked; a generative engine returns one answer and a brand wins by being named inside it. There is no position ten in a paragraph.
The unit of victory changes what the work optimises for. A page written to rank is judged on relevance and authority signals across the whole document. A page written to be quoted is judged on whether a specific passage can be lifted out, stands on its own, and can be attributed to a source the model is willing to name.
The foundations are shared, which is why the two disciplines are usually run together. Crawlability, structured data, entity signals and clear information architecture serve both. What differs sits in the last mile: how the content is written, and whether the business exists as an entity an engine can identify.
The work behind it
Rank on Google. Get cited by ChatGPT.
The sources assistants quote and the pages search still ranks, one engagement, both surfaces.