What is GEO (generative engine optimization)?
GEO, short for generative engine optimization, is the work of making a business visible, accurately described and recommended inside answers written by AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode. Where SEO aims for a ranked link on a results page, GEO aims for a mention inside the answer itself.
Where the term comes from
The term was introduced in a 2023 research paper, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues, later accepted to the KDD 2024 conference. The paper describes generative engines as systems that answer a question by writing a response drawn from several sources, and it treats being visible inside that response as a goal in its own right.
Why it matters to a service business
A customer can now ask an assistant "who should I hire for this?" and get a written answer that names a few businesses, sometimes only one. A business that is not in that answer is not part of that conversation, however well its website ranks.
AI answers are already a routine part of search. In a Pew Research Center study, 58% of the U.S. adults whose browsing it tracked ran at least one Google search in March 2025 that produced an AI summary, and they clicked a traditional result less often when a summary appeared than when none did.
What GEO is not
GEO is not a trick for gaming a model, and it does not replace SEO. Assistants draw on the same web that search engines do, so the fundamentals overlap: a business that is clear, consistent and well supported across the web is easier for both to understand.
No one can promise that a particular assistant will recommend a particular business. What can be measured is whether, and how, assistants mention a business for the questions its customers ask, and how many inquiries arrive from AI answers.
What a good outcome looks like
When GEO works, a customer asks an assistant for a recommendation in your field and area, your business is named and described correctly, and the inquiry that follows is recorded as coming from an AI answer, so you can see what the channel is worth.
Sources
- Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (arXiv 2311.09735, KDD 2024)
- Pew Research Center, "Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results" (July 22, 2025)
Related answers
- GEO vs SEO: what is the difference, and do you need both?
- Are AI answers taking clicks away from Google search results?
GEO: recommended in AI answers
When a customer asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI who to call, the answer names a few businesses. GEO is the work of making yours one of them.