Sauror AIWhat is GEO? Generative Engine Optimization explained
When a buyer asks an AI assistant which tool, agency or product to choose, the answer names a handful of brands. GEO is the work of being one of them.
A short definition
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of making a brand visible inside the answers written by AI assistants: ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, and the AI Overviews and AI Mode results at the top of Google.
The goal is not a click on a blue link. It is a mention, ideally a recommendation, in the paragraph the assistant writes, and when the assistant shows sources, a link to your pages among them.
Why it matters now
Buyers increasingly start their research by asking an assistant instead of typing keywords. The assistant reads the web for them and hands back a shortlist. If your brand is not in that shortlist, the buyer may never visit a results page where your ranking would have helped.
The answer is also a single voice. A results page shows ten links side by side; an assistant often recommends two or three names and explains why. Being named first, with a positive reason, carries weight.
GEO and SEO: what changes, what stays
GEO does not replace SEO. Assistants that search the web still depend on pages being crawlable, indexed and trusted, which is SEO groundwork. Google AI Overviews are built on Google's own index.
What changes is the unit of success and where the evidence lives:
- SEO measures rankings and clicks. GEO measures how often, and how favourably, you are named in answers.
- SEO focuses on your own pages. GEO also depends on what other sites say about you: reviews, comparisons, forums, press, directories.
- SEO results are fairly stable. AI answers vary between runs, so GEO is measured as a rate over many answers, not a single position.
What GEO work actually covers
In practice, GEO breaks down into four streams of work:
- Measurement: asking the assistants the questions your buyers ask, repeatedly, and recording who gets named.
- Technical access: letting AI crawlers reach your pages and making those pages easy to parse.
- Content: publishing clear, specific pages that answer the questions assistants are asked about your category.
- Presence elsewhere: being accurately described on the third-party sites assistants lean on as sources.
See where you stand today
Paste your site. We ask AI the questions your buyers type and count who gets named.