What Is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

Traditional SEO optimizes for a ranked list of blue links. AI answer engines work differently: they retrieve relevant passages from crawled content, synthesize an answer, and sometimes cite a small number of sources. A page can rank well in classic search and still be a poor source for an AI summary if it's vague about who's behind it, buries the actual answer under filler, or lacks the structured data that makes facts machine-readable.

• Answer-first writing — the direct answer near the top, followed by evidence and detail
• Consistent entity signals: who the business is, what it does, where it operates, kept the same across the site, Google Business Profile, and other listings
• Structured data (Organization, Person, Service, Article, FAQPage) that describes the visible content accurately
• Technical crawlability — nothing blocking AI or search crawlers from reading the page
• Original, specific content rather than generic, interchangeable filler

GEO is not a trick, a plugin, or a file you drop into your site root. It's not a guarantee of being cited by any specific AI tool — no ethical agency can promise that, since the underlying models and retrieval systems change frequently and aren't fully documented publicly. It's also not a replacement for SEO; see SEO vs GEO → for how the two relate.