What is GEO? Generative engine optimization in plain English
By Highpoint Labs, LLC · Published October 29, 2026 · 2 min read
GEO stands for generative engine optimization. In plain English: it's the work of making sure AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mention you, and describe you correctly, when people ask them questions. It's the AI-answer cousin of SEO.
Where the term comes from
The name was popularized by a 2023 research paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, by researchers from Princeton and other universities. They used "generative engines" for search tools that write an answer instead of showing a list of links, and studied how website content affects whether it shows up in those answers.
Since then the term has spread, along with others that mean roughly the same thing: AEO (answer engine optimization), LLM SEO, and AI visibility.
How GEO is different from SEO
With classic SEO, the goal is to rank on a results page and get the click. With GEO, the goal is to be in the answer: named in the recommendation, quoted, or linked as a source. Often the person never clicks anything.
A few other differences:
- Answers vary. Ask the same question twice and you can get different products. You measure how often you're named, not a single rank.
- Other people's pages matter more. AI answers often lean on review articles, lists and directories, so being mentioned there can count as much as your own site.
- There are two sources of knowledge. An assistant may answer from what it learned in training, or search the web live. You can't edit the first, but you can influence the second.
How GEO is the same as SEO
Most of the basics carry over. Google says the same SEO best practices apply to its AI features, and that there are no extra requirements to appear in them. For ChatGPT, OpenAI says you need to let its OAI-SearchBot crawler in to appear in search answers. Good, crawlable, clearly written pages still do the heavy lifting.
What GEO work looks like in practice
- Let the AI crawlers in. Check robots.txt and your firewall for OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Google's crawlers.
- Be findable in normal search. AI assistants that search the web use search indexes, so verify your site in Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- Describe yourself the same way everywhere. One name, one category, one plain sentence about who you're for.
- Answer real questions. Comparison pages, "best for" pages, pricing pages, with the answer near the top.
- Get onto the pages AI cites. Find the lists and review sites that come up for your buyers' questions and earn an honest place on them.
- Measure over time. Ask the same questions every week and track how often you're named and who's named instead.
What GEO isn't
- It isn't a trick. Hidden text or instructions aimed at AI bots break search spam policies and don't fix the real problem.
- It isn't guaranteed. No one outside OpenAI, Google or Perplexity knows exactly how their systems choose. Be wary of anyone promising a spot.
- It isn't a one-off. Models, sources and competitors change, so results drift.
Where to start
Pick the AI assistant your customers use most, often ChatGPT, and see where you stand today. Our guide on how to check if ChatGPT recommends your product walks through it, or run a free check. Then use the engine guides for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini.
See where you stand today
The free check asks ChatGPT the questions your buyers ask, for your product and the competitors you name, and shows who gets named, in what position, and which sources are cited. Then track it weekly.
Run a free check