What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?

How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO tries to rank your pages in a list of search results. GEO tries to get your business mentioned inside an AI-written answer. They overlap a lot, because the assistants often pull from the same web that search engines index.

Google itself says there is no special optimization required to appear in its AI features, and that the normal search fundamentals still apply. So the honest picture is that GEO is not a replacement for SEO. It is SEO plus a second question: when an assistant is asked for a business like yours, does it know you exist and trust you enough to name you?

What decides whether an AI names your business?

Nobody outside the AI companies knows the exact formula, and it changes. What the published research and our own testing both point to is below.

1. It can find and read your site. The pages must be indexed, not blocked from crawlers, and clear about who you are, what you do and where.
2. It can tell who you are. A distinct name, a consistent description and a founder it can verify. If your name looks like another company’s, the assistant may describe the other company.
3. Other places confirm you exist. Directories, review sites, a LinkedIn page and “best of” lists. A single website with nothing else behind it gives an assistant little to trust.
4. Reviews. For local businesses, how many reviews you have tracks with whether you get named at all.
5. Your pages answer the question being asked. A page that states the answer plainly is easier to quote than one that makes the reader hunt.

What we saw when we tested it

We asked ChatGPT one realistic customer question for each of five local businesses we work with, such as who to hire for a service in their area. It named none of them. Its answers came from directories, review sites, competitor websites and “best of” roundups. In every case the businesses were real, in business and had good websites. The gap was off-site: not enough reviews and listings on the sites the assistants actually read.

That is a small sample, and answers vary from run to run, so treat it as an illustration, not a rule. It is also why our audits record the exact question, the platform, the date and the sources cited, and repeat the check instead of relying on one answer.

What does not help as much as people claim

• llms.txt. Google says its Search does not use it, and studies of server logs found AI crawlers rarely request it. It is harmless, but not a ranking lever.
• Stuffing in FAQ blocks or schema just for AI. Structured data helps search engines understand a page, but the research we reviewed found little citation effect from adding it alone.
• Guarantees. No one can promise a placement in an AI answer.

What a local business can do first

1. Make sure Google and Bing can index your site and that your name, phone, address and services read the same everywhere.
2. Claim and complete your Google Business Profile with the right main category.
3. Get real reviews from real customers, and ask them to mention the service and the city.
4. Get listed where assistants look: relevant directories, a LinkedIn page, and local “best of” pages.
5. Write a plain page for each real customer question, with the answer first.
6. Check back on a schedule. Ask the same questions each month and keep the answers.

Questions people ask

What is generative engine optimization?

Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the work of making a business easy for AI assistants to identify, trust and name when they answer a question. The assistants include ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity and Gemini. Where SEO aims to rank a page in a list of links, GEO aims to get the business mentioned inside the answer itself.

Is GEO the same as SEO?

They overlap heavily but are not the same. SEO is about ranking pages. GEO is about being named in an AI-written answer. Google says that no special optimization is required to appear in its AI features and that normal search fundamentals still apply, so strong SEO is the base that GEO builds on.

Is GEO the same as AEO or AI SEO?

In practice yes. Answer engine optimization (AEO), GEO and AI SEO are three names for the same goal: being named inside the answer rather than only listed as a link.

Does an llms.txt file help?

Not as a ranking lever. Google has said its Search does not use llms.txt, and server-log studies found AI crawlers requested it only rarely compared with robots.txt. It is harmless, but it should not be sold as a fix.

Can anyone guarantee a business will be named by ChatGPT?

No. The assistants decide what to cite, and answers change from one run to the next. Anyone promising a guaranteed placement is selling something they do not control. What can be done is to improve the things that are controllable and to measure the result over time.

Related UNFLD AI services

• Local SEO for small business — the basics, in order.
• SEO and AI search visibility audits — a check of what search engines and assistants can find about your business, with a prioritized list of fixes.
• What is answer engine optimization? — how to write pages assistants can quote.
• GEO vs SEO — how the two differ and which to do first.
• Custom web design — sites built to be read by both people and AI assistants.
• Free AI audit — start with your actual site.

Want to know how your business shows up?

Ask for a free AI audit. We look at your site and at what assistants say about your business today. It is a starting diagnostic, not a certified score or a promise of traffic.