What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?

Traditional SEO aims for a high position in a list of links. GEO aims for your brand to be named, quoted or linked inside an AI-generated answer. The two overlap heavily, because most AI assistants retrieve live web pages or a search index before they answer, so a page that can't be crawled or indexed can't be cited.

In practice, GEO work usually covers:

• Access: making sure AI crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Googlebot can reach your pages, including through your firewall or CDN.
• Answerability: pages that state the answer early, in plain language, with specific facts a model can lift into a reply.
• Entity clarity: the same name, description and facts about your company across your site, profiles and structured data.
• Third-party evidence: reviews, comparisons, research citations and community discussions that mention you, because assistants often draw on sources other than your own site.
• Measurement: checking which prompts mention you, how you're described and which competitors appear instead.

Google's own guidance says that, from Google Search's perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is still SEO, and that no special files or markup are needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Other assistants run their own crawlers and retrieval systems, so crawler access and third-party mentions matter more there.