This guide explains where the term comes from, how generative engines choose sources, what the research says actually works, and a 90-day plan you can run on your own site. It is written by the team at DigiMark Agency, a Bengaluru SEO, AEO and GEO agency, and draws on what we see in client Search Console and AI-visibility data.
Key takeaways
- GEO is not a replacement for SEO. Google says there are "no additional requirements" to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond being indexed and eligible for a snippet, so technical SEO is still the foundation.
- The term comes from a 2023 research paper (Aggarwal et al., accepted at KDD 2024). Its tests found that adding quotations, statistics and cited sources raised a page's visibility in AI answers by roughly 30–40%, while keyword stuffing did not help.
- AI assistants lean heavily on third-party sources (directories, reviews, comparison articles, forums) when they recommend a business. What others say about you matters as much as your own site.
- You can measure GEO: track a fixed set of prompts across engines, count brand mentions and citations, and watch AI referral traffic in GA4.
Where the term "GEO" comes from
The phrase was coined in the paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande. First published on arXiv in November 2023 and accepted at KDD 2024, it treated AI answer engines as a new kind of search engine. The authors built a benchmark of 10,000 queries, GEO-bench, and tested nine ways of rewriting web content to see which ones made it more visible inside generated answers.
Three findings from that paper still shape GEO work today:
- Evidence beats keywords. Adding relevant quotations was the strongest single method, improving visibility by about 41% on the paper's main metric. Adding statistics and citing sources also performed well. Keyword stuffing showed little or no improvement and sometimes did worse than the original.
- Smaller sites can gain the most. Pages that ranked lower in classic search benefited more. In one test, citing sources lifted visibility for the fifth-ranked site by 115%.
- It depends on the domain. What works for a history question differs from what works for a legal or health question, so GEO has to be tested in your own category.
GEO, AEO, AI SEO, LLMO: one discipline, several names
There is no settled vocabulary yet. Wikipedia's entry on GEO lists answer engine optimization (AEO), AI optimization (AIO), large language model optimization (LLMO) and "AI SEO" as overlapping names, and notes there is no consensus definition. HubSpot uses AEO as its umbrella term and treats GEO as the part focused on generative AI answers. Others, including this guide, use AEO for featured snippets and voice answers and GEO for AI-written answers.
The label matters less than the work. Whatever an agency calls it, ask what it will change on your site, what it will do off-site, and how it will measure AI mentions.
How generative engines choose what to cite
Each engine works differently, but the broad pattern is the same:
- Retrieval. The assistant runs one or more searches. Google describes a "query fan-out" technique, where AI Overviews and AI Mode issue multiple related searches across subtopics to build one answer. ChatGPT search uses its own crawler, OAI-SearchBot, together with third-party search providers.
- Selection. From the pages it retrieves, the model picks passages that answer the question clearly, look trustworthy and agree with other sources.
- Synthesis. It writes an answer, names brands and adds citation links.
Two practical consequences follow. First, if a crawler can't reach your page, nothing else matters. OpenAI states that sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot "will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers." Second, the answer is assembled from several sources, so a brand that appears consistently across many trusted pages is far more likely to be named than one that appears only on its own website.
GEO vs SEO in one table
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank a page in the list of links | Be cited or recommended inside an AI answer |
| Unit that wins | A whole page | A passage, a fact, a brand mention |
| Main signals | Relevance, links, page experience | Clarity, evidence, consistency across sources, entity understanding |
| Where proof lives | Mostly your site and backlinks | Your site plus directories, reviews, lists, forums and press |
| How you measure it | Rankings, clicks, impressions | Mention rate, share of voice, citations, AI referral sessions |
For a fuller comparison that also covers Answer Engine Optimization, read our guide to AEO vs GEO vs SEO.
Why GEO matters now
People increasingly get the answer without clicking. In a July 2025 study, Pew Research Center found that Google users clicked a traditional search result in 8% of visits when an AI summary appeared, compared with 15% when it did not. Only 1% of visits included a click on a link inside the summary.
For a business, that changes the question from "do we rank?" to "are we named in the answer?". If a buyer asks ChatGPT "best SEO company in Bangalore for a clinic" and your brand isn't in the answer, you aren't on the shortlist, even if you rank on page one of Google.
The GEO checklist: what to do on your own site
1. Make sure AI crawlers can reach you
- In
robots.txt, allow Googlebot, Bingbot, OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot. Decide separately on training crawlers such as GPTBot and Google-Extended. - Check that your CDN or firewall isn't blocking them. Bot-protection settings often do this silently.
- Keep important content in HTML text, not only in images, PDFs or scripts that load late.
2. Write answer-first passages
- Start each section with a one- or two-sentence direct answer, then expand.
- Use the words people actually type or say, for example "How much does SEO cost in Bangalore?", as headings.
- Keep one idea per paragraph so a passage still makes sense when it is quoted on its own.
3. Add evidence the model can quote
This is where the research is clearest. Add:
- Statistics with a date and source, for example "organic clicks grew from ~90 to 220+ a day between April 2024 and August 2025".
- Quotations from named experts or customers.
- Citations to primary sources such as official documentation, studies and standards.
At DigiMark Agency we publish client results with the Search Console period attached, so the figures can be checked. For example, a Hyderabad healthcare client reached 16.6K organic clicks and 1.58M impressions after technical SEO, local SEO and AEO work (see the case study).
4. Make your entity unambiguous
- Use exactly the same name, address, phone number and hours on your website, Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles.
- Add Organization or LocalBusiness schema that matches the visible page. Google notes that no special schema is required for AI features, but consistent structured data helps machines connect the facts.
- Publish clear "About", team and author pages with real people and credentials.
5. Build the off-site footprint
AI assistants often cite comparison articles, review platforms and directories when they recommend a business. Work on:
- Complete, active profiles on Google Business Profile, Clutch, GoodFirms and industry directories.
- A steady flow of genuine reviews.
- Inclusion in third-party "best of" lists and industry roundups.
- Digital PR and expert commentary in trade publications.
6. Build topical depth and original data
Assistants prefer sources that cover a subject thoroughly. Publish connected articles around your core topics rather than one-off posts, and add something only you have: your own client results, survey data or pricing benchmarks. Original numbers are the easiest thing for an AI answer to quote.
7. Keep content fresh
Update key pages when facts change, and show the date. Assistants that answer "in 2026" questions prefer sources that look current.
How to measure GEO
- Build a prompt set. Write 20–50 questions your buyers really ask, across awareness ("what is GEO"), comparison ("best GEO agency in India") and local ("SEO company near BTM Layout").
- Track them across engines. Run them weekly on ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini and Perplexity. Tools such as Listable Labs automate this and report mention rate, position and share of voice against competitors.
- Check accuracy. Note whether each answer describes your business correctly: services, location, prices. Wrong facts usually trace back to an outdated directory listing or page.
- Watch citations. Note which URLs each engine cites, both yours and third-party ones. The third-party sources become your outreach list.
- Check traffic. In GA4, segment sessions from chatgpt.com, gemini.google.com, perplexity.ai and copilot.microsoft.com. In Search Console, AI Overviews and AI Mode traffic is counted in the Performance report under the "Web" search type.
A 90-day GEO plan
| Weeks | Focus | Output |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Audit | Crawler access check, prompt set, baseline mention rate, competitor citation list |
| 3–6 | On-site | Answer-first rewrites of 5–10 key pages, added statistics and sources, schema and entity clean-up |
| 5–10 | Off-site | Directory and review profiles completed, 3–5 list or roundup placements pitched, expert commentary |
| 8–12 | Measure and repeat | Re-run prompts, compare mention rate and citations, double down on what moved |
Common GEO mistakes
- Treating it as a trick. Hidden text, mass-produced AI pages and keyword stuffing don't work. The research found that keyword stuffing doesn't help.
- Only publishing self-promotional lists. Assistants weigh independent sources more heavily. Publish useful guides and earn third-party mentions too.
- Inconsistent business details. Different hours or addresses across profiles make it harder for a model to trust any of them.
- Blocking crawlers by accident. Firewall rules or a
Disallowfor OAI-SearchBot will keep you out of ChatGPT search. - No measurement. Without a fixed prompt set you can't tell whether anything changed.
Getting help with GEO
You can run most of this checklist in-house. If you'd rather have a team do it, DigiMark Agency combines technical SEO, AEO and GEO in one programme from its BTM Layout office in Bengaluru. Our generative engine optimization service starts with a free audit of your current AI visibility. DigiMark Agency reports on the same metrics described above (mention rate, citations and AI referral traffic), not only rankings.
Frequently asked questions
What does GEO stand for?
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization: improving how often and how accurately AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Mode mention and cite your brand in their answers.
Is GEO different from SEO?
Yes, but they overlap. SEO targets ranked links; GEO targets being quoted or recommended inside AI answers. GEO depends on SEO foundations such as crawlability, indexing and quality content, and adds evidence-rich writing, entity consistency and off-site mentions.
Does schema markup help with GEO?
It helps machines understand your facts, but it isn't a requirement. Google states that no special structured data is needed for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Use schema that matches your visible content.
How long does GEO take to show results?
On-site changes can be picked up within weeks once pages are recrawled. Off-site signals such as reviews, directory listings and third-party lists usually take two to three months to move mention rates noticeably.
Is SEO dead now that AI answers exist?
No. AI Overviews, AI Mode and ChatGPT search all retrieve pages from a search index before writing an answer, and Google says AI features need no extra requirements beyond normal SEO eligibility. SEO is now the entry ticket for GEO.
Can a small business compete in GEO?
Yes. The original GEO research found that lower-ranked websites gained more from optimisation than top-ranked ones, because clear, well-sourced passages can be cited even when the page isn't the top result.
Sources
- Aggarwal, P. et al. GEO: Generative Engine Optimization. KDD 2024.
- Google Search Central. AI features and your website.
- OpenAI. Overview of OpenAI crawlers.
- Wikipedia. Generative engine optimization.
- HubSpot. AEO vs. GEO explained (updated September 2026).
- Pew Research Center. Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results (22 July 2025).