Questions

What is GEO (generative engine optimisation)?

Updated September 2026 · by Monish

Short answer

The same work as AEO under a name that emphasises the generated answer rather than the engine: being named and cited when ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or AI Overviews write an answer to a buyer's question. In practice the terms are interchangeable, and the checklist is the same.

The one useful distinction

GEO as a term came from a 2023 research paper that tested which changes to a page made a generative engine more likely to quote it: adding statistics, citing sources, quoting authorities, plainer language. Those are page-level tactics. AEO as used by practitioners includes the off-site work too. This site uses 'AI visibility' for the measurement and describes the work plainly.

Read next

GEO · The generative engine optimisation checklist · The AI visibility glossary

Ask it about your own company

Your website, region and work email. The score appears in about three minutes, and the report is a link you keep.

Check my AI visibility