Generative Engine Optimisation - is GEO actually a thing
Generative Engine Optimisation is the idea that marketers need a new discipline to optimise for AI-generated answers in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Some of this is genuine. A lot of it is rebranded SEO.
GEO has emerged as a term over the last 12 to 18 months to describe the practice of optimising content for citation by AI systems rather than just for search engine rankings. The distinction is real in some ways. In others, the fundamentals are remarkably familiar.
What is genuinely different
Traditional SEO optimises for ranking positions - getting a page to appear in the top 10 organic results. GEO optimises for citation - getting your content referenced in an AI-generated response. You can be cited in ChatGPT or Perplexity without ranking highly in traditional search. You can rank highly in traditional search and never be cited by an AI answer engine. These are different measures of success that do not perfectly correlate.
AI systems also value different content structures. Clear, quotable statements, direct factual claims with supporting context, and authoritative sourcing are weighted differently by AI retrieval systems than by traditional search algorithms. Content designed to rank well may not necessarily be designed to be cited accurately by an AI summarisation engine.
What is the same
Authority, accuracy, and comprehensiveness matter in GEO for the same reasons they matter in SEO. AI systems draw from high-authority sources because those sources are more likely to contain accurate information. If you have built strong E-E-A-T signals and earned backlinks from reputable sources, those signals translate to AI visibility as well as search rankings.
Content quality is also the same. Thin, low-quality, or repetitive content is not going to be cited by an AI system any more than it will rank well in traditional search. Substance and genuine expertise remain the foundation.
What you should do
Focus on creating genuinely authoritative, well-sourced content with clear answers to specific questions. Structure content so AI systems can extract accurate information easily - use headings, be direct, define terms clearly, cite sources where appropriate. This will serve you in traditional SEO, in AI Overviews, and in third-party AI citation simultaneously. Do not treat GEO as a completely separate activity with separate deliverables. Treat it as an additional lens on the same content quality work.
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