GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) covers the techniques that get your business cited in the answers of ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and other answer engines. Concretely, it means publishing factual, structured, directly quotable content, strengthening your entity's authority across the web, and letting AI crawlers access your pages. Where classic SEO aims for a click on a blue link, GEO aims for a citation inside a generated answer.
GEO and SEO: what really changes
SEO optimises your position in a list of results; GEO optimises your presence inside a written answer. The difference is fundamental: the user of an answer engine often sees only a synthesis and two or three cited sources. Either you are one of them, or you are invisible — there is no "page 2". The two disciplines nonetheless remain complementary: answer engines rely heavily on classic search indexes, and a site with poor SEO starts with a heavy handicap in GEO. The technical foundation — performance, structure, crawlability — serves both goals.
Another major shift: the share of searches that end without any click has been rising steadily since generative answers appeared. For a B2B company, reputation is therefore increasingly decided before anyone visits the site: the prospect arrives having already read a synthesis — and a short list of names — produced by an AI. Being on that list becomes a commercial issue in its own right, not just a digital marketing topic.
How answer engines choose their sources
Each engine has its own mechanics — Perplexity and ChatGPT run live searches, Google AI Overviews draws on its own index — but the selection criteria converge:
- Direct answers: the passages picked up are those that explicitly answer a question, in plain language, within the first lines.
- Factual density: figures, definitions, comparisons and structured lists are more easily extracted and cited than marketing copy.
- Structure: headings phrased as questions and self-contained sections make it easier for retrieval systems to chunk your content.
- Entity authority: a company mentioned consistently across several reliable sources (press, directories, LinkedIn, reviews) inspires more confidence in the models.
- Technical accessibility: content invisible without JavaScript, or blocked to AI crawlers, simply cannot be cited.
Six concrete levers to get cited
- Answer the question in the first paragraph. Two or three synthetic sentences right after the title: that is the passage AIs extract first.
- Add an FAQ to your key pages. The question-and-answer format matches exactly how users query AIs, and lends itself to FAQPage markup.
- Publish original data. Openly stated price ranges, field feedback, comparisons: information that exists nowhere else forces the engines to cite you as the source.
- Mark up with Schema.org. The Organization, Article and FAQPage schemas help machines understand unambiguously who is speaking and about what.
- Open your robots.txt to AI crawlers. GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot: if they are blocked, you are out of the game whatever the quality of the content.
- Keep your entity consistent. Identical name, activity, location and offering on your site, LinkedIn, directories and press: models cross-check sources before citing.
None of these levers is spectacular in isolation; it is their combination that makes the difference. A page that answers directly, is cleanly marked up and backed by a consistent entity ticks every box retrieval systems check before citing a source.
Measuring your AI visibility
GEO is still measured somewhat by hand, but three practices give a reliable picture. First, regularly query ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini with the questions your customers would ask ("which agency for...", "how much does... cost") and note whether you are cited, how often, and against which competitors. Second, watch your server logs: regular visits from GPTBot or ClaudeBot indicate your content is being collected. Finally, track referral traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai or gemini.google.com in your analytics tool — still modest in volume in most sectors, but generally highly qualified.
Set yourself a simple ritual: a battery of ten to twenty representative questions, tested every month on the same engines, with citations tracked in a spreadsheet. It is artisanal, but it is enough to objectively measure progress and spot the content that breaks through — the content you should then replicate.
Common mistakes
- Blocking all AI crawlers as a precaution, then wondering why you are absent from generated answers.
- Publishing a site rendered entirely in JavaScript, whose content stays empty for most bots.
- Multiplying pages of marketing jargon without a single fact, figure or concrete answer to extract.
- Neglecting SEO fundamentals in the belief that GEO replaces them: it adds to them.
- Expecting results within days: AI visibility builds over months, like SEO authority.
- Optimising a single page while neglecting the rest of the site: authority is assessed at the level of the entire entity.
GEO is not a passing fad: it is the natural adaptation of search optimisation to usage that is shifting massively towards answer engines. Companies that structure their content now build a lasting head start, because citations attract citations. An AI visibility audit carried out with a partner who masters both technical SEO and these new channels is often the fastest way to identify the few high-impact actions for your sector. The earlier you start, the harder you will be to displace.