Most marketers have heard of SEO. GEO is newer. And if you haven't started paying attention to it, your competitors probably have.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of optimising your content and brand presence so that AI platforms — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity — mention and recommend your brand when users ask relevant questions.
It's not a rebrand of SEO. It's a different discipline, targeting different systems, measured differently. This post explains what it is and what it means for your marketing strategy in 2026.
Why GEO Exists
Traditional search returns links. AI search returns answers.
When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best project management tool for remote teams?" they don't get ten blue links. They get a direct recommendation. One or two brands named. Maybe a short list. Then the conversation moves on.
If your brand isn't in that answer, the click never happens. There's no position 7 to optimise your way up from. The channel is invisible to standard analytics. Google Search Console won't show you a thing.
That's the gap GEO is designed to close.
How AI Platforms Decide What to Recommend
AI models are trained on large datasets of web content — articles, reviews, forums, directories, publications. They build a picture of the world based on what's been written about it.
Brands with strong third-party presence are more likely to be referenced. That means reviews on G2 or Trustpilot, mentions in industry publications, Reddit discussions, directory listings. It's not just about your own website. In fact, your website is often the least influential factor.
The key signals AI uses:
- Third-party mentions — reviews, directories, publications, forums like Reddit
- Structured data and FAQs on your website — facts AI can extract and cite directly
- Entity recognition — does the AI "know" your brand as a distinct, credible entity?
- Consistency of brand description — is your positioning described the same way across multiple sources?
A brand can rank number one on Google and score zero across every AI platform. These are different systems making independent judgements.
GEO vs SEO — The Key Difference
The two disciplines share some overlap — quality content and authority matter for both — but the mechanics are different enough that you need to treat them separately.
| Aspect | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| Target | Search engine algorithms | AI language models |
| Goal | Rank on results pages | Be mentioned and recommended in AI answers |
| Content focus | Keywords and backlinks | Structured facts and entity authority |
| Measurement | GSC, rankings, traffic | Mention rate, recommendation rate, Share of Memory |
For a deeper comparison of how the two disciplines relate — and where they overlap — read our guide on GEO vs. SEO: What's Different?
What GEO Looks Like in Practice
GEO isn't abstract. There are three concrete things you can do right now that directly improve AI visibility.
1. Build FAQ content that directly answers the questions your customers ask AI. When someone asks ChatGPT about your category, what questions are they most likely to type? Write pages that answer those questions clearly and specifically. Structured Q&A content is easy for AI to extract and reference.
2. Get listed in third-party sources AI trusts. This means relevant industry directories, review platforms (G2, Trustpilot, Capterra depending on your sector), publication mentions, and credible forum discussions. AI models weight third-party sources heavily. Your own website content matters less than what others say about you.
3. Add structured data to your website. FAQ schema and Organization schema give AI platforms a clean, machine-readable summary of what your brand is and what it does. It's the equivalent of a business card written in a language AI understands. Implementation takes hours, not weeks, and the upside is disproportionate.
Is GEO the Same as AEO?
You'll see both terms in the wild. AEO — Answer Engine Optimisation — is often used interchangeably with GEO. Some marketers use AEO specifically for voice search and featured snippets; GEO is the broader term covering all AI platforms including ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity. The distinctions are blurring as the field matures.
For a deeper look at AEO specifically, read our guide: What Is AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation)?
How to Know if GEO is Working
You cannot measure GEO in Google Search Console. That tool only sees traffic from Google's traditional results pages. AI-generated answers don't send referral data.
To measure GEO performance, you need to run test queries across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews and track whether your brand appears. Do this consistently — across a representative set of keywords — and track the results over time.
The key metric is Share of Memory: the percentage of relevant AI queries where your brand appears. A brand with 40% Share of Memory appears in 4 out of 10 relevant AI answers. A brand at 5% appears in 1 in 20.
SearchIntel tracks this systematically. We run hundreds of queries per client across every major AI platform and report back with a clear, comparable score. That's the only way to know where you actually stand.
If you want to know your brand's current AI visibility score, run a free check here.