GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. It covers every measure that makes ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews mention your brand and link your pages as a source. The term is an attempt to sum up what used to be called SEO, now applied to LLMs.
Here you get the definition, where the term comes from, an overview of the related terms AEO, AI SEO and LLMO, and the five levers GEO works with in practice.
Key takeaways
- Definition: GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) optimizes content and brands so they get mentioned and cited in AI-generated answers.
- Origin: The term comes from a study by Aggarwal et al. (Princeton, Georgia Tech, Allen Institute for AI, IIT Delhi), first published in 2023.
- Related terms: AEO, AI SEO and LLMO describe essentially the same field, each with a slightly different focus.
- Relation to SEO: Google itself calls optimizing for AI search “still SEO”. GEO builds on SEO and does not replace it.
- Five levers: Technical, content, entities, reputation and measurement.
- Watch out, ambiguity: “GEO” also stands for geotargeting and geomarketing. Here it only means optimization for AI search.
On this page:
- What is GEO?
- Where does the term GEO come from?
- GEO, AEO, AI SEO, LLMO: what is the difference?
- How is an AI answer created?
- Which levers does GEO work with?
- FAQ
What is GEO?
Classic search engines show a list of links. Generative search systems write an answer and base it on sources. GEO aims to appear in that answer: as a named brand (Mention), as a linked source (Citation) and with a positive portrayal (Sentiment).
Why this matters is shown by a study from Pew Research: when an AI summary appears, users click a regular search result in only 8% of cases, compared with 15% without one. If you are missing from the answer, you are seen less often.
no AI Overview ███████████████ 15 %with AI Overview ████████ 8 %
In AI search, the winner is not the first link but the brand that gets named.
In short: SEO gets you into the list of results. GEO gets you into the answer that sits above that list.
Where does the term GEO come from?
The term was coined by a research team led by Pranjal Aggarwal. The study GEO: Generative Engine Optimization appeared as a preprint in 2023 and was presented in 2024 at KDD, one of the leading data mining conferences. The team tested 10,000 search queries and showed that targeted changes to a text can increase visibility in generated answers by up to 40%.
Since then, the term has caught on in marketing and SEO. Wikipedia now has its own entry for GEO.
2023 Preprint "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization", Aggarwal et al.2024 presented at KDDTODAY standard term in marketing and SEO, own Wikipedia entry
GEO, AEO, AI SEO, LLMO: what is the difference?
Several names circulate for the same field. The differences lie in the perspective, not in the measures.
VISIBILITY IN AI ANSWERS │ ┌───────┬────┴───┬────────┐ GEO AEO AI SEO LLMO
| Term | Meaning and perspective |
|---|---|
| GEO | Generative Engine Optimization Visibility in generated answers, the term from research |
| AEO | Answer Engine Optimization Answers instead of links, often with a view to featured snippets and voice assistants |
| AI SEO | SEO for AI search SEO, extended to AI features such as AI Overviews |
| LLMO | Large Language Model Optimization Focus on language models such as ChatGPT and Claude |
Google places the field clearly in its guide to AI features: optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience and therefore “still SEO”. Google advises putting effective SEO strategies ahead of “AEO/GEO hacks”.
My recommendation: let’s not spend long debating terms. What matters is whether your brand shows up in the answers, and that can be measured.
How is an AI answer created?
To understand GEO, you need to know where the answer comes from. For questions with a search component, the LLM splits the question into sub-queries (Query Fan-Out), retrieves matching pages (RAG) and grounds the answer in those sources (Grounding).
PROMPT "Which SEO consultant in Berlin?" │ ▼QUERY FAN-OUT seo consultant berlin seo consultant reviews seo agency comparison │ ▼RETRIEVAL Website · best-of lists Reviews · forums │ ▼ANSWER Mention · Citation · Sentiment
This leads to the most important sentence about GEO: only what was retrieved beforehand makes it into the answer. And what gets retrieved is mainly what is easy to find in search and what others write about you.
The data supports this. Seer Interactive found the strongest link between mentions in ChatGPT answers and Google rankings on page 1. More on how search is changing in How AI search builds answers.
Which levers does GEO work with?
Five levers build on each other. Each one has its own chapter in the GEO Handbook.
┌───────────┐ │ Measure │ ┌───┴───────────┴───┐ │ Reputation │ ┌───┴───────────────────┴───┐ │ Entities │┌───┴───────────────────────────┴───┐│ Content │├───────────────────────────────────┤│ Technical │└───────────────────────────────────┘
| Lever | Question |
|---|---|
| Technical | Can AI systems retrieve your pages? Read more: AI crawlers |
| Content | Do your pages deliver citable answers with evidence? Read more: GEO optimization |
| Entities | Does AI recognize your brand unambiguously? Read more: Entity |
| Reputation | What do others write about you? Read more: Reputation management |
| Measurement | How often, and how, are you mentioned? Read more: Measuring AI visibility |
Watch out: many GEO guides recommend llms.txt files, special schema or chopping texts into pieces. Google states explicitly in its guide that Google Search needs none of this.
FAQ
What does GEO mean in marketing?
In online marketing, GEO usually stands for Generative Engine Optimization, i.e. optimization for AI answers. There is also geomarketing, the analysis of markets by location. These are two different disciplines.
Is GEO the same as SEO?
No, but it builds on it. The basics are the same: findable and helpful content. Goal and measurement differ: instead of clicks and positions, it is about mentions and citations. More in GEO vs. SEO.
Does every company need GEO?
Every company whose customers start their buying decision with research should at least measure how it shows up in AI answers. Only that measurement shows whether more is worth it.
Which tools are there for GEO?
For measurement there are prompt tracking tools such as Peec AI, Profound or Otterly, plus the AI report in Google Search Console. How the metrics work is explained in Measuring AI visibility.
Who invented GEO?
The term comes from the study GEO: Generative Engine Optimization by Aggarwal et al., first published in 2023.
Next in the handbook: How big is AI search really today, and how much stays with Google? The numbers in the next chapter answer that: The search market in 2026.
Sources
- Aggarwal et al.: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, 2023, KDD 2024
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website, July 2026
- Wikipedia: Generative engine optimization
- Pew Research Center: Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears, July 2025
- Seer Interactive: What drives brand mentions in AI answers, January 2025
