What is GEO (generative engine optimization)?

GEO, short for generative engine optimization, is making your business easy for AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews to find, trust and name when they answer a question. SEO works to get you into the list of links. GEO works to get you named in the answer itself.

The name comes from a 2023 study led by researchers at Princeton, published at the KDD 2024 conference. They found that how a page is written could make it up to 40% more visible in AI answers, and that citing sources, adding quotes and adding real numbers helped most. GEO builds on SEO. AI tools still read websites, reviews and business profiles, so what helps you on Google helps here too. What changes is the writing: answer the question in the first sentence, back it up with facts, and say the same thing everywhere you're listed. It's worth doing now, because 45% of people use AI tools like ChatGPT for local recommendations, up from 6% a year earlier (BrightLocal, 2026).

For example, someone asks ChatGPT how much it costs to clean a three bedroom house. A cleaner whose site answers that in its first line, with a price range, the towns it serves and reviews that mention the job, gives the AI something to quote. A site that only says "Call for a quote" gives it nothing.

Every site we build is written this way, this page included, and we routinely check what AI tools say about your trade in your city, then adjust. More on AEO and GEO and getting into AI answers.

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