---
title: "Generative engine optimisation"
url: https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/generative-engine-optimisation
type: Page
---

# Generative engine optimisation

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) defined: where the term comes from, how it differs from SEO, and how to measure and improve a brand's AI visibility.

GEO glossary

## Generative engine optimisation (GEO)

Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of shaping a brand's content and wider web presence so that AI systems such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews mention it, cite it and describe it accurately when they generate answers to users' questions.

## Where does the term come from?

The term comes from the paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande, first published on arXiv on 16 November 2023 and accepted to KDD 2024. The authors built GEO-bench, a set of 10,000 queries across several domains, and tested how rewriting a source page changed its visibility inside generated answers.

The best methods raised visibility by up to 40%. Adding quotations, adding statistics and citing sources performed best, while keyword stuffing gave little or no improvement. Lower-ranked pages gained most: citing sources lifted visibility for the fifth-ranked source by 115.1%.

## How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO aims for a position in a list of links. GEO aims for inclusion inside a written answer, where there may be no list and the user may never click. The foundations are shared: AI search features still retrieve crawlable, indexed pages, and Google says there are no extra requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond its normal guidance.

The difference is the unit of success. GEO asks whether a brand is named, whether its page is cited and whether the description is correct. It also depends more on what third parties publish, because AI answers often draw on reviews, comparisons and press coverage rather than the brand's own site.

## How to measure and improve it

Measurement starts with a fixed set of prompts that reflect how buyers ask questions, run repeatedly on the AI platforms that matter to the category. The core metrics are mention rate, citation rate, share of voice against competitors and the accuracy of what is said.

- Allow AI search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt
- Put a direct, self-contained answer near the top of each page
- Add accurate statistics, quotations and named sources
- Earn coverage on the third-party sites that AI answers already cite
- Keep facts about the business consistent wherever they appear

## Example

A Leeds accountancy firm can rank well for 'small business accountant Leeds' and still be absent when someone asks ChatGPT to recommend an accountant for a Leeds start-up. GEO work would check which sources that answer draws on, whether the firm's pages state its services and location plainly, and whether directories and local press mention it.

## Related terms

- [Answer engine optimisation (AEO)](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/answer-engine-optimisation)
- [LLM visibility](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/llm-visibility)
- [AI citations](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/ai-citations)
- [AI share of voice](https://marketingsignals.com/glossary/ai-share-of-voice)

## Further reading

- [How to Measure Performance in AI Search](https://marketingsignals.com/insights/how-to-measure-performance-in-ai-search)
- [Top AI SEO Agencies UK (2027 GEO & AI Search Guide)](https://marketingsignals.com/insights/top-ai-seo-agencies-uk-2027-geo-ai-search-guide)

Our [AI SEO & GEO](https://marketingsignals.com/service/ai-search-optimisation) service puts this into practice for brands in the UK and US.

## Sources

- [GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., arXiv 2311.09735)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735)
- [GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, full text (ar5iv)](https://ar5iv.labs.arxiv.org/html/2311.09735)
- [AI features and your website, Google Search Central](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features)
- [Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots)

## Ready To Get Found In AI Search?

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