TL;DR Summary:

• SEO targets, increasing the rank of your website in traditional search engines.
• GEO’s goal is to get your content sourced in responses served by generative AI engines along with citations.
• To win at GEO and have your content cited, ensure it is fully visible and indexable for crawlers.
• Strategies like citeable content architecture and schema markup help AI bots and increase your chances of being featured in AI-generated responses.
• Older SEO techniques have become less effective, but quality content and authority remain essential for all search approaches.
• The future of search is multi-layered. Don’t just optimize for SEO. Optimize for AI- discovery, too.

“SEO Isn’t Dying. It’s Being Rewritten”

We’ve been learning and implementing SEO since ranking high, like page one of search results, meant stuffing content with keywords and building backlinks. Fast forward to 2025, and it’s being called the year of AI. AI has taken over nearly everything.

Even our office air conditioner claims to be AI-powered.

Search has changed with AI, too. Relying on the blue links we used to click through for answers is a thing of the past. Now, people get instant responses from tools like Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity, written in natural, human-like language.

If you want your content to be seen in those AI-generated answers, you need to understand how Generative Search Engines build their responses.

Welcome to the world of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO).

The question has flipped, from “How do I rank higher in search results?” to “How do I get quoted by generative AI tools?” These intelligent systems often cite their sources when delivering answers. Being referenced inside an AI response is now the new holy grail. It’s trusted. It’s visible. And it drives immediate impact, and it’s not just us saying it. A Semrush study showed that more than 13% of Google searches in 2025 trigger an AI Overview, while another study that scanned 700,000 keywords found that AI Overviews steal an average of 15.49% of organic clicks.

Why Traditional SEO Isn’t Enough Anymore

Age-old SEO methods worked straightforwardly. You set up a website and optimize it really well with the right amount of relevant keywords, strong backlinks, metatags, and other magic, all to see your rankings improve over time.

But with users looking for actual answers and not just links, generative engines are rewriting the content optimization rulebook. With generative search platforms, users get a coherent response, in natural language, sourced from multiple sources. The fact that they’re trying to be the answer instead of listing a possible link changes everything.

Imagine you ask a friend for some suggestions for an Italian restaurant. This friend, named SEO, gives you a list of some of the top-rated restaurants in your city. Then you ask another friend the same question. Instead of sharing a list of names, this friend assembles a custom book for you, pulling together relevant reviews and curated menus from multiple sources to answer your question comprehensively and uniquely. That’s GEO.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Unlike SEO, generative AI tools do not use only the top-ranked websites. We discovered that for several queries, popular and high-performing sites, such as niche blogs, Reddit, and even Quora answers, were passed over and didn’t make it to the response or the training data.

What Is Generative Engine Optimization?

Definition: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of structuring and optimizing content so that it is quoted, cited, or summarized by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Claude, and Gemini.

SEO is focused on making content discoverable and clickable by offering up a list of top-ranked links for a search query. Meanwhile, GEO is primarily about making it trustworthy and high-quality enough for AI engines to include in their responses.

The difference is subtle but significant. SEO strategies target getting a website listed on page one of search results, while GEO targets getting cited in the generated answer based on characteristics like clarity of content, structure, authenticity, freshness, and authority. (See figure below) By optimizing your website content not just for visitors but also as a source for AI, you help large language models (LLMs) understand that your content is relevant, trustworthy, and good enough to cite.

What are the Benefits of Generative Engine Optimization

GEO is rapidly gaining preference with marketing managers who want their brand to be a part of the AI conversation. Generative engines skip over content that doesn’t meet specific criteria. This includes blogs or articles without bylines, pages without a clear structure, as well as outdated content.

Instead of focusing purely on search engines, GEO uses AI-driven discovery and recommendation engines to enhance brand visibility, traffic, and engagement. Here are the top benefits of GEO for brands:

Increased brand visibility in responses. Generative AI engines are being used as the primary search tool all around the world, especially for product research. Brands that get cited in an AI-generated response will get more visibility and clicks.

Traffic diversification. Brands can reduce their dependence on SEO and traditional search engines to get website traffic. They can improve their content and optimize it to get cited in the AI engine’s response.

Improved brand authority. Users trust AI-generated responses, and repeated brand mentions improve brand authority and trust, and drive direct referral traffic.

Higher top-of-funnel engagement. If your brand is visible during the early stages of the customer journey by offering good information, you can influence buying decisions as well.

Competitive advantage for small businesses. GEO has levelled the field for both large and small brands and allows them to compete on the same scale. Moreover, as traditional SEO becomes saturated, generative engine optimization offers a new channel for growth.

Future-proof your online presence. With the popularity of generative AI systems increasing rapidly, GEO ensures your brand gets noticed competitively well into the future.

Now, let’s dive into how to implement generative engine optimization.

How to Implement Generative Engine Optimization Strategies

A GEO-optimized content strategy starts with rethinking the architecture of your content. Remember that you are not just writing for humans but also for AI bots that have their own criteria. These bots are going to decide how the LLM will summarize, synthesize, and cite you in their responses.

We conducted an in-depth study comparing how ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude, and Google AI Overviews quote and summarize web content across different query types. We tracked schema, author attribution, domain authority, formatting patterns, and citation frequency, and used that data to identify what works in AI search and found out how to get cited in ChatGPT responses.

What follows is not just a recommendation, it’s a set of battle-tested strategies based on how real AI engines choose what to cite.

Lead with the core information by placing it right at the top of your page

Don’t push the takeaway down towards the middle or the end of the article. Lead with a snippet or an executive summary, followed by more details, examples, and context. By clearly segmenting information like this, you make it easier for tools like ChatGPT and Gemini to cite your content.

Use schema markup wherever possible.

Schemas like FAQs, HowTo, and Articles help LLMs understand how your content is structured and improve quotability.

Offer fresh content

AI systems are partial to fresh content and can exclude old and dated content from results. Keep updating your blog titles and meta descriptions with the current year, and revisiting your stats or references every three months to keep it fresh.

Include links to credible sources.

Well-respected and trusted sources, such as .gov, .edu, analyst websites (Gartner, Forrester, etc.), are seen as validation signals by AI engines, especially for sensitive topics.

Name the author

AI engines trust an article or a blog with a byline, or an author’s name, along with a detailed bio and credentials. Make sure to use a structured markup for authorship and dates.

Brands that have been implementing these strategies are already seeing an uptick in AI-driven visibility.

And many more, we will be taking this in a separate article in the future.

GEO vs SEO: Are They Different?

Before you toss your SEO playbook out the window, let us clarify that SEO is not being replaced. It still matters and keeps you discoverable through traditional means. But without GEO building on it, SEO can no longer guarantee visibility because the search ecosystem has changed.

So, where lies the difference? It’s in the intent. It’s about higher rankings vs getting quoted.

While SEO involves keywords, backlinks, and technical audits, GEO requires content structure, schema, source trust, and content freshness.

Winners at SEO are high domain authority sites with technical optimization. GEO winners are those who offer clear, well-researched, and fresh content.
That’s why you need both, because one is the base or the infrastructure, while GEO is the public face of your brand.

Why Businesses Need to Focus on GEO Now

Consumers of online information are moving away from traditional search and are seeking answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Google’s AI Overviews. And though users may not click through the source, the fact that your content has been cited is enough to create a trust halo around your brand. Getting cited by a generative AI engine creates a feedback loop of credibility, which increases your visibility across both AI and traditional platforms.

If you want to be part of the user journey today, you can’t ignore Generative Engine Optimization. Here’s an example of the kind of answers GEO offers and why you cannot ignore it.

We’ve helped local businesses get cited by AI search engines, not just Google, and that visibility has translated into real revenue.
If you’re serious about showing up in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and beyond, we’d love to help. Our inbox is open.

Because the earlier you adapt, the more solid your seat becomes at the AI table.

The Future Potential of GEO

Generative engine optimization is a massive shift in how content gets distributed, discovered, and consumed. It’s obvious that in the foreseeable future, users are going to rely on AI as the primary curator of information. Generative engine optimization is going to determine who gets visibility and who will be trusted by users. In that future, therefore, you cannot ignore being discoverable by generative AI engines. That means creating content architectures that entice AI systems with high-quality content and sources, and presenting yourself not just as a brand, but as a source of information.

For businesses of all sizes, this is a huge marketing opportunity. Especially for smaller brands that no longer need a million-dollar domain. All they need is content that is structured, referenced, and well-authored to become the default inputs for the responses to real user queries with deep intent.

To sum up, we’ve reached a turning point. SEO ranking no longer equals visibility. Organic listings are being replaced by citations. And if you’re not part of the answer, you’re not even part of the conversation. So, future-proof your brand by embracing GEO and ensuring a lasting brand presence in generative AI systems.

FAQs

What exactly is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Think of GEO as the next evolution of SEO. Instead of just trying to rank your page on Google, GEO is about getting your content quoted by AI assistants like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews. It’s the difference between showing up in a list of links and being the trusted source that answers the question directly.

How does GEO differ from traditional SEO?

Traditional SEO is about keywords, backlinks, and ranking on a page. GEO flips that; it’s about clarity, structure, and trustworthiness, so AI engines pick your content to cite in their answers. It’s less about where you rank and more about whether you get referenced at all.

Why should businesses care about GEO now?

Because search is no longer just search, it’s conversations with AI. If your content isn’t part of the AI answers, you’re invisible to a growing chunk of users. GEO gives smaller brands a fighting chance against the giants by focusing on clear, credible, and well-structured content.

What are the top strategies to win at GEO?

Lead with your key insights upfront. Use schema markup like FAQs and HowTo to signal structure. Keep your content fresh and link out to authoritative sources (.gov, .edu). And don’t forget to show who you are; an author’s credibility matters more than ever.

Does GEO replace SEO? Or do I need both?

You need both. SEO gets you found; GEO gets you quoted. Together, they form the foundation and the spotlight of your digital presence. Ignoring GEO means missing the future of how people find and trust information.