What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Generative engine optimization, commonly shortened to GEO, is the practice of writing and structuring content so AI answer engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews can find it, understand it, and cite it directly in their generated answers, rather than only optimizing for a traditional search results page.

In practice, GEO overlaps heavily with good SEO: clear direct answers, credible sourcing, and well organized structure. The main difference is the target reader is sometimes an AI system extracting a passage to quote, not only a human scanning a results page.

A AI SEO content generator writes with that dual audience in mind by default.