What is GEO (generative engine optimisation) and do I need it?

Where does the term GEO come from?

It was coined in a 2023 research paper by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues from Princeton University and IIT Delhi, later published at KDD 2024, one of the main data-science conferences. They showed that the way content is written changes how visible it is in AI-generated answers, and built a benchmark to measure it.

Sources: Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024)

How is GEO different from SEO?

SEO earns a position in a list of links. GEO earns a mention inside the answer itself. It builds on good SEO and adds a clear business identity, answer-first content, citations from trusted sources and access for AI crawlers.

Most practitioners agree GEO sits on top of SEO, not instead of it, because AI tools fetch pages from search indexes such as Google and Bing.

Sources: Search Engine Journal: The complete GEO playbook for AI search visibility · Search Engine Land: Generative engine optimization (GEO): How to win AI mentions

Is GEO the same as AEO?

They overlap. AEO (answer engine optimisation) is an older term from voice search and featured snippets. Both aim to make you the answer rather than one of many links. Some people now say "AI SEO" for all of it.

Is it worth investing in yet?

The audience is already large: Search Engine Land reports ChatGPT reaches over 800 million weekly users, and Google says AI Overviews have over 2.5 billion monthly users. The catch is volatility: cited sources change often, so GEO is ongoing work, not a one-off project.

Sources: Search Engine Land: Generative engine optimization (GEO): How to win AI mentions · Google: New opportunities, control and insights for website owners

Who needs GEO?

Any business whose customers research before buying: clinics, law firms, consultancies, software companies, agencies and local service businesses. If a buyer could ask an AI to shortlist options in your category, it applies to you.