What is GEO (generative engine optimisation)? A plain-English guide

You may have noticed that searching has changed. Ask Google a question and there’s often an AI-written summary at the top. Ask ChatGPT where to get your car serviced and it will name a few places. For a growing number of people, the first recommendation they see isn’t a list of links — it’s a short answer written by an AI.

GEO is about making sure that, when that answer is written, your business is in it — and described correctly.

What does GEO stand for?

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. “Generative engines” are tools that generate answers rather than just listing web pages: AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot and Perplexity, and AI features inside search engines, such as Google’s AI Overviews. Google launched AI Overviews in the UK in 2024 and began rolling them out to several EU countries in 2025.

You’ll also hear related terms: AEO (answer engine optimisation), AI SEO or LLM optimisation. They describe broadly the same goal.

How AI tools decide what to say about you

Each company works differently, and the details change often, but the general picture is consistent. When an assistant answers a question about local businesses, it relies on information it can find and trust — websites, business listings, maps, reviews, and mentions in articles and directories — sometimes looking things up live.

It tends to recommend businesses it can describe with confidence: clear facts (what you are, where, opening hours, what you’re known for) that agree across several trustworthy sources. Vague, inconsistent or missing information makes you a risky recommendation, so you get left out.

GEO versus SEO

SEO helps you appear in search results; GEO helps you appear in AI-written answers. The outputs differ — a list of links versus a short recommendation — but the foundations overlap heavily. A business with strong local SEO is already most of the way to good GEO. The difference is emphasis:

• SEO rewards relevance, authority (links and reviews) and a good page experience.
• GEO especially rewards clear, factual, quotable answers and consistency across sources, because an AI is summarising you, not just linking to you.

What a small business should actually do

1. Get your facts straight everywhere

Make your name, address, phone, hours, services and prices consistent across your website, Google Business Profile, social media and directories. Start with your Google Business Profile.

2. Answer real questions on your website

Add a clear FAQ and service pages that answer what customers actually ask: prices, booking, parking, accessibility, dietary options, how long things take. Write in plain sentences that make sense on their own — the kind an AI can quote accurately.

3. Put key information in text

Menus, prices and opening hours locked inside images or PDFs are harder for software to read. Put them on the page as text too.

4. Add structured data

Use schema.org markup to label your business details, opening hours, services and FAQs. It removes guesswork for search engines and AI tools alike.

5. Earn reviews and trustworthy mentions

Genuine reviews and mentions in local news, guides and respected directories give AI tools independent confirmation that you are who you say you are. See our guide to getting more reviews the honest way.

6. Don’t block the right crawlers

Check your website’s robots.txt. OpenAI, for example, documents a separate crawler, OAI-SearchBot, for showing sites in ChatGPT search, distinct from its training crawler (see OpenAI’s crawler documentation). Make sure the tools that recommend businesses can read your site.

For a step-by-step version, read how to get recommended by AI assistants.

How to measure GEO

There’s no single dashboard yet, so measure simply:

• Every month, ask a few assistants the questions your customers ask (“best [service] in [town]”, “where can I [do X] near [landmark]”).
• Note whether you appear, what they say about you and which sources they cite.
• Ask new customers how they found you — “ChatGPT told me” is becoming a real answer.
• Fix inaccuracies at the source: usually your website, profile or an outdated listing.

What to avoid

• Keyword stuffing or hidden text — it doesn’t help and can harm you.
• Fake reviews — against platform rules and, in the UK and EU, the law.
• Mass-produced thin pages for every nearby town.
• Unverifiable claims (“the best in Europe”). Specific, checkable facts are more persuasive to people and machines.

Frequently asked questions

What is GEO in marketing?

GEO, or generative engine optimisation, is the practice of making a business easy for AI assistants and AI search features to understand, trust and recommend, so it appears accurately in AI-generated answers.

Is GEO replacing SEO?

No. GEO builds on SEO. Search results still drive a large share of visits, and the same foundations — accurate information, a useful website, reviews and reputation — support both.

What is the difference between GEO and AEO?

They’re closely related terms. AEO (answer engine optimisation) focuses on being the direct answer to a question; GEO focuses on generative AI tools that write answers. In practice, the work is largely the same.

How do I know if ChatGPT recommends my business?

Ask it. Try the questions your customers would ask, in their language and for your area, and note whether you appear and whether the details are correct. Repeat monthly, because answers change.

Does GEO cost money?

The basics cost nothing but time: consistent details, clear website content, structured data and reviews. Many businesses choose help with the technical parts and ongoing content.

The bottom line

GEO sounds new, but it rewards old-fashioned virtues: being clear, consistent, helpful and well regarded. Get your facts right everywhere, answer real questions on your website, earn genuine reviews and mentions, and check what the assistants say about you.

Viraluna Studio’s SEO & GEO service handles all of this for local businesses across the UK and Europe. Ask for a free quote.