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GEO & AI visibilityGuide · 13 min read

What is GEO? How to get found in ChatGPT and Google's AI answers

GEO is SEO for a world where AI writes the answer. What the term means and where it comes from, how ChatGPT and Google choose their sources, what to do this month and how to measure whether it works.

By Etienne Rozenblad · Founder & CEO, Tjenno AIFacts checked on 10 October 2026 · 26 sources
On this page
  1. What does GEO mean?
  2. Where does the term GEO come from?
  3. How do ChatGPT and Google choose which sources to name?
  4. SEO vs GEO in one view
  5. What GEO is not
  6. Five things to do this month
  7. How do you measure whether GEO works?
  8. FAQ

The short answer

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation: making sure AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, name your business and use your pages as a source. It isn't a trick, and it isn't a separate discipline from SEO. It's SEO with three points of emphasis:

  1. AI assistants can find and read your site.
  2. Your pages answer the question directly, with specific facts that can be checked.
  3. Other sources, such as reviews, comparison articles and trade media, mention you too.

You measure whether it works with a fixed set of questions you ask every month, plus the new AI reports in Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics.

What does GEO mean?

A generative engine is a system that writes an answer itself instead of giving you a list of links. ChatGPT is one, and so are Perplexity, Gemini, Copilot and the AI Overviews and AI Mode in Google. Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is everything you do to appear in those answers: as a name in the text, as a linked source, or both.

You'll also see AEO (answer engine optimisation), LLMO (large language model optimisation) or simply AI SEO. They overlap almost entirely. We use GEO because the term comes from research and says most clearly what it's about.

Why it matters now: more and more people get their answers from these systems.

1Bpeople use ChatGPT every week, according to OpenAI in August 2026
1B+monthly users of AI Mode in Google Search, according to Google in July 2026
950Mmonthly users of the Gemini app, according to Google in July 2026

Source: OpenAI, 6 August 2026; Google, Q2 2026 earnings call remarks, 22 July 2026.

That changes how people search and click. Pew Research Center tracked the browsing of 900 US adults in March 2025. When an AI summary appeared above the results of a Google search, they clicked a traditional search result on 8% of visits, against 15% without a summary. They clicked a link inside the summary itself on 1% of visits. Google, for its part, says its AI features in Search send billions of clicks to websites every week. Both can be true. The lesson is the same: if you're not in the answer, fewer people see you.

Where does the term GEO come from?

It comes from the research paper GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, by six researchers: three from Princeton University, one from IIT Delhi and two independent researchers. It was posted online in November 2023 and published in August 2024 in the proceedings of KDD 2024 in Barcelona, a major academic conference on data mining.

What the researchers did:

  • They built GEO-bench: a set of 10,000 search queries across 25 domains, such as arts, health and games.
  • They simulated a generative engine. It fetched the top five Google results and had GPT-3.5 write an answer with citations from them.
  • For each query they picked one source page and rewrote it in nine ways, for example adding quotations, statistics, citations or extra keywords. Then they measured how visible that source was in the answer: how much of the text relied on it and how high up it appeared.

The main findings:

  • Adding citations, quotations and statistics worked best. On the authors' main metric, the source's visibility rose by 30 to 40% compared with the original text.
  • Keyword stuffing offered little to no improvement, and in a test on Perplexity it did about 10% worse.
  • Pages ranked lower in Google gained the most. With added citations, the page in fifth place became 115% more visible, while the page in first place lost 30% of its visibility on average.
  • What works best varies by topic and by system. On the real Perplexity the gains were smaller: about 20% on the main metric and up to 37% on the second.

Read those numbers carefully: a simulated system from 2023, measured with the authors' own visibility metrics, not with visits or revenue. The researchers themselves write that the methods may need to adapt as generative engines evolve, and today's ChatGPT and Google already work differently. What holds is the direction: concrete content that can be checked gets used more than vague copy, and keyword tricks don't help.

How do ChatGPT and Google choose which sources to name?

Each assistant works a little differently, but for questions that need current information the pattern is the same: the question becomes one or more searches, the system reads a handful of pages, writes an answer from them and shows some as sources.

  • ChatGPT searches the web automatically when your question would benefit from current information. OpenAI says it then rewrites your question into one or more targeted queries, which sometimes go to outside search providers, Microsoft among them. Answers that use the web can include citations. The condition: OAI-SearchBot, OpenAI's search crawler, must be allowed to read your site. Sites that block it don't appear in the search answers.
  • Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode use what Google calls query fan-out: the system runs several related searches at once and gathers supporting pages that way. A page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google with a snippet. Since October 2025 AI Mode has been available in more than 200 countries and territories, and in July 2026 Google said it had brought AI Overviews and AI Mode together into one search experience.
  • Gemini, Google's assistant, shows sources within or below some of its answers.
  • Perplexity says it searches the internet in real time and adds numbered citations to every answer.
  • Copilot from Microsoft searches through Bing. The business version, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, turns your question into a short Bing query and shows the sources it used.

What does that mean for you? The assistant mostly names the brands that keep coming up in the pages it reads. If your competitor appears in five of them and you appear in none, chances are your competitor gets named. Large datasets point the same way. In a study of 75,000 brands, Ahrefs found that mentions of a brand on other sites correlated far more strongly with visibility in ChatGPT and Google's AI than the authority of the brand's own website. Correlation isn't proof of cause and effect, and Ahrefs says so itself.

Sometimes an assistant answers without searching, from what the model learned in training. Even then it helps if the web describes you the same way everywhere; you just see it later. For a step-by-step approach, read our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT.

SEO vs GEO in one view

GEO doesn't replace SEO. Google says so itself: SEO best practices remain relevant for AI Overviews and AI Mode, and there are no additional requirements or special optimisations needed. The difference lies in the goal and where you put the emphasis.

AspectSEOGEO
GoalA high position in the list of linksBeing named and used as a source in the answer
FoundationA findable, fast site with good pagesExactly the same foundation: no SEO, no GEO
ContentOne strong page per topicThe answer in the first lines, backed by facts, figures and sources
AuthorityMainly links to your siteAlso mentions of your brand on other sites, in reviews and in videos
ResultsRankings, impressions and clicksMentions, citations and AI impressions; clicks stay smaller
StabilityRankings move graduallyAnswers vary from one run to the next, so you track a trend

In practice you do both together. A page that answers directly and specifically is a strong page for the classic results too. That's why GEO at Tjenno AI is simply part of our SEO and GEO work, not a separate package.

What GEO is not

Four persistent misunderstandings:

  • Not a trick. There's no hidden switch or secret code that forces an assistant to name you. In the GEO research, keyword stuffing offered little to no improvement. Better content is what worked.
  • Not separate from SEO. A page Google doesn't index can't be a source in AI Overviews either. Technical health, good pages and authority remain the foundation.
  • Not llms.txt. llms.txt is a proposal from September 2024 for a text file that summarises your site for language models. It does no harm, but Google writes that you don't need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode.
  • Not a paid spot in the answer. Since late August 2026, businesses in 31 European markets, the Netherlands included, can advertise in ChatGPT. But OpenAI's ad principles state that ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives, and that ads are always separate and clearly labelled. You pay for a spot alongside the answer, not in it. Our article on how to advertise on ChatGPT explains how that works in practice.

And geo marketing? That's something else. Geomarketing and geotargeting are about location: matching offers or ads to where someone is. GEO in this article is about AI answers.

Five things to do this month

No big project needed. These five steps lay the foundation in a month.

  1. Measure where you stand. Write down 15 questions the way your customers ask them: about your category, about their problem, comparisons with competitors and questions about your brand. Ask them in a temporary ChatGPT chat set to Unpersonalized, so your memory doesn't colour the answer, then in Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode. Note whether you're named, next to whom, and which sources are cited. That's your baseline.
  2. Let the AI crawlers in. Check your robots.txt and your hosting or CDN settings. For ChatGPT, OAI-SearchBot needs access; GPTBot is a different crawler, used for training. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, ordinary Googlebot rules apply. Also verify your site in Bing Webmaster Tools, because Copilot searches through Bing and OpenAI lists Microsoft among ChatGPT's search providers.
  3. Describe your business the same way everywhere. Use one clear sentence about what you do, for whom and where: on your homepage, your about page, your Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and the review platforms in your sector. An assistant finds it easier to recommend you for a category if the web agrees on which category you're in.
  4. Put the answer first. Pick the three pages that matter most to your customers and open each with a direct answer. Back it with prices, numbers, places, dates and sources. That matches the GEO research, where statistics, quotations and citations worked best.
  5. Get named where AI reads. Take the list of sources from step 1 and pick five: a comparison article, a review platform, an industry blog, a forum or a YouTube channel. Give each a reason to mention you, such as your own data, a demo or a customer happy to share their experience. Never fake reviews or undisclosed paid mentions.

For step 4, you can use this structure on every page:

[Question as heading] + [answer in one or two sentences] + [proof: figure, price, place or date] + [explanation with source]

How do you measure whether GEO works?

No single number tells you whether it works. So look at four layers, from the earliest signal to the business result.

  1. The answers themselves

    The same 15 questions every month, in exactly the same words. Answers vary from one run to the next, so judge the trend across all questions: how many answers name you, next to whom, and which sources keep coming back?

    Spreadsheet or a tracking tool
  2. Google

    Search Console's generative AI report (announced on 3 June 2026, available to all sites since 31 August 2026) shows how often links to your site appeared in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date. Impressions only, no clicks or queries, and only once you have enough AI impressions.

    Google Search Console
  3. Bing and Copilot

    The AI Performance report, launched as a public preview in February 2026, shows how often Copilot and Bing's AI summaries cite your pages, plus a sample of the queries the AI used to retrieve them.

    Bing Webmaster Tools
  4. Visits and leads

    Since May 2026 GA4 has had a default AI Assistant channel for visits from ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, DeepSeek and Grok, among others. Traffic from AI Overviews and AI Mode counts as organic search, and according to Search Engine Journal, Perplexity still landed in Referral in mid-2026. So check your channel set-up.

    Google Analytics 4

Layer 1 moves first and layer 4 last. ChatGPT adds utm_source=chatgpt.com to the links it sends visitors through, which makes measuring easier. Don't expect big numbers there: many people read the answer and never click. Also watch one new setting. Since 31 August 2026 every site has a switch under Settings in Search Console to keep its links and content out of Google's AI features. Your site is included by default; if you want to appear in those answers, leave it that way. Want us to set up the reports and the AI channel for you? That's part of our tracking and analytics work.

An example from our own work. Slaapkops, a Dutch child sleep coaching practice and one of our clients, has had 63.7K impressions in Google's AI features since mid-May 2026. For "baby slaapt veel" (Dutch for "baby sleeps a lot"), Slaapkops was the first organic result and the first source in the AI Overview (Google Search Console, read 25 September 2026). A strong position in Google and a place in the AI answer go hand in hand here. Read the Slaapkops case.

Then give it time. The technical side is quick to fix, but mentions on other sites grow slowly. If your score on the 15 questions hasn't moved after three months, go back to step 5.

Sources

Facts checked on 10 October 2026.

Portrait of Etienne
About the authorEtienne Rozenblad

Etienne runs SEO and GEO for clients such as Slaapkops and Wrap je Keuken, and tests every tactic on Tjenno AI's own sites first. Former agency owner with a bachelor's in Commercial Economics.

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FAQ

Questions about GEO

Still a question? Mail hello@tjenno.ai

What does GEO stand for?

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. It's the work of making sure AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot, and Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, name your business and use your pages as a source.

What is GEO SEO?

GEO SEO is the part of search work aimed at being named and cited in AI answers, rather than ranked in a list of links. It rests on the same foundation as SEO, crawlable and indexable pages with clear content and authority, with more emphasis on direct answers, specific facts and mentions of your brand on other sites.

How do I get my business found in ChatGPT?

Allow OAI-SearchBot, OpenAI's search crawler, to read your site, describe your business the same way everywhere and answer questions directly on your key pages. Then make sure reviews, comparison articles and trade media mention you, because when ChatGPT searches the web, it builds its answer from the pages it reads.

Do I need an llms.txt file for GEO?

No. Google says you don't need new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. An llms.txt file does no harm, but it isn't a priority.

Can you pay to be recommended by ChatGPT?

No. You can advertise in ChatGPT, but OpenAI states that ads do not influence the answers ChatGPT gives and are always separate and clearly labelled. You pay for a spot alongside the answer, not in it.

How do you measure GEO?

Ask the same fixed set of questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google's AI Mode every month, and record whether you're named and which sources are cited. Add Search Console's generative AI report, the AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools and the AI Assistant channel in GA4.

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