The term comes from a 2023 research paper, "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (Aggarwal et al.), which tested how changes to a page affect whether AI answers use it. Its headline result: some changes "can boost visibility by up to 40%" in generative engine responses (arXiv). The free GEO checklist turns the practical parts into 40 checks.
GEO, LLM SEO, AI SEO, AEO: Same Thing?
| Term | What people mean by it |
|---|---|
| GEO (generative engine optimization) | Getting named and cited in AI-generated answers |
| LLM SEO or LLMO | The same goal, named after large language models |
| AI SEO | Often GEO, sometimes using AI SEO software to do SEO work. Check which one is meant |
| AEO (answer engine optimization) | Older term for being the direct answer: featured snippets, voice assistants, now AI answers too. See AEO vs SEO |
The labels overlap. What matters is the job: be the source an AI answer trusts and names. For how SEOmatic tracks and does this work, see GEO in SEOmatic.
How AI Answers Pick Their Sources
- They search first. ChatGPT search, Perplexity, Claude and Google run web searches for many questions, then read the pages they find. A page no search engine shows is rarely read.
- They read passages. The answer quotes or paraphrases short passages that answer the question directly.
- They look for agreement. A fact or a business named by several independent sites is stated with more confidence than one only your own site claims.
- They need access. Each company has a search crawler. If robots.txt or your firewall blocks it, your pages cannot be read for that engine.
For Google, the rules are the ones you know. Google says there are "no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, nor other special optimizations necessary" (Google, AI features). A page must be indexed and eligible for a snippet.
What GEO Work Looks Like
| Area | Example task |
|---|---|
| Access | Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot in robots.txt and your CDN |
| Entity | Use one business name and one description on your site and every profile |
| Pages | Open each key page with a 2 to 3 sentence answer, add prices, numbers and sources |
| Mentions | Get listed on the directories and review sites AI answers cite for your category |
| Measurement | Ask each engine your buyers' questions monthly and log who it names |
What the GEO Paper Found
The researchers rewrote pages in different ways and measured how much of each AI answer came from them. Adding quotations, statistics and cited sources worked best, and what worked varied by topic. Keyword stuffing did not help. Treat the numbers as directions from controlled tests, not a promise for your site.
Where to Start
- Check robots.txt and your CDN for blocked AI search bots.
- Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude and Google the 10 questions your buyers ask most. Note who they name.
- Rewrite the opening of your 5 most important pages as direct answers.
- Fix wrong facts about you on the pages those answers cite.
How to Use This with an AI Assistant
Connect SEOmatic at https://seomatic.ai/mcp and ask: "Sign me in with connect_seomatic. Use ai_citations (scan_results) to show which of my tracked questions name my business and which name a competitor, then list the pages that should answer the questions where I am missing." Reading your data changes nothing on your site.
Let the Agents Do the GEO Work
SEOmatic tracks whether ChatGPT, Claude and Google AI Overviews name your business for the questions you choose, then its agents work on the pages those answers should quote:
- See which questions name you and which name a competitor
- Rewrite key pages to open with clear, quotable answers
- Add FAQ blocks and schema that match the page
Each change can wait for your approval, one click undoes it, and the agents check it against how the rest of your site did. What they can change depends on your platform, and you see the full list before anything runs.
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