What Is GEO and How Should You Be Optimising for AI Search?

Type almost any question into Google now and the first thing you see often isn’t a list of links. It’s an answer, written by AI and pulled from sources Google has decided to trust. ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Microsoft Copilot work the same way.

So the question for businesses has changed. It’s no longer just “do we rank?” but “when AI answers a question about what we do, does it mention us?” That’s what GEO is about.

What Is GEO?

GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. It’s the work of making your content and your business easy for AI tools to understand, trust and cite when they generate answers.

Traditional SEO aims for a high position in the search results. GEO aims for your business to be the source the AI draws on, whether or not anyone clicks through.

GEO, AEO and SEO: What’s the Difference?

You’ll also see the term AEO, or answer engine optimisation. It’s closely related, and focuses on being the direct answer to a question, whether that’s in an AI Overview, a featured snippet or a voice assistant like Siri or Alexa.

In practice, the three overlap heavily:

• SEO gets your pages found and ranked.
• AEO makes your content the clearest answer to a specific question.
• GEO makes your business a trusted source AI tools choose to cite.

As we like to put it: SEO gets you seen, AEO and GEO get you trusted. They build on each other rather than replacing each other. Google itself says the same SEO best practices apply to its AI features, and there’s no special markup or trick that guarantees an AI citation.

Why AI Search Matters for Your Business

Fewer searches end in a click than they used to. SparkToro’s 2024 research found that nearly 60% of Google searches ended without a click to any website, and AI Overviews have added to that since.

That creates two risks:

• You lose visibility at the moment people are forming opinions. If an AI answer recommends your competitors and not you, many people won’t look any further.
• Your informational content loses traffic, even if your rankings hold steady, because people get the answer without visiting your site.

The flip side is that being cited builds credibility. When AI tools repeatedly mention your business as a trusted source, that shapes how people see you before they ever get in touch.

What AI Tools Look For

Clear, Direct Answers

AI tools favour content that answers the question quickly and plainly. If someone asks “how much does SEO cost?”, the page that answers in its opening lines is more useful to them than one that builds up to it over several paragraphs.

Real Expertise and Original Information

AI models are trained on the existing web, so content that repeats what the top ten results already say gives them no reason to cite you. Original case studies, your own data, real project outcomes and genuine opinions are what set you apart. This is Google’s E-E-A-T principle in action: experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust.

Content That’s Easy to Extract

Short paragraphs, clear headings, plain English and well-structured lists are easier for AI tools to read and quote. Heavy jargon, content hidden behind scripts and pages that are slow or difficult to crawl make it harder.

A Clear, Consistent Brand

AI tools build a picture of your business from everything they can find about it: your website, directories, review sites, news articles and social profiles. If your name, address, phone number and services are inconsistent across those sources, that picture becomes muddled.

6 Practical Ways to Optimise for AI Search

1. Answer Questions Directly

Lead with the answer in the first sentence or two, then add detail. Use question-style headings that mirror how people actually ask, such as “Who is the best SEO agency for a B2B business?” rather than just “SEO agency Nottingham”.

2. Build Topical Authority With Content Clusters

Create a main page on a core topic, supported by related articles that go deeper, all linked together. This shows search engines and AI tools that you cover the subject properly. Our guide to internal linking explains how to connect them.

3. Publish What Only You Can Say

Add anonymised client examples, your own data, screenshots from real work and clear opinions. If your content says the same thing as everyone else’s, AI tools have no reason to choose it.

4. Use Structured Data

Schema markup such as Organisation, Service, Article and FAQ schema helps search engines understand who you are and what each page covers. It won’t guarantee a citation, but it removes ambiguity. Getting it wrong can do more harm than good, so it’s worth reading our guide on why schema markup matters.

5. Strengthen Your Brand Signals

Keep your business details consistent everywhere, keep your Google Business Profile up to date, earn reviews on the platforms your customers use, and look for genuine mentions from organisations you work with. Clear author profiles for the people writing your content help too.

6. Use Formats AI Can Lift Easily

Short definitions, numbered steps, comparison tables and concise FAQs are all easy for AI tools to quote. If you’re not winning featured snippets for questions you cover, it’s often a sign your content isn’t structured clearly enough.

What About llms.txt?

llms.txt is a proposed file that summarises your site’s key content for AI tools, a bit like a sitemap written for language models. It’s easy to add, and some SEO plugins generate one automatically. However, none of the major AI or search companies has confirmed they use it, so treat it as a low-effort extra rather than a priority.

How Do You Know If GEO Is Working?

Measuring AI visibility is still developing, as many AI answers don’t lead to a trackable visit. The most useful signals are:

• AI referral traffic in GA4. Visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com and copilot.microsoft.com show AI tools sending people your way.
• Impressions versus clicks in Search Console. If impressions hold steady but click-through rate falls, AI answers may be absorbing clicks for those searches.
• Manual checks. Regularly ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers ask, and note whether you’re mentioned and how.
• Brand mentions and direct traffic. Growth in branded searches and direct visits can reflect people discovering you through AI.

What GEO Results Look Like in Practice

For Borg Locks, we built GEO work on top of an existing SEO strategy. Within a year, AI-referred sessions had increased by more than 1,000%, with ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity all sending new visitors.

We also checked how AI tools talk about the brand. Across 185 prompts, the responses were positive every time, with the models highlighting Borg Locks’ durability, security and build quality.

Getting Your Business Ready for AI Search

The good news is that GEO isn’t a completely new discipline. Clear answers, real expertise, consistent information and a technically sound website help you in traditional search and AI search alike. The businesses that start now will be the ones AI tools already trust when more of their customers start their search there.

If you’d like to know how AI tools currently see your business, our GEO and AEO services start with a clear picture of where you stand, or you can claim a free SEO audit to get started.