Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
Also called: GEO, Generative Engine Optimization, AI Search Optimisation
Generative engine optimisation is the practice of making content likely to be retrieved, cited and recommended by AI answer engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and AI Overviews. It is the successor discipline to search engine optimisation, and the target has moved: a search engine returns a ranked list of links for the reader to choose between, whereas an answer engine returns one composed answer and names a handful of sources inside it. Material written as self-contained statements that answer a question directly is easier for a model to lift than material built around keywords.
In practice
Buyers increasingly shortlist suppliers by asking an AI instead of searching, and a company the answer engines do not know is not a low-ranked result, it is absent. Ask the main answer engines to recommend firms in your category and read what comes back, because that answer now sits at the front of the funnel.