Being ranked and being named are two different things. GEO deals with the second, and most of the foundation is still SEO.
What is generative engine optimization?
GEO aims for one outcome: your brand appears in the answer. Traditional SEO aims for a click on a ranked link. The term comes from a 2023 research paper, published at KDD 2024.
That paper found content changes can raise visibility in generative answers by up to 40%. It also found the effect differs by domain. One recipe does not fit every market.
Up to 40% is the upper end, measured by the authors in their own test setting. It is not a typical result for a brand.
Answer engines have also changed since that work. Use the paper for its central finding: content choices influence inclusion, and the effect varies by domain.
Why does it matter for brands?
Because the click is shrinking. Pew Research found Google users clicked a result in 8% of visits with an AI summary, against 15% without one. Only 1% clicked a link inside the summary.
Pew tracked 900 US adults and 68,879 searches in March 2025. AI summaries appeared on 18% of those searches.
It is US-only and over a year old. Google disputed the methodology in press coverage, and it says clicks from these pages tend to be of higher quality. Use it for direction, not for your own forecast.
An answer also holds fewer names than a results page. That raises the stakes of being one of them.
Emerce reports that AI chatbots show between 3.5 and 13 brands per answer, depending on the platform.
The figure comes from a 2025 piece by an agency that sells this service. The exact count will shift by category and over time. The direction is what matters: a shorter list than a results page.
A ranking gives you a place on the list. An AI answer decides if there is a list at all.
What does not change?
Google's guidance is plain. There are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and no special optimization is needed. Its checklist reads like classic SEO.
- Allow crawling, including in your CDN and hosting settings.
- Make content findable through internal links.
- Provide a good page experience.
- Keep important content available as text.
Be careful with anyone selling GEO as a replacement for this work. Most of what gets a page into an answer also gets it into search results.
What should you do differently?
- Answer first. Open each page with a direct, quotable answer. Then explain.
- Publish what others cannot. Original evidence, clear definitions and named sources give an engine a reason to cite you.
- Be consistent elsewhere. Your category and claims should read the same on your site, in reviews and in press.
- Write for the question. Use the words people actually ask with, not your internal terms.
Point four is where demand data helps. GEO tells you how you appear. Measured orientation shows which needs people explore, and in what words.
For a midsize consumer goods brand, manufacturer or retailer, that sets the order of work. Put content budget first on the categories and needs where demand is developing.
How do you measure GEO?
Run a fixed set of prompts on a regular schedule and record who gets named. Track AI referrals, then watch brand search and direct traffic beside them. Google counts AI feature traffic in Search Console, together with other search traffic.
AI answers are not fixed. The same prompt can name different brands on different days, so a single screenshot is an anecdote.
Use a fixed set of prompts, repeat them, and track the share of answers that name you. Compare it with your main rivals over time.
For the commerce side of this shift, read our guide to agentic commerce.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between SEO and GEO?
SEO aims to rank pages in search results. GEO aims to have your brand named or cited in AI-generated answers. They share most foundations.
Is GEO the same as AEO?
The terms overlap. AEO, answer engine optimization, is the older term and focuses on direct answers. GEO focuses on generative AI answers specifically.
Does structured data help you appear in AI answers?
Google says no special schema is needed for its AI features. Keep your structured data accurate and make sure it matches the visible text.