What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)? Plain-English Definition

In more detail

GEO — generative engine optimization — is the craft of getting your content cited inside AI answers. As people increasingly ask ChatGPT or Google’s AI instead of scrolling through links, the prize shifts from ranking on a results page to being the source the AI quotes.

It matters because visibility itself is moving. SEO tuned pages for search rankings; GEO tunes them to be quotable — clear claims, structured facts, passages that answer a question cleanly. For a business, being the answer an AI gives is becoming as valuable as the top link ever was.

📌 See it in action

Two plumbers serve the same town. Someone asks an AI assistant, ‘Who should I call for a burst pipe around here?’ One plumber’s site is a wall of vague slogans; the other’s states services, area and hours in plain, quotable lines. The assistant recommends the second — that’s GEO deciding the sale.

Goes with

AI Overviews →LLM →

Now put the vocabulary to work.

Meet the models →Which AI is mine?