GEO stands for generative engine optimisation. It is the practice of getting your brand mentioned, recommended and cited inside the answers that AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Gemini write for their users. SEO is the practice of getting your web pages to rank in a list of blue links. They are related, but they are not the same job.
The real shift
For twenty years, search worked the same way. You typed a query, you got a page of links, and you chose one. SEO was built around that moment: rank higher, win the click. AI search removes the list. You ask a question in plain language and you get a written answer, often with two or three brands named inside it. The user frequently never sees a list at all. So the question is no longer "does my page rank". It is "does the model mention me when someone asks".
What actually changes in the work
SEO rewards keywords, backlinks and technical health. GEO rewards something subtly different. AI models build a picture of your brand from everything they can read about you across the web, then decide whether to bring you up. That means the levers move:
- From keywords to questions. You stop optimising for a short phrase and start answering the full question a buyer actually asks, in the words they use.
- From ranking to being cited. Pages that open with a clear answer, use clean headings and include specific numbers get quoted. Pages that bury the answer do not.
- From your site alone to your whole footprint. Models read reviews, directories, press and forums, not just your homepage. A consistent description of who you are, everywhere you appear, helps them recognise you as one trusted entity.
- From meta tags to machine readable structure. Schema data, a clean site, and content a model can parse all make it easier for an engine to lift you into an answer.
Do you still need SEO?
Yes. Strong GEO almost always sits on top of solid SEO. If a model cannot crawl your pages, read them cleanly and trust your wider presence, it will not cite you. The good news is that most of the groundwork helps both: clear answers, structured data, and genuine authority. GEO does not replace SEO. It is the next layer on it, aimed at a search experience that increasingly hands the user one answer instead of ten links.
Where to start
Pick the ten questions your buyers actually ask an AI before they buy. Write a direct, honest, well structured answer to each on your own site. Make sure the technical foundations let a model read and trust you. Then measure whether you start getting named. That is the whole game, and it is early enough that moving now is a real advantage.