What is GEO.
GEO is not SEO with a new label. It is a different ranking surface, with different inputs, weighted differently across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews.
Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of ranking inside the answers that ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews compose for users. The inputs that move the answer engines overlap with classical SEO at the edges but diverge in the middle: brand mentions on third-party authority sites, structural cues like clean H2 questions and direct-answer paragraphs, citations in primary-source content, and an llms.txt that scopes what the engine should and should not retrieve. The longform with our 2026 GEO scoring rubric and the per-engine cite patterns ships in May 2026.
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Related reading
- 01
llms.txt explained.
The proposed convention, the actual adoption curve, and what to put in yours.
- 02
GEO vs SEO vs AEO.
Why the three labels are doing distinct work and the matrix we use on real engagements.
- 03
How to rank in ChatGPT.
What the SearchGPT crawler weights and the citation patterns that hold.