# What Is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) in SEO?

> What GEO is in SEO, where the term comes from, what Google says about it and how to check whether ChatGPT, Perplexity or AI Mode cite your store.

URL: https://clione.ai/glossary/geo/
Lang: en

If someone has pitched you GEO in an agency proposal or at a talk, the useful question is not what GEO is in the abstract, but **whether it is a separate budget or the same old SEO with two more tasks**: making your content citable and letting the right [crawlers](/glossary/web-crawler/) in. GEO here has nothing to do with geography, geomarketing or local SEO, or with the GEO Group or the Gene Expression Omnibus database that share the acronym.

## How a generative answer works

A classic search engine hands you a list of links and you choose. A [generative engine](/glossary/generative-engine/) does three things in a row: **it retrieves documents, composes an answer from them and cites some as sources**. GEO aims at the first step and the last: that your page is among what gets retrieved and that the answer names it. The experiments in the paper that gave the term its name measure only the last one, the citation, and they do it on sources that are already given.[^geo-paper] Getting into what is retrieved goes through crawling and [indexing](/glossary/indexing/): Google's AI features retrieve pages from its index with its usual ranking systems, which is why Google treats that part as SEO.[^google-ai-guide]

Google describes one piece of that process. [AI Overviews](/glossary/ai-overviews/) and [Google AI Mode](/glossary/google-ai-mode/) may use a technique called [_query fan-out_](/glossary/query-fan-out/): they run several related searches across subtopics and data sources to build the answer, which is why they can show a wider and more varied set of links than a classic search.[^google-ai-features] Its guide to optimizing for these features describes it as a set of simultaneous, related queries the model generates to ask for more information and bring back more results.[^google-ai-guide] For a store, the question stops being only "what position am I in?" and **becomes "which sources am I among?" as well**. What you should not do is answer it with one page per possible query: Google warns that creating separate content for each search variation, fan-out queries included, mainly to manipulate rankings or generative AI answers in Search, violates its spam policy on [scaled content abuse](/glossary/scaled-content-abuse/).[^google-ai-guide]

## The paper that named it

The term comes from a research paper by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan and Ameet Deshpande, published on arXiv on November 16, 2023 and accepted at the KDD 2024 conference. In it they present Generative Engine Optimization as a new framework for content creators to improve their visibility in generative engine responses.[^geo-paper]

To measure it they built GEO-bench, a benchmark of 10,000 queries across 25 domains, 80% of them informational and the rest split evenly between transactional and navigational. They tried nine ways of rewriting a source: adding quotations, adding statistics, citing sources, writing with more authority, improving fluency, using technical terms, using unique words, making it easier to understand and the classic keyword stuffing. And they measured two things: what share of the words in the answer sit in sentences that cite the source, weighted so that sentences appearing earlier count for more, and a subjective impression of how much weight the source carries in it.[^geo-paper]

The results, on that position-adjusted word metric: with the text untouched, the source scored 19.3; with quotations it reached 27.2, with statistics 25.2 and citing sources 24.6. Keyword stuffing dropped to 17.7, below doing nothing. That is where the figure that circulates most comes from, that **GEO can boost visibility "by up to 40%"**. And a less quoted finding that matters more for a small store: **lower-ranked pages gained more**. Citing sources improved the visibility of the fifth result by 115.1% and worsened the first one's by 30.3%.[^geo-paper]

Read those numbers for what they are. The engine was simulated: GPT-3.5 Turbo composing an answer from the full text of Google's top five results. The separate check, on 200 queries in [Perplexity](/glossary/perplexity/), supplied the sources' text as uploaded files, because Perplexity does not let you specify source URLs. So neither experiment measured whether a page makes it into what is retrieved: both started from given sources. These are 2023 and 2024 engines, most of the queries were informational, and the authors themselves warn that the methods may need to adapt as engines evolve, just as SEO has kept changing.[^geo-paper] A 40% in one experiment is not a forecast for your catalog.

## GEO in SEO, according to Google

Google has its own guide on how to optimize for its generative AI features, which it added to its documentation on May 15, 2026.[^google-updates] The guide names [AEO (Answer Engine Optimization)](/glossary/aeo/) and GEO, and answers plainly: from the standpoint of Google Search, optimizing for generative search is optimizing for the search experience, and so it is still SEO.[^google-ai-guide] The specifics:

- You do not need to create machine-readable files, AI text files, markup or Markdown to appear in Google Search, generative features included.[^google-ai-guide] In June 2026 it added that [`llms.txt`](/glossary/llms-txt/) files are not needed for Search and affect your visibility neither for better nor for worse.[^google-updates]
- [Structured data](/glossary/structured-data/) **is still good SEO**: the guide advises you to keep using it as part of your SEO strategy, because it helps you qualify for [rich results](/glossary/rich-results/) in Search. What it makes clear is that there is no special [schema.org](/glossary/schema-org/) markup for generative search.[^google-ai-guide] Google uses the structured data it finds to understand the content of the page, and among the cases it publishes, Rotten Tomatoes measured **a 25% higher [click-through rate](/glossary/ctr/) on pages with structured data** than on pages without it.[^google-structured-data]
- You do not need to chop content into small pieces for AI to understand it better.[^google-ai-guide]
- Hunting for inauthentic "mentions" around the web does not help as much as it seems. What it does ask for is **content that is not interchangeable**: expert opinion or first-hand experience that goes beyond what anyone knows.[^google-ai-guide]
- To appear as a supporting link in AI Overviews or AI Mode, the page has to be indexed and eligible to be shown in Search with a snippet.[^google-ai-features] On top of meeting Search's technical requirements, the site has to be included in the generative AI features of Search from [Search Console](/glossary/google-search-console/).[^google-ai-guide]

Bing reports citations; Google reports impressions. Since February 10, 2026, [Bing Webmaster Tools](/glossary/bing-webmaster-tools/) has had a public preview report, AI Performance, that **counts how many times your content is cited as a source** in [Copilot](/glossary/copilot/), in Bing's AI-generated summaries and in some partner integrations, with the cited pages and the [grounding](/glossary/grounding/) queries the AI used to retrieve them.[^bing-ai-performance] The [Search Console generative AI report](/glossary/generative-ai-performance-report/), by contrast, gives impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode.[^gsc-genai-report] Bing's recommendations for publishers are those of a good reference page: clear headings, tables and FAQ sections, claims backed by examples, data and sources, fresh content and telling it about every change with [IndexNow](/glossary/indexnow/).[^bing-ai-performance]

## Who reads your site to answer

Each company uses different agents to search, to train its models and to serve one person's specific request, and in [`robots.txt`](/glossary/robots-txt/) **each one is allowed or blocked separately**. OpenAI gives the example itself: you can allow [OAI-SearchBot](/glossary/oai-searchbot/) so you appear in [ChatGPT search](/glossary/chatgpt-search/) results and block [GPTBot](/glossary/gptbot/) so what it crawls is not used for training.[^openai-bots]

| Company    | Agent                                     | What it uses it for                                                                                                                    |
| ---------- | ----------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| OpenAI     | OAI-SearchBot                             | Surfacing websites in ChatGPT's search features.[^openai-bots]                                                                         |
| OpenAI     | GPTBot                                    | Crawling content that may be used to train its models.[^openai-bots]                                                                   |
| OpenAI     | [ChatGPT-User](/glossary/chatgpt-user/)   | Visits a person triggers from ChatGPT or a custom GPT. Because someone initiates them, `robots.txt` rules may not apply.[^openai-bots] |
| Perplexity | [PerplexityBot](/glossary/perplexitybot/) | Surfacing and linking websites in its results. It does not crawl to train models.[^perplexity-bots]                                    |
| Perplexity | Perplexity-User                           | Actions a person requests in Perplexity. It generally ignores `robots.txt`.[^perplexity-bots]                                          |
| Anthropic  | [ClaudeBot](/glossary/claudebot/)         | Collecting content that may be used to train its models.[^anthropic-bots]                                                              |
| Anthropic  | Claude-SearchBot                          | Improving the quality of its search results. Blocking it may reduce your visibility in them.[^anthropic-bots]                          |
| Anthropic  | Claude-User                               | Visits to answer a person's question in Claude. Blocking it may reduce your visibility in user-directed searches.[^anthropic-bots]     |

Google has no separate row. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, the page has to be in the Search index, and what is shown is limited with the usual controls: `nosnippet`, `data-nosnippet`, `max-snippet` or `noindex`. [Google-Extended](/glossary/google-extended/), the name that tends to come up in these conversations, serves according to Google to limit training and grounding "in some of Google's other systems."[^google-ai-features]

## In a store

**What we measured ourselves.** In June 2026, Clione enriched 39 product pages for BenroUSA, Benro's photography gear store in the United States: the [JSON-LD](/glossary/json-ld/) graph, the title, the [meta description](/glossary/meta-description/) and, on nine of them, the FAQs. In Search Console, from June 13 to 22 and against their starting point before enrichment, **those pages gained 13% in impressions while the whole site gained 8%**, and **the nine with FAQs gained 25%**, most of them improving their position. It is a correlation measured on one store over ten days, not a forecast for your catalog, and it points the same way as the cases Google publishes.

## How to check it

1. **Open your `robots.txt`** and see which agents you let through. For answers with search, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Claude-SearchBot count; GPTBot and ClaudeBot are the training ones.[^openai-bots][^perplexity-bots][^anthropic-bots] ChatGPT-User, Perplexity-User and Claude-User are the agents for visits a person requests, and Anthropic warns that blocking Claude-User may reduce your visibility in user-directed searches.[^anthropic-bots] In OpenAI's systems, a change to `robots.txt` can take about 24 hours to show.[^openai-bots]
2. **Confirm in Search Console that your product pages are indexed**, that nothing stops them from showing a snippet and that the site is included in the generative AI features of Search, a condition for appearing in them.[^google-ai-guide][^gsc-genai-report] A `nosnippet` or a very short `max-snippet` also cuts down what AI Overviews and AI Mode can use.[^google-ai-features]
3. **Open the Search Console [generative AI performance report](/glossary/generative-ai-performance-report/).** It shows impressions in AI Overviews and AI Mode, without clicks or queries. It has been available for all sites since August 31, 2026, and it only appears if your site accumulates enough impressions in those features.[^gsc-genai-report]
4. **If your site is verified in Bing Webmaster Tools, look at AI Performance**: the citations by URL and the grounding queries that brought them in.[^bing-ai-performance]
5. **Repeat a purchase query.** Pick a question your customer would ask, without your brand, run it several times on different days in each assistant, always in a new chat, and write down which sources it cites each time. A single screenshot is a sample of one, not a position.

## Related concept: AEO

The closest term is AEO (Answer Engine Optimization). Google names them together and defines them the same way: both describe the work of improving visibility in [AI search](/glossary/ai-search/) experiences.[^google-ai-guide] What GEO has of its own is an academic origin, with a benchmark and visibility metrics designed for composed answers, not for lists of links.[^geo-paper] And Bing already uses the word in its tools: it presents AI Performance as a first step toward GEO tools in Bing Webmaster Tools.[^bing-ai-performance]

When you get an AEO or GEO proposal, ask what it will do and how it will measure it. Google points those third-party services to its guide on evaluating outside SEO advice, asks you to be wary of tools that promise rankings or claim to use internal Google metrics, and says it without hedging: **no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems**.[^google-ai-guide]

To go further, the comparison [SEO vs GEO and AEO: what changes for an online store](/comparisons/geo-aeo-seo/) puts the three side by side, the guide to [what AI bots see in your store](/guides/what-an-ai-crawler-sees/) goes down to the detail of each agent, and the [AI search reading path](/learn/ai-search/) orders the rest of the terms.