> What generative engine optimisation means, how it differs from SEO, what the AI companies themselves say matters, and the six things worth doing.

- Canonical: https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/generative-engine-optimisation/

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# Generative engine optimisation: what it means and what works

Generative engine optimisation, or GEO, is the work of making a business findable, readable and quotable by AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Google's AI features, Perplexity and Claude. Most of it is ordinary SEO done properly. The part that is new is short: letting the assistants' crawlers in, stating facts where they can be quoted, and being mentioned in the places assistants read.

Updated 6 October 2026

## What the term covers

A generative engine is an AI system that writes an answer instead of listing links: ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, Claude and others. Each reads the web, through its own crawler or through a search engine, and names sources. GEO is the effort to be one of them.

## What is not new

The assistants read the same web that search engines index. Google says so directly: to appear in its AI features, a page needs to be indexed and eligible for a snippet, with no additional technical requirements and no special files or markup. OpenAI names ordinary search providers among the sources ChatGPT search draws on.

A site that is slow, blocked, thin or badly structured is as hard for an assistant to use as for a search engine. The foundation is the same.

## What is new

Three things matter more for assistants than they did for search alone.

- The crawlers are different. Each assistant sends its own, and a site that blocks them is left out of that assistant’s answers. Our guide to [whether to block AI crawlers](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/should-you-block-ai-crawlers/) names each one.

- The unit is the statement, not the page. An assistant lifts a sentence or a fact. Pages that state things plainly, near the top, are easier to quote.

- Mentions count without links. An assistant deciding which business to name reads what other sites say about it, linked or not.

## Six things worth doing

The list is short, and most of it is not exotic.

1. Allow the assistants’ search crawlers, and check that the host is not blocking them.

2. Make sure the site is indexed in Bing as well as Google.

3. Put the answer in the first paragraph of each page, in a sentence that stands alone.

4. State the business facts in text and in structured data: name, address, services, prices where they are public.

5. Keep those facts identical on every profile and directory.

6. Earn mentions on the sites that appear as sources when you ask an assistant about your market.

An `llms.txt` file is an optional seventh. Our guide to [what llms.txt is](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/what-is-llms-txt/) explains what it does and does not do.

## How to measure it

GEO is measurable in three places. Ask the assistants the questions your customers ask, and record who is named: [how to check if ChatGPT recommends your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/does-chatgpt-recommend-your-business/) sets out the routine. Count the visits assistants send, in Google Analytics. And read the server log for the crawlers themselves. A claim about GEO that cannot be checked in one of those three places is a claim to be wary of.

## Questions people ask

### What is generative engine optimisation?

Generative engine optimisation is the work of making a website and a business easy for AI assistants to find, read and cite in the answers they write. It is also called answer engine optimisation, or AEO.

### Is GEO different from SEO?

Mostly not. Google states that its AI features need no additional technical requirements beyond ordinary search eligibility. GEO adds attention to the assistants' own crawlers, to facts written so that they can be quoted, and to mentions on other websites.

### Do I need a GEO agency?

A business needs someone who does the underlying work well: a fast, crawlable site, clear pages, accurate structured data and a presence on the sites assistants read. Whether that is sold as SEO or as GEO matters less than whether it is measured.

## Free competitor gap report

Assistants name the businesses that are easiest to find, read and confirm. Name up to three competitors and we measure how your site and theirs read to an answer engine, then send you where they are ahead.

1. Speed and technical health, side by side
2. On-page SEO and site structure
3. The content they are found for and you are not
4. Who holds the searches that matter in your market
5. A prioritised list of what to fix first

[Request your free report by email](mailto:contact@hadalmedusa.com?subject=Competitor%20gap%20report%3A%20Guide%3A%20Generative%20engine%20optimisation%3A%20what%20it%20means%20and%20what%20works&body=Website%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AWhere%20you%20compete%20(area%2C%20country%20or%20countries)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0ACompetitors%20to%20compare%20against%20(up%20to%20three)%3A%0D%0A%0D%0AAnything%20else%20we%20should%20know%3A%0D%0A%0D%0A)
- **Address** — contact@hadalmedusa.com

- **Include** — your site; up to three competitors; where you compete

## More in this series

- [How to check if ChatGPT recommends your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/does-chatgpt-recommend-your-business/)
- [How to get ChatGPT to recommend your business](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-to-get-chatgpt-to-recommend-your-business/)
- [How ChatGPT search chooses the websites it cites](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/how-chatgpt-search-chooses-websites/)
- [What llms.txt is, with an example](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/what-is-llms-txt/)
- [Should you block AI crawlers?](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/should-you-block-ai-crawlers/)
- [How to see ChatGPT traffic in Google Analytics](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/chatgpt-traffic-in-google-analytics/)
- [AI Overviews and falling clicks: how to check, and what to do](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/ai-overviews-traffic-drop/)
- [AI search and answer engines: the whole topic](https://hadalmedusa.com/topics/ai-search/)
- [All guides](https://hadalmedusa.com/guides/)
- [On-site SEO: what the service includes](https://hadalmedusa.com/services/seo/)