What GEO is, minus the hype
Generative engine optimisation is the practice of getting your brand referenced inside AI-generated answers: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews. It is being sold as a brand new discipline requiring brand new budgets. Most of it is not.
The honest position: perhaps three quarters of GEO is work you should already be doing for SEO. The remaining quarter is genuinely different and worth understanding.
What is actually different
Traditional search returns ten links and lets the user choose. Generative engines synthesise one answer and cite a handful of sources. That changes the game in three ways:
- ✓There is no position two consolation prize. You are cited or invisible.
- ✓Entities matter more than keywords. These systems reason about things and their relationships, not strings of text.
- ✓Off-site consensus carries real weight. What Reddit, review sites, forums and industry publications say about you feeds the answer, even when your own site does not.
What actually influences citation
Write extractable answers
Lead each section with a direct, self-contained answer, then support it. A paragraph that makes sense lifted out of context is far more likely to be quoted than one that depends on three paragraphs above it. Question-shaped headings help, because they match how people prompt.
Be specific and verifiable
Concrete numbers, dates, named methods and clear definitions get cited. Vague marketing prose does not, because there is nothing in it to extract.
Build entity clarity
Make it unambiguous who you are and what you do. Consistent name, address and description across your site, Google Business Profile, LinkedIn and directories. Organisation schema on the site. This is how a model builds confidence that "Route Ignite" refers to a specific marketing agency in Gurugram rather than something else.
Earn third-party mentions
This is the part closest to PR and the part most agencies skip because it is slow. Being discussed in places these systems train on and retrieve from matters more than another blog post on your own domain.
Let the crawlers in
Check your robots.txt does not block GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot and Google-Extended
unless you have deliberately decided to. Plenty of sites block them by accident and then wonder
why they are never cited. An llms.txt file is emerging as a convention, cheap to
add, with benefits not yet firmly established.
How to measure it
Honestly, imperfectly. There is no Search Console for AI answers. Practical options:
- ✓Prompt the major engines with your key queries monthly and record who gets cited
- ✓Watch referral traffic from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai and similar in analytics
- ✓Track branded search volume, which tends to rise as AI mentions increase
What we would actually do first
- 1Confirm AI crawlers are not blocked
- 2Add Organisation and Article schema properly
- 3Restructure your top twenty pages to lead with direct answers
- 4Fix name and description consistency everywhere you appear
- 5Start earning mentions in places your buyers actually read
None of that is wasted if AI search stalls, because all of it also improves conventional rankings. That is the argument for doing it now. More on our approach on the SEO, AEO and GEO page.
Frequently asked questions
Is GEO replacing SEO?
No. It is an additional surface. Traditional search still drives far more traffic for most businesses. Treat GEO as an extension of a sound SEO programme, not a replacement for one.
Do I need to block AI crawlers to protect my content?
That is a strategic decision. Blocking them protects content from training use but also removes you from answers where you might be cited. Most marketing-led businesses benefit from being visible.
How long does GEO take to work?
Slower and less predictable than SEO, because retrieval and training cycles are opaque. The technical and structural work can be done in weeks. Building the off-site consensus takes months.
