Generative engine optimization (GEO)
Generative engine optimization is the work of becoming one of the sources a language model draws on when it composes an answer. It differs from classic SEO in one way that changes everything downstream: a model synthesises several sources rather than ranking one so corroboration and parseability matter more than any single well-optimised page.
The problem
Models quote what they can parse
A model writing an answer needs a specific, attributable statement. "We are passionate about delivering world-class results" cannot be quoted in response to any real question. "Engagements run month to month with 30 days notice and the audit is delivered within ten business days" can be lifted whole and attributed.
Most sites are written to be skimmed by a human in a hurry. That is a reasonable thing to optimise for and it produces pages containing almost nothing a machine can extract and stand behind.
What you get
Deliverables
Written into the engagement, not implied by it.
- Extraction audit of your commercial pages, claim by claim
- Rewritten page structure: answer-first, question-shaped headings
- Comparisons converted to tables, processes to ordered steps
- Organization, Service and Article schema, consistent with visible content
- Entity reconciliation across your site, profiles and third-party listings
- Original material built specifically to be citable
How we run it
The process
- 01
Audit extraction
We take your key pages and test every substantive sentence against one question: could this appear verbatim as the answer to something a buyer would ask?
- 02
Restructure
Answer first, then expand. Headings phrased as real questions. One idea per paragraph. Tables where a comparison is being made.
- 03
Mark up
JSON-LD that describes what is actually on the page. We do not mark up claims a visitor cannot see, which is a guideline violation and a credibility risk.
- 04
Corroborate
A synthesised answer weighs what several sources say. We work on the consistency of how you are described everywhere, not just on your own domain.
Who this is not for
If your site is not crawlable or renders its content only through client-side JavaScript, GEO is premature. That gets fixed first, usually under web development.
Questions
About this service
Roughly 70% overlap and we say so plainly. The distinct parts are real but a minority of the work: AI crawler access, entity reconciliation, prompt-level measurement and writing for extraction rather than ranking. If a proposal prices GEO as a second full retainer with identical deliverables, ask what is unique to it.
It is a community proposal, not an adopted standard and no major AI platform has committed to reading it. It is harmless to publish and we will add one if you want it but we will not present it as a requirement or imply it produces citations.
As a drafting aid, with subject-matter review and human editing before anything is published. Unreviewed volume publishing produces exactly the unverifiable content these systems are being tuned to discount so it would work against the goal.
Further reading
llms.txt explained: what it is and whether your business needs one
llms.txt is a proposed file that gives AI agents a map of your site. Who proposed it, what goes in it, what Google says about it and our honest recommendation.
Read the guide GuidePerplexity SEO: how to get your site cited by Perplexity
Perplexity shows its sources, which makes it the most measurable AI engine. Which bot to allow, why firewalls silently block it and what earns the citation.
Read the guide GuideThe CITE framework: how to write a page an AI will quote
Four tests any page has to pass before a language model can cite it. A working checklist you can run against your own commercial pages this afternoon.
Read the guideWorks with
AI Search Optimization
Get cited by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews.
Learn more AI visibilityAnswer Engine Optimization
Own the direct answer for the questions your buyers actually ask.
Learn more FoundationContent Marketing
Content written to be retrieved, quoted and acted on.
Learn more