Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making a business's content, structured data, and online authority clear and credible enough that AI search tools cite and recommend it directly, rather than only showing it as a ranked link. It builds on traditional SEO fundamentals but places extra weight on structured data, consistent facts, and genuinely authoritative content, since AI tools synthesise an answer rather than sending the searcher to click through a list.
If you have heard the term GEO and assumed it was a typo for SEO, you are not far off. Generative Engine Optimisation is the work of making your business easy for AI tools to find, understand and name in a generated answer. It sits on top of ordinary SEO rather than replacing it, and nobody can promise you a mention from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google AI Overviews. What you can do is remove the reasons a system would hesitate to name you.
Why this is suddenly a real thing
Traditional search shows a list of links and lets the searcher pick one. Increasingly, tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's own AI Overviews write a direct answer instead - "the best plumber in Christchurch is..." - and the searcher may never click through to a website. Google's documentation on AI features in Search explains that these features can use a "query fan-out" approach, running multiple related searches to build a comprehensive answer from across the web.
When that answer names a specific business, that business gets the customer's attention without needing to win a normal result. When it does not, the business is absent from that interaction, however well it ranks elsewhere.
What GEO is, and what it is not
GEO is a set of habits, not a product you can buy and switch on. It is not a secret markup, not a prompt trick, and not a way to pay for a mention. There is no advertising slot inside a chat answer for a plumber in Hornby to purchase. Anything you earn is earned the slow way: by being a business that is easy to verify and worth recommending, and the practical steps are set out in how to get cited by ChatGPT.
The related differences between GEO, SEO and AEO are worth understanding, because they stop you spending money on the wrong target. Short version: SEO is ranking, AEO is the extractable answer, and GEO is being named inside a generated response.
GEO builds on SEO, it does not replace it
A website with poor technical foundations, thin content and no clear authority is a weak candidate for traditional rankings and for AI mentions alike. Fixing one set of problems generally helps both. Where GEO asks you to be more deliberate is in three areas.
Consistent, verifiable facts
Your business name, address, phone number, services and service area should read identically on your website, your Google Business Profile, directories and social profiles. A system trying to produce a confident sentence about you has a harder job if one source says "Papanui" and another says "Burnside", or lists different opening hours.
Clear structured data
Schema markup gives machines an unambiguous version of who you are and what you do. Our plain-English explainer on what schema markup is covers the basics, but note the limit: Google says no special markup is needed for AI features, so treat schema as good housekeeping, not a lever.
Content that shows real expertise
Copy that could belong to any business in any city is hard to cite. Content that states specific, checkable facts from your own work is easier to trust. That is the same idea behind E-E-A-T for local businesses, and Google's guidance on creating helpful content is the best place to read the original.
A worked example
Say a Papanui electrician has a website with a generic "We provide quality electrical services" homepage, a Google Business Profile listing a Burnside address, and a directory entry with an old mobile number. Ask an AI tool for an electrician near Papanui and it has little to go on, and conflicting details besides.
The fixes are dull but concrete:
- Pick one canonical name, address, phone and service area, and make every listing match.
- Rewrite the homepage and service pages to say what the business actually does: switchboard upgrades, heat pump wiring, rental compliance work, and the suburbs it covers.
- Add a short page about the electrician: licence details, years in the trade, the kinds of jobs done.
- Add LocalBusiness schema that matches the visible page.
- Ask recent customers for honest Google reviews.
None of that guarantees a mention. All of it makes the business easier to describe correctly.
How to tell if it is working
Keep a short list of five questions a real customer might ask, for example "electrician in Papanui for a switchboard upgrade". Once a month, run them through ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google, and note which businesses are named and why. Watch for movement over several months, not days. Also keep an eye on Search Console, since a healthy GEO foundation looks a lot like a healthy SEO one: more impressions on specific, relevant queries.
Mistakes worth avoiding
- Chasing tricks. Hidden text, fake reviews and keyword-stuffed FAQ blocks work against you.
- Publishing AI-generated filler at volume. It adds pages without adding anything a reader or a system can trust.
- Marking up facts that are not visible on the page. Structured data should describe what is really there.
- Neglecting the basics. A blocked or slow site fails every test before GEO even starts.
Most small businesses have not done any of this deliberately, so the local opening is still wide. To see where your own business stands, our GEO service is built around exactly this work, and a free SEO review is a no-pressure way to find the gaps first.
