What GEO means
GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. Researchers at Princeton University coined the term in a 2024 study (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024). “Generative” means the AI writes an answer itself instead of just listing links.
An everyday example: you used to search Google for “tax advisor Linz” and click through ten results. Today you ask ChatGPT: “Which tax advisor in Linz knows start-ups?” The AI replies with two or three names and lists its sources. GEO is about making your website one of those sources.
How an AI answer comes about
To see what you can work on, it helps to look at the steps. The services differ in detail, but the flow is similar:
- 01Understand the questionThe AI breaks the question down: what is wanted, where, for whom?
- 02Look for sourcesFor current questions it searches the web, often through a search engine. Pages that rank high are more likely to make the shortlist.
- 03Pick passagesIt reads individual passages, not whole pages, and takes the ones that answer the question most clearly.
- 04Write the answer and cite sourcesThe answer is built from those passages. The sources appear below or inline.
Two things follow. First: without a good search position you are found less often. Second: a clear paragraph that answers the question right away stands a better chance than a long sales text.
GEO and SEO: the difference
| Aspect | SEO | GEO |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank high in search results | Be named or cited in the AI answer |
| What you measure | Position, clicks, visits | Mentions per question and service, share against competitors |
| Where you work | Technology, content, links | The same, plus clear answers, a consistent description of your brand, mentions on other sites |
| What users do | Search, click, read | Ask, read the answer, sometimes click |
The key point: GEO builds on SEO. In our provider analysis, websites in positions 1 to 3 on Google were cited in Google’s AI Overview about 3.8 times as often as websites in positions 4 to 10, and about 3.7 times as often in ChatGPT. Only Perplexity showed a smaller gap of about 1.7 times.
Why this affects your business
Sources: our own studies. AI Mode and clicks (around 300 websites, June 2025 to October 2026) · Provider analysis (873 real search queries from Austria, October 2026)
Where Google answers a question itself, fewer people click through to websites. At the same time, ChatGPT usually names specific businesses for provider searches. If you are missing there, you are not even considered in the first step. For about a third of search queries, however, no service names a provider at all. GEO cannot get anyone into those answers. That is why it pays to check first which of your questions trigger recommendations at all.
What is proven to go with citations
Many GEO guides recommend short sentences, lists, tables and statistics. We tested 16 such recommendations on 522 real search queries, each time comparing pages that ranked similarly on Google. That shows what counts beyond the ranking.
Strong colour and bold number: reliable link, even after correcting for 16 simultaneous tests. Pale bars: not reliable. “Sections start with the answer” is measured only roughly by the automatic rating. Source: our own data test, 522 search queries from Search Console (Austria), October 2026, open data.
The clearest link is with a direct answer to the search query: in Perplexity the chance of a citation rises about 2.5 times per level, in Google’s AI Overview about 1.6 times. Lists, tables and statistics show no reliable link. A study about 70 times larger reaches the same conclusion (Lee 2026).
The five levers, and how well they are backed
Each lever says whether we measured it in our own data or whether it is based on experience. That way you can decide where to start.
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1
Answer the question right away
AI services take individual passages. A passage that gives the answer in its first sentence can be lifted out and cited.
How to do it: Every important section starts with the answer in one or two sentences. Reasons and details follow.
Measured in our dataReliable link in Google AI Overview and Perplexity, data test.
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2
Rank well on Google
What the AI does not find in search, it cannot cite. Technology, content and links remain the foundation.
How to do it: Check indexing, loading speed and page structure, then improve the pages just short of page one.
Measured in our dataPositions 1 to 3 are cited about 3.8 times as often in the AI Overview as positions 4 to 10, provider analysis.
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3
Say clearly who you are
The AI links statements to a business, a service and a place. Changing names and conflicting details make that hard.
How to do it: Use the same name, services and location everywhere: on your website, in profiles and in your structured data (Schema.org).
Experience, not measuredFrom our work on entities. We have not measured the effect ourselves yet.
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4
Appear on other sites
Answers are built from several sources. If you are missing from the pages cited for a topic, you are named less often.
How to do it: Check which pages the AI cites for your questions, such as directories, trade media or comparison sites, and get present there.
Experience, not measuredVisible in our measurements of which pages get cited. We have not measured the effect of a new mention.
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5
Measure repeatedly
AI answers fluctuate. Ask once and you easily mistake chance for a trend.
How to do it: A fixed set of your customers’ questions, several services, measurements on several days.
Measured in our dataAsked the same question three times, Google’s AI Overview made the same call on naming providers in only about 71% of cases, ChatGPT in about 93%.
How to measure GEO
GEO can be measured, but not with a single test. These figures make sense:
- Mentions per question and service: for which of your questions do ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google name your brand or cite your page?
- Share against competitors (share of voice): how often are you named, how often are others?
- Visits from AI services: visible in your analytics through referrers such as chatgpt.com or perplexity.ai.
- Fluctuation: give every number with a range, because answers change from day to day.
What GEO costs and when it pays off
The cost depends on how many questions, markets and competitors are measured and how much content work is needed. Before we start, we give you a fixed price based on scope.
Whether it pays off depends mainly on your questions. If your customers ask questions where AI services recommend providers, GEO usually makes sense. If nobody is named for your questions, classic SEO brings more. For a first estimate of how strongly your industry is affected, try the free AI click calculator.
Sources
- Atziry: 16 GEO recommendations tested (19 October 2026, in German)
- Atziry: When AI answers name providers (17 October 2026, in German)
- Atziry: One year of AI Mode in Austria (13 October 2026, in German)
- Aggarwal et al.: GEO, Generative Engine Optimization (KDD 2024)
- Lee: The SEO Floor (2026)
- Ahrefs: schema and AI citations (2026)