What GEO is and how it differs from SEO, without the hype

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of getting your business cited or recommended in the answers given by ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Google. It is not hype: the term comes from an academic study, and Google already measures its own AI answers in Search Console. But it is not a separate discipline either: Google says that, for its search engine, it is “still SEO”.

Below you will find what the study that gave it its name really measured, and an SEO vs GEO table with official sources. At the end, a map to decide what to do first in your situation.

A warning to avoid confusion: here, GEO has nothing to do with geolocation. The G stands for “generative”. You will also see it called AEO or “SEO for AI” and, in Spanish, “posicionamiento GEO”.

The term was born in a 2023 academic study

It was proposed by a team of researchers from Princeton University and IIT Delhi in the paper “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization”, by Pranjal Aggarwal and 5 other authors. They published it on arXiv in November 2023, and it appeared in the proceedings of the KDD 2024 conference, held in Barcelona.

They use “generative engines” to mean systems that search the web and write an answer citing sources, such as Perplexity or the old Bing Chat. In their terms, GEO is what a website’s author can do to gain visibility within those answers.

What they did

• They gathered 10,000 queries from 9 sources and 25 topics, 80% of them informational, such as “what does globalisation mean” or “why does my cat kick its toys”.
• They built their own engine: GPT-3.5 wrote each answer from the top 5 Google results.
• They picked one of those 5 pages and rewrote it with AI following 9 strategies. These included adding quotations, statistics or references, improving the writing, using an authoritative tone or repeating keywords.
• They measured how much of the answer’s text relied on that page, giving more weight to what appears earlier. They also used a “subjective impression” scored by GPT-3.5 itself.

What they found

• What worked best was adding quotations, statistics and references to sources: between 30% and 40% more visibility on their measure. That is where the “up to 40%” repeated in so many articles comes from.
• Improving the fluency and clarity of the text also helped.
• Repeating keywords, the old SEO trick, did worse than changing nothing on their main measure.
• According to the authors, a more persuasive or authoritative tone brought no significant improvement.
• What worked depended on the topic. For example, statistics performed better on law and government queries.
• They repeated part of the test on Perplexity with 200 queries. On their main measure, quotations improved results by 22% and keywords made them 10% worse.

What they did not measure, and why it matters if you run a local business

This is the part almost nobody mentions. The study is serious, but it measures something different from what matters to a tax and accounting firm or a clinic.

• How to get into the answer. All the pages were already in Google’s top 5 results. The authors acknowledge that they did not evaluate the effect on rankings. If your business does not appear, the problem lies precisely in that earlier step.
• Business recommendations. The study does not analyse queries such as “which lawyer would you recommend in Castellón?”.
• Clients. What they call visibility is how much of the answer’s text relies on a page. It does not measure clicks, calls or sales.
• Today’s systems. They used GPT-3.5 with 5 sources. OpenAI launched today’s ChatGPT search in October 2024, almost a year after the first version of the study. The authors themselves warn that the methods will have to adapt as these systems change.
• Perplexity’s search engine. As Perplexity does not let you choose the sources, they uploaded the texts as files. They did not check whether Perplexity found those pages on the internet.

Another figure that gets shared a lot: with the strategies that worked best, the page in 5th place out of 5 gained much more visibility than the 1st, which even lost some. The authors see this as an opportunity for small websites. But it was the 5th of 5 sources already chosen, not a website that Google does not show.

The useful takeaway is a modest one: writing with concrete data and sources helps the AI use you once it has already found you. Stuffing in keywords does not. And that fits with what Google asks for.

SEO vs GEO: for Google, GEO is still SEO

In May 2026, Google published a guide to optimising websites for its generative AI features. It defines AEO and GEO. And it settles the question: “From Google Search’s perspective, optimizing for generative AI search is optimizing for the search experience, and thus still SEO.”

The reason is that its AI Overviews and AI Mode are based on the same ranking systems as its search engine. The AI retrieves pages from Google’s index, runs several related searches at once and writes the answer with links to the sources.

Something similar happens outside Google. ChatGPT searches the web and sometimes relies on third-party search providers. Microsoft states that Bing powers ChatGPT (June 2025). Perplexity searches the internet in real time. And the Gemini app is grounded in Google’s index.

The foundation is the same. What changes is the format of the result, how it is measured and the weight of some sources:

What does not change: a crawlable website, useful content in text form, a well-kept Google Business Profile and a real reputation. Google says that, in the long run, creating unique and useful content has more influence on its AI search than any other advice in its guide.

What does change: you no longer compete for a position in a list, but for a slot in an answer that changes every time. And that answer mixes your website with your profile and with what other sites say about you.

What GEO is not

Google devotes a section of its guide to debunking myths about AEO and GEO. Drawing on that and on OpenAI’s guides, this is what you can rule out:

• A replacement for SEO. If your website is not indexed and your profile is half-finished, the AI has nothing to draw on.
• An llms.txt file. It is a proposal by Jeremy Howard from September 2024 to help AI agents read a website better. Google says its search engine ignores it: it neither helps nor harms. OpenAI and Perplexity have one in their technical documentation, but their guides for websites only ask you not to block their crawler.
• Special markup. Google says its AI search does not need any special schema.org markup. Even so, it recommends continuing to use structured data, because it helps you qualify for rich results.
• Writing for robots. According to Google, there is no need to chop up your content or rewrite it for AI, because it understands synonyms. And the 2023 study found that repeating keywords did not help.
• Cloning pages. Creating content for every search variant in order to manipulate the answers breaches the scaled content abuse policy. Think of 40 “lawyer in [town]” pages with the same text.
• Buying mentions or reviews. Google warns that seeking inauthentic mentions is not as useful as it seems, because its systems filter out spam. And offering something in exchange for reviews is prohibited on Business Profile.
• Paying the AI. OpenAI states that ads do not influence ChatGPT’s answers.
• Something that can be guaranteed. OpenAI says placement is not guaranteed. Google asks you to be wary of tools that promise rankings or claim to use “internal” metrics: none of them has access to its systems.

If someone guarantees that you will appear in ChatGPT, you know what they are selling you.

How to tell whether it works without paying for tools

You do not need a subscription. To start with, these 4 free sources are enough:

1. The manual test. Ask the way a client would, several times and in several AI tools, and count how many answers you appear in. The method, with a template, is in how to check whether ChatGPT recommends your business in 15 minutes.
2. Search Console. In June 2026, Google announced a generative AI performance report. Since 31 August it has been available for all websites, although it is being rolled out gradually. It counts how many times links to your website were shown in AI Overviews and AI Mode, by page, country, device and date. For now it only gives impressions: no clicks or queries.
3. Google Analytics. Visits that come from ChatGPT carry the tag utm_source=chatgpt.com.
4. Bing Webmaster Tools. Its AI Performance report counts citations in Copilot, in Bing’s summaries and in some partners it does not name. It is no use for measuring ChatGPT.

If a paid tool gives you an “AI visibility share”, find out which questions it asks, how many times and from which location. Without that, the number cannot be interpreted.

Where a local business should start: 5 actions in order

This is the order for a law firm, a tax and accounting firm or a clinic starting from scratch. It goes from what blocks everything to what adds up over time.

1. Check that AI tools can read your website

Check that your robots.txt does not block Googlebot, OAI-SearchBot or PerplexityBot, and that your hosting or Cloudflare does not shut them out. Our free SEO and AI audit checks your robots.txt in a minute. Go over your hosting and Cloudflare settings with whoever manages your website. In Search Console, confirm that your pages are indexed and that the generative AI control is set to “Include”.

Why first: letting their crawler in is the only requirement OpenAI sets. Google requires the page to be indexed and the site to be included in its AI features. If this fails, nothing else counts.

2. Complete your Google Business Profile and sign up for Bing Places

Precise category, services, opening hours, service area and website. Then, the same details in Bing Places.

Why: Google says your Business Profile can help your services appear in its AI answers. Gemini uses Google Maps to search for businesses. And Microsoft recommends Bing Places so that your details can be included in AI-generated answers. We explain how to work on a profile in depth in local SEO for businesses in Castellón and Valencia.

3. Write one page per service with what only you know

One page for each important service, with the specialism and the city, who it is for, how you work, timescales and who does the work. And with information of your own: typical cases, data from your experience, the regulations you cite.

Let’s say you run a tax and accounting firm. “7 tips for the self-employed” could be written by anyone, including an AI. “The 4 mistakes we see most often in a self-employed person’s first quarterly tax return” can only be written by someone who handles those cases.

Why: it is what Google points to as most influential in its AI search. Its example of generic content is “7 Tips for First-Time Homebuyers”. The 2023 study points in the same direction: data and sources help; filler does not.

4. Get real reviews and mentions

Ask every client for a review within 30 days of the service. Complete your listing with your professional association (colegio) and in your sector’s directories, and look for local press coverage when you have something to tell.

Why: in local rankings, Google takes into account the number of reviews and of websites that point to your business. And its AI can show what is said about your services in blogs, videos and forums. One caveat: Google warns that fabricated mentions do not help as much as they might seem to.

5. Measure every month and adjust

Repeat the 15-minute test with the same questions, look at Search Console and Analytics, and write down what you have changed.

Why: answers vary from one attempt to the next. A single test proves nothing. The trend over several months is what tells you whether you are on the right track.

Decision map: what to do first in your situation

The 5 actions apply to almost everyone, but the order changes depending on where you start from. Find the row that looks like your case and start there.

What to do on Monday

1. Do the 15-minute test and save the result with the date.
2. Find your row in the decision map and do only what it says under “What to do first”.
3. Open Search Console: indexing, the generative AI control set to “Include” and, if you already have it, the generative AI report.
4. If someone offers you GEO, ask them what they are going to change and how they are going to measure it. If they promise rankings, rule them out.
5. Repeat the test in a month’s time, with the same questions.

If you would rather go through it with someone, at NOR studio we analyse your website, your profile and what the AI tools answer compared with your competitors: request your audit. And if you want to work on it on an ongoing basis, this is our service for visibility in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google.