More and more people are getting their answers without ever clicking on a search result. That changes what findability means.
GEO stands for generative engine optimization: ensuring your company is mentioned and quoted in responses from AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI overviews. Where SEO aims for a position in a list of links, GEO aims for mention in the answer itself.
IN COMMON LANGUAGE
What's different from SEO
The basics largely overlap: AI systems pull their material from the same web pages that search engines index. A site that is technically untraceable will also not be cited.
What differs is the form of the answer. A search engine sends visitors to your page; an AI assistant summarizes and cites you as the source. This means that a page that answers a question directly and completely has a better chance than a page that works towards contacting you.
And consistency counts more. If there are three different prices on three pages, then you cannot give a reliable answer and you will be skipped in favor of a source that is unambiguous.
WHY IT MATTERS
What we do for this
Each knowledge base page starts with a short, self-contained answer. That's not a style choice: it's the format that both featured clips and AI assistants adopt.
In addition, we store prices and facts centrally, so that they are identical on every page. Our robots.txt explicitly allows AI crawlers and there is an llms.txt with a machine-readable summary of what we do - ten of the twelve competitors surveyed lack this.
- Answer at the top — short, complete, without reservations.
- Facts consistent — contradictions make you unreliable as a source.
- Verifiable figures — with date and origin.
- AI crawlers allowed — those who are not allowed to be read are not quoted.
- Also honest about disadvantages — models like to cite sources that weigh up.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
More about GEO
Is GEO now replacing SEO?
No, it comes with it. Most searches still simply return links, and AI systems draw from the same indexed pages. Anyone who does not have their technical basis in order will not win in either.
Can I measure whether I am being cited?
Not yet like in Search Console. In practice, you test it manually: ask the questions you want to be found for to the known assistants and note whether and how you are called. We record this check monthly.
Should I open my site to AI crawlers?
That's a choice. Blocking protects your texts against reuse, but also excludes you from mentioning them. We have consciously chosen to allow it, because being mentioned benefits us more than being shielded.
CONTINUE READING
Of course, continue reading about this subject.
To be mentioned in AI answers?
We test which questions you are and are not mentioned for, and what can be done about it.