What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — is a term used interchangeably with AI SEO. Both refer to the practice of optimizing content to be cited by AI search engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Gemini. Different consultants prefer different terms; the underlying work is the same.

Do I need separate strategies for ChatGPT vs Google vs Perplexity?

Not entirely — the fundamentals overlap. All three reward clear direct answers, authoritative sources, and structured content. But each has quirks. ChatGPT prefers citing established authority sites. Perplexity cites more recent content. Google AI Overviews favor content with FAQ schema and clear question-answer pairs. A well-rounded AI SEO strategy covers all three patterns.

Can I track AI search traffic like I track Google?

Partially. AI search referral traffic is starting to appear in GA4 with source attribution like "chatgpt.com" and "perplexity.ai." Citation tracking is harder — you have to test queries manually or use emerging tools that monitor AI responses. Both are early, but the data quality is improving every quarter.

Will traditional SEO still matter in 5 years?

Yes. AI search engines crawl, rank, and cite content through the same underlying signals as traditional search. Authority, relevance, and structured data will continue to matter — if anything, they'll matter more. What's changing is the surface where your content shows up: less "position 3 on a results page," more "cited in the AI's answer."

How do I check whether my brand is showing up in AI search results?

Test it manually: open ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews and run the queries your buyers would use — category terms, comparison queries, problem-solution queries. Note whether your brand is cited, whether competitors are cited instead, and which sources the AI attributes. Do this for 10–15 queries relevant to your business and you'll have a reasonable baseline in under an hour.

AI SEO and GEO: Your Customers Already Stopped Googling

Your customers already stopped Googling. Your SEO hasn't caught up.

When someone asks ChatGPT about your industry, what does it say? When Perplexity recommends a tool in your category, is it yours? When Google's AI Overview answers a buyer's question at the top of the results page, is your site in the citations?

If you don't know, you're already losing.

Traditional SEO optimizes to rank on a results page. AI SEO — also called Generative Engine Optimization, or GEO — optimizes to get cited. Pulled into the answer an AI gives when a real person asks a real question in your category. Those are not the same job. Most SEO agencies are still doing the first one.

What AI SEO actually is

AI search engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude — don't rank pages. They synthesize answers. They pull from sources and build a response. If your content isn't structured in a way they can extract from, you don't get cited. If you don't get cited, you don't exist in the answer your buyer just received.

AI SEO / GEO is the work of getting your content structured, worded, and authoritative enough that AI engines quote you when buyers ask questions in your category.

It's not a keyword game anymore. It's a question-and-answer game. And the answer has to be on your site, in the right format, with the right signals, before the AI goes looking for it.

Why it matters right now

The rules already changed. Here's what I see on every audit:

Sites with ten years of traditional SEO authority are getting skipped in AI answers
Sites with a clear FAQ layer, direct answers, and structured data are getting cited
Share of AI-driven traffic is climbing month over month in almost every vertical I work in
Buyers under 40 are already asking ChatGPT before they ask Google

If your 2024 SEO strategy is still working, it's working less. And it's going to work a lot less next year. The teams that get ahead of this are going to eat the teams that don't.

What the work actually looks like

I'm not shipping you a 40-page AI SEO audit PDF with generic recommendations. I do the work. Twenty years running SEO and demand gen at big companies and mom-and-pop shops — I know what the weeds look like.

Citation audit. I find out what AI engines are saying about your brand and your category today, and who's getting cited instead of you.
Content restructure. The blog posts, landing pages, and FAQ sections you already have — most of them need new headers, clearer direct answers, and schema you probably don't have installed. I fix it.
Question mapping. I identify the 50–100 buyer questions in your category that actually matter, and build content that answers them directly, in the format AI engines pull from.
Authority signals. Schema, structured data, author markup, real expertise signals. Not tricks — the stuff that actually makes AI engines trust your content.
Ongoing measurement. I track your citations in AI responses the same way traditional SEO tracks rankings. You'll know whether it's working.

Who this applies to

B2B and B2C companies whose customers already use AI search — which is most of them, whether the CMO has noticed yet or not. B2B SaaS. Fintech. Healthcare and medical practices. Legal. Ecommerce and D2C brands. Agencies that need an AI SEO specialist they can white-label.

If your buyers are 60+ and nobody in your category has ever opened ChatGPT, skip this and focus on traditional SEO. For everyone else — this is already happening. You want to be in the answers.

Want to know what AI already says about your brand? Send me your URL and I'll run a few queries. First look is free.