What is GEO, and how is it different from SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the work of getting a site to rank high in a search engine's results list. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the work of getting the same site cited or recommended in the answers given by assistants such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude. The user no longer picks from ten links; they read one answer.

The shared foundation

Both start in the same place: the page must load fast, the text must arrive ready from the server, and the headings must say what the page is. Most assistants gather their answers from a search index, so a page a search engine cannot find will not make it into an assistant's answer either. GEO does not replace SEO; it is built on top of it.

The difference: sentences, not pages

A search engine ranks pages; an assistant quotes sentences. An assistant answering 'is there an advertising agency in Antalya' looks for a plain sentence on your site saying 'we are an advertising agency based in Antalya'. Slogans do not help: nobody can tell what you do from 'we carry your brand into the future'.

First steps

State on your site, in plain sentences, what you are, where you are and what you do. Give frequent questions in question-and-answer form. Mark up your business details with structured data (schema.org). Put an llms.txt at the root of the site describing what the site is. Make sure your robots.txt does not block the assistants' crawlers.

Beyond your site

Assistants do not learn about a business from its own site alone. Map profiles, industry directories, news and lists on other sites are sources too. If your name, address and line of work appear the same way across those sources, the assistant recognises you as one business.

There is no ranking report in GEO; the same question can get two different answers. The practical way to measure is to write down ten questions your customer would ask, put them to different assistants each month, and note whether your name comes up.