AI Search
What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? Evidence, Limits and Practical Steps
Where the term came from, what the original research measured, and how to apply it without chasing hype.
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of improving how often and how prominently your content is used in answers produced by generative AI systems such as Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT search and Perplexity.
The term comes from a research paper first published in November 2023. It’s now used loosely in marketing, sometimes to describe ordinary SEO, sometimes to sell tactics with little evidence. This guide separates what’s known from what’s claimed.
Short answer: Generative engine optimization (GEO) means improving how often your content is used and cited in AI-generated answers. The term comes from a 2023 research paper (Aggarwal et al.) that reported visibility gains of up to 40% on its own benchmark, with results varying by domain. In practice GEO rests on SEO foundations: indexable, clear, well-sourced content from a trusted, consistently described brand.
Key Takeaways
- GEO was coined in a 2023 research paper that introduced a benchmark called GEO-bench.
- The paper reported gains of up to 40% in its benchmark, and noted results vary across domains.
- Google says no special optimizations are needed for its AI features beyond normal Search best practices.
- Each AI platform has its own crawler and rules; check you aren’t blocking the ones you want.
- Be wary of anyone promising AI citations; selection happens per query and isn’t guaranteed.
Where the term came from
“GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues was posted to arXiv in November 2023 (revised June 2024). It proposed treating visibility in generative engine responses as an optimization problem and introduced GEO-bench, a large set of queries across domains with relevant web sources.
The authors reported that content changes could boost visibility by up to 40% in generative engine responses on their benchmark. They also noted that the efficacy of strategies varies across domains. Those are research results in a controlled setting, not a promise for any particular site or AI product.
GEO, AEO, AI SEO: what’s the difference?
| Term | Usually means |
|---|---|
| SEO | Being found and ranked in search results |
| AEO | Being used as a direct answer: featured snippets, voice, AI answers |
| GEO | Being used and cited in generative AI answers specifically |
| AI SEO | Umbrella term for SEO adapted to AI-powered search, often covering both of the above |
In day-to-day work the overlap is large. See AEO vs SEO and AI SEO vs traditional SEO.
What Google says
Google’s documentation for AI Overviews and AI Mode says pages must be indexed and eligible for a snippet, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed. Both features use “query fan-out”, running several related searches across subtopics to assemble a response, which Google says lets it show a wider and more diverse set of links than classic results.
Practically, that rewards pages that answer specific subtopics well, not just the head term. A thorough page that covers the questions around a topic gives fan-out searches more to match.
Other AI platforms have their own crawlers
| Platform | Crawler for search/answers | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Overviews / AI Mode | Googlebot (Search) | Google-Extended controls AI training and grounding in other Google products; it doesn’t affect Search inclusion |
| ChatGPT search | OAI-SearchBot | Blocking GPTBot (training) doesn’t remove you from ChatGPT search |
| Perplexity | PerplexityBot | Perplexity-User (user-requested fetches) generally ignores robots.txt |
If you want to appear in these products, check your robots.txt and any firewall or CDN bot rules aren’t blocking their search crawlers. See robots.txt mistakes.
Practical GEO work
- Fix the SEO foundations: crawlable, indexable pages with good page experience.
- Cover topics thoroughly: answer the subquestions around each service or product, one clear page per intent.
- Write quotable passages: self-contained statements, definitions, steps and comparisons.
- Add evidence: original data, specific examples, sources and dates.
- Describe your brand consistently: the same name, services and facts on your site, Business Profile, Merchant Center and profiles elsewhere.
- Use structured data that matches the page.
- Measure what you can: Search Console Web data and AI referral traffic in analytics.
Detail on each: making content easier to cite, entity SEO and measuring AI visibility.
Tactics to avoid
- Mass-producing AI-written pages: Google’s spam policies name generating many pages with AI tools without adding value as scaled content abuse.
- Near-identical city or service pages built to catch similar queries (doorway abuse).
- Hidden text or prompts aimed at AI systems.
- Paying for placements on unrelated authoritative sites to borrow their reputation (site reputation abuse).
- Buying “AI visibility” packages that promise citations.
No one can guarantee a citation in an AI answer. These systems choose sources per query, and Google says even pages that meet every requirement aren’t guaranteed to be shown.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented GEO?
The term comes from the paper “GEO: Generative Engine Optimization” by Aggarwal and colleagues, first posted on arXiv in November 2023.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. Generative AI features in Google draw on indexed pages, and Google says normal Search best practices apply. GEO is a layer on top of SEO.
Is the 40% visibility figure reliable for my site?
It’s the paper’s upper-bound result on its own benchmark, and the authors note efficacy varies by domain. Treat it as evidence that content changes can matter, not as an expected result.
Should I block AI crawlers?
It depends on your goals. Blocking a platform’s search crawler stops it from using your pages in its answers; blocking training crawlers (like GPTBot or Google-Extended) doesn’t affect search inclusion in those products’ search features, per their documentation.
Do I need an llms.txt file for GEO?
Google says no new machine-readable or AI text files are needed for its AI features. Other platforms may vary.
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Sources
- Aggarwal et al.: GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv, 2023/2024)
- Google Search Central: AI features and your website
- Google Search Central: Google's common crawlers (Google-Extended)
- OpenAI: Overview of OpenAI crawlers
- Perplexity: Perplexity crawlers
- Google Search Central: Spam policies for Google web search
Last reviewed October 12, 2026.
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