What Is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)? How to Choose a GEO Agency

Short answer: Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of making your business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google's AI Overviews to find, understand, and cite when they write an answer. A good GEO agency improves the content and signals those systems rely on, measures whether your business is actually being mentioned, and reports results honestly. It does not promise a guaranteed spot in an AI answer, because nobody controls those answers.

Where the term "GEO" comes from

The term was popularized by a 2023 research paper titled "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization," written by researchers from Princeton, Georgia Tech, the Allen Institute for AI and IIT Delhi (arXiv 2311.09735). The authors described generative engines as systems that pull information from many sources and summarize it into one answer. They tested ways content creators could improve how visible their content is inside those answers, and found that changes such as adding citations, quotations and statistics from credible sources could improve visibility in their experiments.

In practice, GEO and answer engine optimization (AEO) describe almost the same goal. Some agencies use one term, some use the other. If you want the longer definition, read our page on what answer engine optimization is, or our earlier post comparing AEO vs. GEO vs. AI SEO.

How GEO differs from traditional SEO

Traditional SEO aims to rank a page in a list of blue links. GEO aims to get your business named or cited inside a written answer. The two overlap a lot. Google says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond its normal Search guidance, and that the same foundational SEO best practices apply (Google Search Central, "AI features and your website"). So GEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it. We cover the difference in more depth in AI vs. SEO.

What changes is the emphasis:

• Answers over keywords. AI assistants respond to full questions, so pages need to answer those questions directly near the top.
• Facts that agree everywhere. Your name, services, location and contact details should match across your website, Google Business Profile and directories.
• Third-party mentions. Assistants often cite lists, reviews and articles on other sites, not just your own pages.
• Crawl access. AI search tools use their own crawlers. OpenAI, for example, documents a crawler called OAI-SearchBot that it uses for search results (OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers"). If your site blocks it, your pages may not appear in ChatGPT search answers.

What a GEO agency actually does

A credible GEO engagement usually includes:

1. A baseline measurement. The agency tracks a fixed set of real buyer questions across several AI engines and records whether you are mentioned or cited.
2. A technical check. This covers robots.txt, crawler access, page speed, structured data and whether key pages can be read without heavy scripts.
3. Entity cleanup. Your business facts are made consistent across your site, Google Business Profile and major directories.
4. Answer-ready content. Service pages and articles are written or rewritten to answer specific questions clearly, with sources.
5. Off-site visibility. The agency identifies the articles, directories and lists AI engines already cite in your category, then works on getting your business included where that is appropriate.
6. Honest reporting. You get regular reports that separate real changes from noise, including engine outages.

How to choose a GEO agency: questions to ask

Before you sign, ask each agency:

• Which AI engines do you track, and how often? You want specific engines and a stated schedule.
• Which questions will you track for us? The prompts should reflect how your customers actually ask, including local ones.
• How do you handle missing data? AI tools have outages. A careful agency reports missing runs as missing, not as a drop to zero.
• What do you deliver in the first 90 days? Look for a written list, not just "strategy."
• Who owns the content and accounts? You should.
• Do you guarantee results? Be cautious of any promise of a guaranteed position in ChatGPT or Perplexity. AI answers change from one run to the next.
• What does it cost, and what is included? Compare scope, not just price. Our page on how much AEO costs explains the usual cost drivers.

Red flags

• Guaranteed rankings or guaranteed mentions in AI answers.
• Reports with a single "AI score" and no explanation of how it is calculated.
• No access to the underlying prompts or answers.
• Advice to block AI crawlers without discussing the trade-off.
• Long contracts with no defined deliverables.

How long GEO takes

Results depend on your starting point, your competition and how quickly changes are made. Some technical fixes can be picked up quickly, while third-party mentions take longer to build. For a realistic view, see how long AEO takes.

How Visionary AI Partners approaches GEO

At Visionary AI Partners, we treat GEO and AEO as one discipline. Our Answer Engine Optimization services start with a measured baseline across the AI engines your customers use. We then fix technical access, clean up your business facts, publish answer-ready content and report what changed. We report engine outages and missing data separately, so you never mistake a tool problem for a real decline. If you want a starting point, request a Free AI Visibility Score.

Frequently asked questions

Is GEO the same as AEO?

They describe almost the same goal: getting your business found and cited in AI-generated answers. "GEO" comes from academic research on generative engines. "AEO" is more common among agencies that focus on answer engines.

Does GEO replace SEO?

No. Google says the same foundational SEO practices apply to its AI features. GEO adds a focus on direct answers, consistent facts and third-party citations.

Can a GEO agency guarantee my business will appear in ChatGPT?

No one can guarantee that. AI answers vary between runs and change as models update. A good agency measures your visibility over time and works on the signals that make a mention more likely.

What should a GEO report show?

It should show which prompts and engines were tracked, whether you were mentioned or cited, how you compare with competitors, and any missing or failed runs.

Sources & References

1. Aggarwal et al., "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization," arXiv 2311.09735 (2023): https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735
2. Google Search Central, "AI features and your website": https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features
3. OpenAI, "Overview of OpenAI Crawlers": https://platform.openai.com/docs/bots
4. Google Search Central, "Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content": https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content