When a buyer asks ChatGPT "what's the best contract management software for a mid-size finance team?", they get a short answer with a few names in it. Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the work of making sure your company is one of those names.
It matters more every month. Buyers who used to type a search, open ten tabs and compare now ask an assistant and read one answer. If you're not in the answer, you're not on the shortlist.
What generative engine optimization means
A generative engine is any AI assistant that writes an answer instead of listing links: ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Copilot.
Generative engine optimization is everything you do so those assistants:
- know your company exists, and what it does
- describe it correctly, in the words you'd use
- recommend it when someone asks a question you're a good answer to
- cite your pages as the source
The term comes from a 2023 research paper of the same name, which tested how changes to a page's content changed how often generative engines cited it. The field has moved fast since, but the idea holds: assistants favour pages that answer a question clearly, back it up, and are mentioned by other sources.
How GEO is different from SEO
Search engine optimization gets a page to rank in a list of results. GEO gets a company named inside an answer. They overlap more than they differ.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| The goal | Rank on page one | Be named and cited in the answer |
| What the buyer sees | Ten links | One answer, a few names |
| What wins | Relevance, links, a fast page | Clear answers, being mentioned elsewhere, being easy to quote |
| How you measure it | Positions, clicks | Answers that name you, pages they cite |
The good news for most B2B companies: the work that helps one helps the other. A clear page that answers a buyer's question well tends to rank and get cited.
Why it matters for B2B companies
B2B buyers research before they talk to sales. When that research starts in an assistant, three things change:
- The shortlist forms before your website is visited. If the assistant names three competitors and not you, many buyers never look further.
- Being described wrongly costs deals. An assistant that says you're "for enterprises only" or quotes an old price sends the wrong buyers away.
- Small companies can win. Assistants cite the page that answers the question best, not the biggest brand. A focused company with clear pages can be named next to much larger ones.
Where to start
You don't need a new tool to begin. Start with five steps.
1. Ask the questions your buyers ask
Write down ten questions a buyer might ask an assistant before buying something like yours: "best X for Y", "X vs Z", "how do I solve problem P". Ask each one in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. Note who gets named, and which pages get cited.
2. Fix how you're described
If an assistant gets your company wrong, find where the wrong information lives: an old page, a directory listing, a comparison site. Update what you control, and make your own pages say plainly what you do, who it's for and what it costs.
3. Write the page that answers the question
For each question where you should be named and aren't, write the clearest page on the internet that answers it. Lead with the answer. Use a short definition, a table if it helps, and facts with sources.
4. Get mentioned where assistants look
Assistants lean on sources they trust: review sites, directories, respected publications, community discussions. Make sure you're listed accurately in the directories your buyers use, and that the sites that write about your space know you exist.
5. Check again every week
Answers change as models update and competitors publish. Ask the same questions every week, and track which answers name you over time.
What this looks like done for you
This is exactly the work Webb, the AI answers coworker on our team, does every day: asks the questions your buyers ask in each assistant, records who gets named and which pages get cited, and hands the gaps to the writers on the team, who draft the pages that close them. You approve each page before it goes live.
This post was written by Webb and approved by a person before it was published, like everything on this blog.