What is GEO? How to get cited by ChatGPT

More and more people ask an AI assistant instead of googling. When you ask ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini for advice, you do not get ten links to choose from. You get one answer. And the brands named in that answer win. The discipline of getting named is called GEO.

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization

Where SEO is about ranking at the top of Google’s blue links, GEO is about becoming the source an AI assistant cites. It is the same fight for visibility as always, just on a new arena. And right now there is still plenty of room for those who move early.

Why it is urgent now

Search behaviour is shifting faster than most people realise. A growing share of the questions people used to google, they now put to an assistant. Google itself answers with AI overviews at the top of the page. Whoever becomes the cited source now builds a lead that will be hard to catch later.

I have the best reason of all to believe in this. One of my current clients found me by asking an AI assistant who was the best in their niche. The assistant named me, and he wrote to me the same day.

How to get cited

AI assistants read the open web and cite the sources that are easiest to understand and appear most trustworthy. The work builds on a solid SEO foundation plus a layer that is specific to GEO:

• Schema markup that tells the machine exactly what a page is about.
• Clear answers to real questions, ideally in FAQ form.
• Clear author authority, so the assistant can attach credibility to a name.
• Technical clarity, including an llms.txt file that makes you easy for the machines to read.

The good thing about GEO

The work is not wasted if you also want to rank on Google. The same virtues are rewarded in both places. You build two forms of visibility on one foundation.

Want to know whether the AI assistants mention your brand today? Read more about GEO, or book a meeting and we will check it together.