What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation)?

What does GEO mean?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the work of making sure that AI services know a company, describe it correctly and name it, recommend it or cite it as a source in relevant answers. The services in question are ones such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Claude, which answer a question with a text naming a few firms and a handful of sources rather than only a list of links.

The term comes from research. Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues introduced it in a 2023 study that was presented at the KDD 2024 conference. They describe generative engines as systems that use generative models to gather and summarise information to answer questions. In the study’s tests, GEO methods raised visibility in such answers by up to 40%, according to Aggarwal et al. (2024).

There is no binding definition. According to Wikipedia (2026), several overlapping terms describe related practices, and practitioners, vendors and publications use them in different ways. For a company, the label therefore matters less than two questions: what exactly is being done, and how is it measured?

GEO, SEO, LLMO and AEO compared

In practice GEO, LLMO and AEO mean almost the same work and differ mainly in their point of view. SEO is the foundation all three build on.

Term	Stands for	Point of view	Typical metric
SEO	Search Engine Optimisation	a search engine’s list of results	rank, impressions, clicks
GEO	Generative Engine Optimisation	the system that generates answers from several sources	share of answers that name or cite you
LLMO	Large Language Model Optimisation	the language model and what it knows	share of answers that name you, and whether the description is right
AEO	Answer Engine Optimisation	the direct answer instead of a list of links	how often your content supplies the answer

AIO (AI Optimisation) and AI SEO are in use too. Depending on the provider, AI SEO means either GEO or classic SEO done with AI tools. AI visibility is not a method but the outcome you measure. The terms are explained in detail in What is LLMO?.

GEO does not replace SEO. According to Google’s guide (2026), the generative AI features in Google Search are rooted in its core ranking and quality systems, so the best practices for SEO remain relevant. ChatGPT and Claude, however, use their own search systems. A good Google ranking does not mean they will name your company.

How do AI services choose their sources?

AI services draw on two routes: what the model learnt in training, and a web search while it answers.

• Training data: whatever was in the training data is built into the model. It only changes with a new model. What counts here is what is said about your company widely and consistently across the web.
• Web search: many services search the web while they answer and read current pages. New or updated pages can often show up in answers within days or weeks.

Web search often means more than one search. For AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google describes a technique called ‘query fan-out’: several related searches across subtopics and data sources, according to Google Search Central (2025). To be shown there as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet, according to Google.

Out of everything the search finds, the answer ends up naming only a few firms. Your website is not the only thing that counts: directories, comparison sites, associations and trade media can flow into the answer too. How the services weigh their sources in detail cannot be seen from outside. Google says in its guide (2026) that no third-party tool has access to its internal ranking or AI systems. What can be measured is which sources a service actually cites.

What does GEO work involve?

GEO work has four parts: technology, content, sources and a profile for AI agents.

Technology. The crawlers of the AI services are allowed to read your pages; neither robots.txt nor a firewall locks them out, or any other work on the website does little good. Structured data makes facts such as your name, address and offer machine-readable. For the AI features of Google Search, though, Google says you need neither special markup nor AI text files. Google Search does not use an llms.txt file, which gives AI systems an overview of your most important pages; whether other services use it is an open question. It adds to the basics but does not replace them.

Content for the follow-up searches. The sub-searches the AI services run are questions your website should answer: what you offer, for whom, where, at what price and what sets you apart. Pages that answer such questions directly, in plain sentences, stand a chance of being read and cited. Google’s guide (2026) recommends content with a perspective of its own over text that only repeats what is said elsewhere. Your own data, prices and experience are what only your company can provide.

Sources and listings. An AI reads many pages about your industry, not just yours. What directories, associations and trade media write about you can flow straight into the answer. GEO work therefore includes complete and consistent listings, with the same name, address and offer as on your website, plus genuine mentions and expert quotes. Bought reviews and fake profiles are not part of it.

A profile for AI agents. An agent-ready profile makes your company’s key details readable for AI agents. agentready.ch, like anewera a Loaded AG service, has a free check of whether your website is ready for AI agents, and a do-it-yourself profile.

How is GEO measured?

GEO is measured not by a rank but by shares: in how many answers to typical customer questions is your company named, recommended or cited as a source? Because the same question does not get the same answer every time, you need many answers per question, engine and day.

• Shares, not single answers: a single answer shows what is possible, not how often it happens.
• Margin of error: it shows the range in which the true share probably lies. A worked example: if 3 of 10 answers name you, the 95% margin of error runs from 11 to 60%; with 90 of 300 answers, from 25 to 35%. A change only counts once it is larger than that range.
• Location and language: questions are asked from your customers’ location and in their languages, because both can change the answer.
• Failed answers: errors and timeouts are counted and reported, not quietly left out.
• Role and description: named, recommended or cited as a source, and whether the offer, location and prices are right.

How anewera measures this way, on ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Claude, is set out on the method page. The metrics are explained in detail in What is AI visibility?.

What is different about GEO in Switzerland?

In Switzerland customers ask in several languages, and Swiss directories carry a lot of weight as sources.

Languages. Google’s AI Mode has been available in Switzerland since October 2025 in German, French and Italian, according to Netzwoche (2025). A hotel study reported by Netzwoche (2026) shows that a company can be very present in German answers and barely appear in French ones. GEO for Switzerland therefore means content and measurement in every language your customers use, English included.

Local directories. In a study of 98 Swiss German SMEs, local.ch was among the sources cited for 63% of the firms examined, search.ch for 24% and comparis.ch for 23%, according to Netzwoche (2026). Complete and consistent listings there are part of GEO work.

Location. The same question can get a different answer in Zurich than in Berlin. Measurement for Swiss companies therefore asks with Switzerland as the location and, for local offers, ideally the city as well.

What GEO cannot do

• Guarantee mentions: answers are generated afresh each time, and the providers keep changing their models. Even Google says that a page meeting all requirements will not necessarily be crawled, indexed or served.
• Replace or buy advertising: GEO is optimisation, not paid placement.
• Replace SEO: GEO builds on a readable website and clear content.
• Change training data overnight: what a model knows without search only changes with a new model.
• Work through tricks: repeated keywords or hidden instructions to the AI do not make a page clearer and put your credibility at risk.
• Prove anything with one answer: whether the work has an effect only shows in ongoing measurement with a margin of error.

How anewera does this work for companies in Switzerland is described on our GEO agency Switzerland page. How to choose an agency for it is explained in Choosing a GEO agency.