Quick answer
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of making content and brands more visible and more often cited in the answers that generative AI builds by synthesizing multiple sources. The term was proposed in the paper 'GEO: Generative Engine Optimization', published on arXiv in November 2023 and accepted at KDD 2024. Rather than a new secret technique, it means adding easy-to-answer structure, verifiable evidence and consistent brand information to basic search engine optimization (SEO).
Key takeaways
- GEO is the work of getting cited in generative AI answers.
- The term comes from the GEO paper published in November 2023 (KDD 2024).
- In the paper's experiments, visibility rose by up to 40%.
- Google says no special optimization is needed to appear in AI Overviews.
- No one can guarantee AI citations.
Where did the term GEO come from?
GEO is a term proposed in the paper 'GEO: Generative Engine Optimization' by Aggarwal et al., researchers from Princeton University, IIT Delhi and other institutions. The paper was published on arXiv in November 2023 and accepted at KDD 2024.
The paper calls systems that retrieve search results and generate answers with a large language model (LLM) generative engines, and it is the first study to systematically test methods for raising content visibility within them. It used GEO-bench, a benchmark of 10,000 queries from diverse domains, and reported that GEO methods could raise visibility in generative engine answers by up to 40%.
Which methods were most effective in the research?
The most effective methods in the GEO paper were adding citations to sources, adding quotations and adding statistics. Keyword stuffing, by contrast, did not perform well.
According to the paper, the three methods showed relative improvements of 30–40% on the position-adjusted word count metric and 15–30% on the subjective impression metric. The effect varied by domain, and the researchers also validated the methods on Perplexity.
However, these are experimental results from a research setting. Generative engines keep changing, so the same figures cannot be expected in real services.
Do I need separate GEO work to appear in Google AI Overviews?
Google's official position is that there are no additional requirements and no special optimization needed to appear in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Existing SEO best practices continue to apply.
Google states that you do not need to create new machine-readable files, AI text files or markup, and that there is no special schema.org structured data you need to add. To be shown as a supporting link, a page must be indexed and eligible to appear in Google Search with a snippet. Because GEO is often described in exaggerated terms, it is worth knowing this first.
So what does GEO work actually consist of?
In practice, GEO means adding easy-to-answer structure, verifiable evidence, consistent brand information and AI crawler access management on top of basic SEO.
OpenAI recommends allowing OAI-SearchBot in robots.txt if you want to appear in ChatGPT search. Bot names and behavior are as of writing (2026) and may change, so check the official documentation.
- Basic SEO: allow crawling, confirm indexing, provide important content as text
- Easy-to-answer structure: question-style subheadings with direct answers, definition sentences
- Verifiable evidence: state sources, statistics and quotations in the body text
- Consistent brand information: keep company information identical on your site and external profiles
- AI crawlers: check search bot access in robots.txt and the firewall
Frequently asked questions
Does doing GEO mean I will be cited in AI answers?
No, it does not. AI answers can differ each time even for the same question and are affected by platform policies and model changes. No one can guarantee AI citations; GEO is work that raises the likelihood of being cited.
Do I need to create llms.txt to do GEO?
No, it is not required. llms.txt is a proposal, not an official web standard, and Google states that no new AI text file is needed to appear in its AI features. It is appropriate to see it as a low-cost supplementary measure.
Are GEO, AIO and LLMO different things?
The industry sometimes uses answer engine optimization (AEO) and GEO interchangeably and also uses names such as AIO and LLMO. Their scopes overlap considerably, so it is better to judge by what work is actually done than by the name.
Key entities in this article
- Generative engine optimization (GEO) ( Concept or service )
- The work of making content and brands more visible and more often cited in answers that generative AI builds from multiple sources. Official source: Generative engine optimization (GEO)
- GEO paper (KDD 2024) ( Paper )
- The paper 'GEO: Generative Engine Optimization' by Aggarwal et al., which proposed the term and tested methods on a 10,000-query benchmark. Official source: GEO paper (KDD 2024)
- Search engine optimization (SEO) ( Concept or service )
- The work of helping search engines understand content and helping people find a site through search. Official source: Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Large language model (LLM) ( Concept or service )
- An AI model trained on large amounts of text to generate language; the basis of services such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini.
- Perplexity ( Organization )
- The company behind an AI search service that shows its sources; it operates PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User. Official source: Perplexity
- Google ( Organization )
- The company behind Google Search, AI Overviews and AI Mode, which publishes official SEO guidance through Search Central. Official source: Google
- AI Overviews ( Concept or service )
- The Google Search feature in which AI summarizes multiple sources and shows them with links. Official source: AI Overviews
- AI Mode ( Concept or service )
- The conversational AI search experience in Google Search for follow-up questions and complex comparisons. Official source: AI Mode
- schema.org ( Concept or service )
- The project that defines the shared vocabulary used for structured data. Official source: schema.org
- Structured data ( Concept or service )
- Data that classifies page content in a standard format for search engines, mostly using the schema.org vocabulary. Official source: Structured data
- OpenAI ( Organization )
- The US AI company behind ChatGPT, which operates the GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User crawlers. Official source: OpenAI
- robots.txt ( Concept or service )
- The file that tells crawlers which URLs on a site they may access, standardized as RFC 9309. Official source: robots.txt