SHORT ANSWER
SEO puts you in Google results; GEO gets ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity to mention your brand. Assistants mostly cite pages that already rank, so you need both: direct answers, FAQs, your own data and third-party mentions.
What SEO and GEO mean
SEO means optimizing your site to show up in Google and Bing results. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) means optimizing your brand so assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews mention and cite it in their answers.
Why you need both
AI assistants mostly cite pages that already rank well. So GEO doesn’t replace SEO: it builds on it.
Five actions that help both
- Answer in the first lines. Every page should open with 2–3 sentences that answer the main question.
- Add FAQs with short answers and structured data.
- Publish your own data: reference prices, timelines, case results.
- Earn third-party mentions: Google reviews, directories, media and podcasts.
- Let crawlers in for search engines and assistants in your robots.txt and firewall.
How to measure GEO
Every month, ask the same 20 questions in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude and Google AI Mode, and track whether your brand appears and which source is cited.
