What is Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)?

Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of structuring content, entities and citations so that AI answer engines retrieve and cite a brand, rather than optimising purely for a ranked list of blue links. It differs from traditional SEO in what it optimises for: a ranking wins a click, a citation wins the answer itself. The mechanics differ accordingly. Answer engines lift self-contained passages, so content has to be written in blocks that stand alone without the surrounding page. They resolve entities by consensus across sources, so a brand described five different ways across its own site, its press and its directory listings reads as low-confidence and gets omitted. And most category answers are synthesised from roundup articles rather than from vendor sites, which means presence in third-party comparison content matters more than domain authority does.