Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)
Also called: GEO
Generative engine optimization is optimising content so that generative AI systems surface and cite it in their responses; in practice it describes the same work as answer engine optimization.
GEO emerged from academic work studying how content could be adjusted to increase its likelihood of appearing in generated answers. It has since been adopted commercially, largely interchangeably with AEO.
Any distinction is one of emphasis rather than substance. GEO is more often used when discussing content-level changes; AEO more often when discussing the whole discipline including technical and entity work. Nobody should be paying a premium for one label over the other.
Why it matters
The proliferation of labels — GEO, AEO, LLM SEO, AI SEO — is mostly vendor positioning. Understanding they describe one body of work makes it much easier to judge whether a provider is selling something real.