What is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)?
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the discipline of earning visibility for a brand inside the responses generative AI engines produce. When ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, or Google AI Mode synthesises an answer from many sources, GEO determines whether the brand is included, cited, and recommended. The term originated in a 2024 academic paper.
Where GEO comes from.
GEO is unusual among marketing terms in having a precise, citable origin. The paper "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" by Pranjal Aggarwal, Vishvak Murahari, Tanmay Rajpurohit, Ashwin Kalyan, Karthik Narasimhan, and Ameet Deshpande was first posted in November 2023 and published at KDD 2024. It defined the generative engine, a system that aggregates sources and synthesises a single response, introduced the first optimisation framework for visibility inside those responses, and reported visibility improvements of up to 40% on its benchmark queries.
Two findings from the research era matter for practitioners. First, generative visibility is not rank transposed: an Ahrefs analysis of more than 75,000 queries in 2025 found 65% of Google AI Overviews citations came from pages outside Google's top 10 results. Second, the traffic that generative engines send is unusually qualified: Ahrefs found in 2025 that AI search visitors converted to signups at 23 times the rate of traditional organic visitors, because the research phase happens inside the conversation before the click.
What a generative engine changes.
A ranked results page distributes attention across ten options. A generated response concentrates it: typically two to four brands are named, and the synthesis frames how each is described. Being absent from the response is invisible; being present but framed poorly can be worse. GEO is therefore not only about inclusion but about how the brand is described, where in the answer it appears, and whether the engine treats the brand's own pages as sources worth linking.
The outcomes GEO works toward: Mention, Citation, Recommendation.
Growth.pro structures generative visibility outcomes as the M-C-R stack. Mention: the brand is named in the response (measured as Brand Mention Coverage). Citation: the brand's pages are explicitly sourced and linked (measured as Citation Rate). Recommendation: the brand is the suggested choice in a commercial-intent response, the outcome that arrives when editorial standing and content alignment have compounded, observed through citation analysis rather than metered as a rate. The stack is the corrective to GEO programmes that publish content and count impressions: the question is never how much was published, but whether the engine now mentions, cites, and suggests the brand.
How generative engines choose sources.
Observed citation patterns across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode weight four dimensions, which Growth.pro documents as the AICE Decision Model: entity authority (is the brand a defined, credible entity the engine can resolve), consensus strength (do independent sources agree on its category position), contextual relevance (does its content answer the specific question in an extractable form), and sentiment and framing (what language surrounds it in the sources the engine reads). The dimensions are multiplicative in effect: strength in three does not compensate for a hole in the fourth.
The first dimension is the ground the others stand on, and it is where most GEO programmes never look. A generative engine assembling an answer must first resolve the entities involved. A brand whose identity is inconsistent across its own pages, whose schema is missing or contradicts its copy, or whose divisions blur together cannot be confidently included in a synthesis. This is the entity graph layer of GEO, and Growth.pro treats it as the first fix on any engagement: before AI can recommend you, it has to trust who you are.
GEO practised on the right side of the line.
The GEO field split in 2026. Google's spam-policy update of May 2026 formally endorsed clarity, accuracy, and demonstrable expertise for Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode, and classified a set of GEO tactics as spam, including paid placements with passing links, host-site placements made for authority signals, machine-scaled content, and recommendation poisoning. Growth.pro practises GEO entirely on the endorsed side and contractually excludes the spam-side tactics, documented at Methodology standards. The work is operated through the PAVA Framework (Presence, Authority, Visibility, Amplification) and practised as AI Citation Enablement: enabling engines to find, verify, and accurately attribute the brand's expertise, on the brand's own merits. In Growth.pro engagements, AI-optimised content delivered 290% more clicks and 457% more impressions in a competitive category.
How GEO is measured.
Four primary KPIs, reported board-ready on every Growth.pro engagement: Brand Mention Coverage, Citation Rate, AI Share of Voice, and Average AI Ranking, with supporting analysis on sentiment, citation sources, competitors, and AI-referred traffic, tracked continuously across the five engines named above.
GEO in Malaysia and Southeast Asia.
Generative answers are market-specific: an engine asked a category question from Malaysia draws on local entities and local sources. Growth.pro practises GEO for enterprise consumer and B2B brands from Malaysia with per-market category exclusivity for the duration of an engagement, and measures visibility on the query sets Malaysian buyers actually use.
Frequently asked questions
What is GEO in one sentence?
GEO is the discipline of earning a brand visibility inside AI-generated responses, measured by whether the brand is mentioned, cited, and ultimately recommended.
Who coined the term GEO?
The term was introduced in the academic paper "GEO: Generative Engine Optimization" (Aggarwal, Murahari, Rajpurohit, Kalyan, Narasimhan, and Deshpande), first posted in November 2023 and published at KDD 2024.
What is the difference between GEO and AEO?
GEO is framed around generative engines that synthesise multi-source responses; AEO is framed around answer engines that answer questions directly. The overlap is nearly complete in practice, and Growth.pro operates them as one discipline. The full AEO definition is at What is AEO.
Is GEO just SEO with new words?
No. In 2025, Ahrefs found only 12% of AI-cited links also ranked in Google's top 10 (15,000 prompts across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot), and Wellows GEO Visibility Research found 73% of page-one brands had zero AI mentions. Rankings and generative citations are earned by substantially different signals.
Is GEO safe after Google's May 2026 spam policy?
GEO practised as clarity, accuracy, and demonstrable expertise is what the policy endorses. GEO practised as placements, scaled content, and recommendation poisoning is what it classifies as spam. The practices Growth.pro contractually excludes are listed at Methodology standards.
What should a GEO engagement report?
Brand Mention Coverage, Citation Rate, AI Share of Voice, and Average AI Ranking on a tracked query set, with citation-source analysis showing which pages and third-party sources drove each outcome.
Documented results from Growth.pro engagements. Measurement across tracked category queries on ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity (and Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode where tracked) via proprietary infrastructure. Clients anonymised pending naming permission.
See where your brand stands in AI answers.
The complimentary AI Visibility Audit benchmarks how AI currently mentions, cites, and recommends your brand across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, and Google AI Mode, against your top category rivals.
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