Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

What is GEO?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization, sometimes called AI search optimisation. Its aim is for chat assistants such as ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews to mention your brand accurately when they answer a question, and to cite your site as a source where possible.

In classic search the user chooses from ten links. In AI search the system reads many sources, writes a single answer and mentions only a few brands in it. To be part of those answers your site needs to be crawlable, your content needs to be clear and quotable, and the facts about your brand need to match across different sources.

GEO is a new discipline, but its foundations are familiar: a well-structured site, trustworthy content and the brand’s reputation across the web. What has changed is that this foundation now has to work not only for a ranking, but for being part of an answer.

How is GEO different from SEO?

GEO doesn’t replace SEO; it builds on it. Most AI systems draw on search engine indexes and web pages when composing their answers, so a technically sound site that is visible in search is a prerequisite for GEO too. The differences show up mainly in the goal and in how success is measured:

How is visibility in AI answers measured?

AI answers can vary each time a question is asked, so judging by a single query is misleading. We therefore measure against a fixed set of questions at regular intervals. We define the questions your customers might ask before deciding and ask each one repeatedly across platforms.

Every month we track and report:

• Mention rate: how many answers in the question set include your brand
• Citations: whether your site, or pages about you, are given as source links
• Accuracy: whether facts such as founding year, services, location and contact details are stated correctly
• Competitor comparison: which brands are mentioned for the same questions
• Change: what improved and what slipped compared with the previous month

Which platforms are in scope?

Each platform builds its answers from different sources and in a different way. We prioritise the platforms your customers use most:

• ChatGPT: shows source links in conversations where it searches the web
• Google AI Overviews and AI Mode: answers inside Google Search, alongside source links
• Gemini: Google’s chat assistant
• Perplexity: an AI search engine that lists its sources next to every answer
• Microsoft Copilot: an assistant that draws on Bing’s search infrastructure

What makes AI systems mention a brand?

Platforms don’t explain in detail how they choose sources, but brands that show up in answers tend to share some traits. Who they are, what they do and where they serve is described the same way across different sources. Their sites contain plain sentences that answer the question directly. And they are talked about: named in directories, industry publications and comparison content.

Conversely, a brand whose facts contradict each other, whose site carries only slogans and images, or that is never mentioned on external sources will struggle to appear in answers. Much of GEO work is closing those gaps.

What changes on your site for GEO?

Most changes help human visitors too; the site isn’t rewritten in a separate language for AI. Typically we make these improvements:

• One clear organisation description, the same on the About page and across the site
• Service pages that explain what the service is in the first sentence
• Sections that answer the questions customers actually ask
• Founding year, location, service area and contact details consistent everywhere
• Structured data describing the organisation, services and page structure
• Fixing settings that block AI crawlers from reaching the site

What determines the cost of GEO?

The scope of GEO depends on how your brand appears in AI answers today and on your site’s foundations. Before quoting we run a short baseline measurement and set the scope based on:

• Number of questions, languages and platforms to track
• Size of the site and how much content needs restructuring
• Condition of the technical setup and structured data
• The brand’s visibility and consistency on external sources
• Whether SEO work is already in place
• How often and how detailed reporting should be

A GEO agency in Ankara

Our office is in Beştepe, Ankara. We run GEO together with SEO, and with Ankara brands we can review the baseline measurement and target questions face to face. For local businesses, “best … in Ankara” style questions and the accuracy of map listings are an important part of the work. We work remotely with brands across Türkiye using the same measurement routine.