Generative Engine Optimisation is how businesses get recommended by AI. It's the biggest shift in search since Google, and most businesses don't even know it's happening.
Millions of people now skip Google entirely. They ask ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity for recommendations. AI doesn't show 10 blue links. It gives one answer. If that answer isn't your business, you're invisible.
No jargon. Here's what you need to know.
Just like SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) helped businesses rank on Google, GEO helps businesses get recommended by AI systems. When someone asks ChatGPT "what's the best wine shop in London?" or "recommend an accountant for my startup", GEO determines whether AI names your business or your competitor's.
AI systems don't crawl your website the way Google does. They build an understanding of your business from everything: your website content, reviews, mentions in articles, structured data, social proof, authority signals, and how consistently you show up across trusted sources. GEO is the practice of optimising all of these signals so AI confidently recommends you.
This isn't a future trend. Hundreds of millions of people already use AI assistants daily. Every unanswered AI query where your competitor gets recommended instead of you is a lost customer. The businesses that invest in GEO now will own their space, just like early SEO adopters dominated Google in the 2000s.
The old playbook doesn't work in the AI era. Here's what's changed.
Three pillars that determine whether AI recommends your business.
AI trusts businesses that are mentioned consistently across reputable sources. Reviews, press, directories, partnerships, and structured citations all build the authority that makes AI confident recommending you.
Your website needs to answer questions the way AI thinks. Clear, factual, well-structured content with proper schema markup gives AI systems the information they need to feature your business.
AI models update constantly. What works today might not work next month. GEO requires ongoing monitoring of how AI systems perceive and recommend your business, with rapid adaptation.
Everything you need to understand GEO, agentic selling, and how AI is changing business discovery.
The complete comparison of old search and new AI discovery.
The three pillars of Generative Engine Optimisation explained in detail.
What ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity actually look for.
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Every term you need to know, from agentic selling to zero-click.
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