Get your brand recommended by AI

What is Generative Engine Optimization?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of influencing how generative AI tools — ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot and others — represent, cite and recommend your brand. As more people turn to these tools to research, compare and choose, GEO is becoming a distinct and important channel: the work of making sure AI knows your business exists, understands what you do, and recommends you when it's relevant.

It's a close cousin of AEO, but with a key difference. AEO is mostly about Google's own answer features. GEO is about the broader ecosystem of AI assistants that increasingly sit between your customers and their decisions. When someone asks an AI "who's a good roofer in my city?" or "what should I look for in a dental clinic?", the response shapes who they consider — and GEO is how you earn a place in that response.

This is genuinely new territory, and that's the opportunity. The businesses paying attention to GEO now are establishing themselves in AI tools while most competitors don't even know it's possible. Early presence tends to reinforce itself, making this one of the most forward-looking investments a brand can make today.

People have always trusted recommendations. What's changed is who they ask. Increasingly the first stop isn't a search engine or a friend — it's an AI assistant that confidently summarises options and names specific businesses. For the customer it feels like advice from a knowledgeable, neutral source, which makes the recommendation persuasive. For your business, being named is the new word of mouth, at scale.

Generative engines build their answers from the information they've learned about the web and, increasingly, from live sources they retrieve and cite. They mention brands that are well-represented across authoritative content, consistently described, frequently referenced, and clearly associated with their industry and location. In other words, the same authority and clarity that help with SEO and AEO also shape how AI talks about you.

The risk of ignoring GEO is invisibility in a fast-growing channel — or worse, being misrepresented because the AI has outdated or thin information about you. The opportunity is to actively shape an accurate, favourable presence, so when AI tools weigh in on your market, your brand shows up correctly and compellingly.

Your next customer might ask an AI before they ever Google you

Consider how decisions increasingly get made. Someone needs a service, opens ChatGPT or Gemini, and types a plain-language question: "what should I look for when hiring a roofer, and who's reputable?" The AI responds with confident, organised guidance — and often names specific businesses or describes the kind of provider to choose. That answer shapes the customer's shortlist before they ever open a search engine or read a review.

If your brand is well-represented across the authoritative content these tools learn from, you can be part of that answer. If you're thin, inconsistent, or invisible online, you simply won't come up — the AI can only recommend what it knows about. And because the recommendation feels neutral and informed, being named carries real persuasive weight, almost like a trusted friend pointing the customer your way.

This is why GEO matters even though it feels futuristic. It isn't about gaming an algorithm; it's about making sure the accurate, favourable truth about your business is present and clear across the web, so that when AI summarises your market, it gets you right. That overlaps heavily with building genuine authority — which is why GEO strengthens your SEO at the same time.

The honest reality is that this field is young and evolving quickly, and no one can promise a fixed result from a moving target. What we can do is help you build the accurate, authoritative presence that gives you the best possible chance of being known and recommended — and keep adapting as these tools mature. Brands that start now are positioning themselves for a channel that's only going to grow.