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Definition

Generative Engine Optimization

Also known as: GEO

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of increasing how often, and how favourably, a source is used and cited by generative engines — search systems that answer with text produced by a large language model, such as Google AI Overviews, Perplexity or ChatGPT search. The term was introduced in a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal et al.

GEO is the academic name for the problem AEO practitioners were already working on. The original paper, GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (arXiv:2311.09735), defined "generative engines" as systems that synthesise an answer from multiple sources with a language model, proposed a benchmark (GEO-bench) and measured which content edits increased a source's share of the generated answer.

Its headline finding is the one most often repeated: evidence beats keywords. Content edits that added citations, quotations and statistics improved visibility; edits that added keywords did not.

Frequently asked questions

What did the GEO paper find?

The study (Aggarwal et al., 2023, later published at KDD 2024) tested nine content changes on a benchmark of queries. Adding citations to sources, adding quotations from authorities and adding statistics increased a source's visibility in generated answers by up to 40% in their metric, while keyword stuffing had little or negative effect.

Related terms

Guides that use this term

  • Fundamentals

    GEO vs SEO vs AEO: what actually changed

    Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) describe three stages of the same job. SEO optimises a page to rank in a list. AEO optimises a passage to be extracted as a direct answer. GEO, from a 2023 paper, optimises a source to be cited inside an answer written by a language model. Crawlability and quality carry over; the unit, reward and pipeline change.

    8 min read

  • Fundamentals

    What is Answer Engine Optimization (AEO)?

    Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) is the practice of structuring content so that AI-powered answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot and Google's AI Overviews — can retrieve it, understand it and cite it inside a generated answer. Where classic SEO competes for a ranking position, AEO competes for extraction: a self-contained passage that resolves one question, from a page with a clear author, date and sources.

    6 min read