01
Retrieval
Is the brand even in the candidate set the model can draw from?
GEO · Generative Engine Optimisation
What GEO is
The work of measuring and improving how often — and how favourably — a brand is cited or recommended inside AI-generated answers.
Not a ranking in ten blue links. Citation, mention and recommendation inside ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google AI Overviews.
How a generative answer is made
GEO optimises for survival and preference at each stage — not just for being crawlable.
02
Extraction
Can the model parse a clean, attributable passage from what you own?
03
Synthesis
Does the engine prefer you when it composes the answer?
04
Citation
Are you named, linked and framed as the source — not a footnote?
GEO is not SEO
Search trained a generation of marketers to win the click. Generative engines collapse the results page into an answer. The competitive ground is whether you are inside that answer.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| The prize | A click from a results page | Being named, cited or recommended inside the answer |
| What models trust | Pages, keywords and backlinks | Entities, corroborating sources and extractable claims |
| Content | Volume and ranking coverage | Answer-first depth that a model can quote with attribution |
| Measurement | Rankings, traffic, conversions | Mention, citation, sentiment and share of voice on a fixed prompt set |
| Cadence | Algorithm updates and crawl cycles | Re-running the same prompts as engines change what they cite |
What it measures
Mention
Does the engine name the brand at all for the prompt?
Citation
Is the brand attributed with a link or a clear source?
Framing
Is the mention favourable, comparative, or a caveat?
Share of voice
How often is the brand selected versus named competitors?
What it is not
- Traditional SEO with a new label
- Buying mentions or stuffing prompts into thin pages
- A one-off content burst with no baseline
- Optimising only for Google’s ten blue links
Why it exists now
Buyers ask engines for shortlists. AI Overviews occupy the top of search. Click-through falls even when you still “rank”. If the model names three competitors and not you, the rest of the funnel never starts.
GeoLab treats that as its own discipline: measurement first, then structure, content engineering and corroboration — the GeoLab Method.