Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — Draft
Updated Aug 16, 2025
A practical playbook for monitoring, explaining, and improving how assistants answer questions about your brand. Treat the answer as the product and the assistant as the channel.
Why GEO
Assistants collapsed the funnel. People ask, read, and decide in the answer. If your brand isn’t included—or is described incorrectly—you lose the moment of choice.
GEO treats the answer as the product and the assistant as the channel. The job is to make your facts present, citeable, and recent—then measure how often you’re included and how you’re described.
From 10 blue links to chat
People aren’t paging through results anymore—they ask, read, and decide in the answer. Discovery, evaluation, and even vendor shortlists now happen inside assistants. GEO accepts that reality and optimizes for inclusion and narrative quality in that answer surface.
Classic SERP: 10 blue links
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
A deep dive comparing features, pricing and integrations across leading CRMs. Updated weekly.
AI answer surface
For most SMBs, start with AcmeCRM or RiverSuite. AcmeCRM wins on price and onboarding ($29/mo) and RiverSuite on integrations (native 150+). If you need built‑in quoting or field sales kits, consider Apex.
One dimension (rank) → many dimensions (inclusion, position, citations, sentiment, persona, recency).
- Result 1 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-1
- Result 2 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-2
- Result 3 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-3
- Result 4 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-4
- Result 5 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-5
- Result 6 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-6
- Result 7 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-7
- Result 8 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-8
- Result 9 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-9
- Result 10 — Best CRM for SMBs — https://example.com/article-10
Ranks collapse into dimensions: inclusion, position, authority, sentiment, recency.
Keywords → Concepts
Models compose concepts, not keywords. Make entities (brand, products, categories) unambiguous, attributes crisp, and claims easy to cite. When concepts are clear and corroborated, assistants reuse them—again and again.
Ranking was one‑dimensional. GEO is multi‑dimensional: inclusion probability across engines and personas, position within the answer, citation authority, sentiment, and Time‑to‑Knowledge as models update. Win on concepts, and the rest compounds.
The new scorecard
- AI Share‑of‑Voice (SOV_AI) — inclusion probability weighted by engine mix and intent.
- Coverage — % of tracked prompts where you’re mentioned/cited.
- Citation Authority — quality/recency of sources used when you’re mentioned.
- Time‑to‑Knowledge (TTK) — median time from site change → updated answers.
- AI‑Attributed Pipeline — qualified pipeline influenced by AI answers/sessions.
For the curious: SOV_AI calculator (toy)›
Site hygiene checklist
- Brand facts JSON‑LD (canonical, machine‑readable).
- llms.txt policy aligned with robots.txt.
- Comparison tables (neutral, criteria‑based).
- Changelog/release notes (dated, linkable) for TTK.
- Pricing and plans as structured data; single source of truth.
- How‑it‑works pages with deep, linkable content and diagrams.
- Third‑party citations (docs, reviews, case studies).