GEO explained: A marketer’s guide to Generative Engine Optimisation

Written by Steven Miles from Lamlighter Digital

Search marketing is undergoing a seismic shift.

As AI becomes more deeply integrated into how users discover content through tools like ChatGPT and Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience), marketers are now being asked to optimise not just for traditional search engines, but for generative engines too.

 This new approach has been given the moniker GEO or Generative Engine Optimisation. So, what is GEO exactly?

Well, if SEO is about planting the right seeds to grow your visibility in Google’s organic results, GEO is about making sure your content is nutritious enough to be picked up and repurposed by AI models during their answer generation.

But what exactly does that mean in practice? And, what are the benefits to appearing in responses to questions asked of an AI model?

What is GEO? Generative Engine Optimisation explained

GEO is the practice of making your website's content discoverable, trustworthy, and usable by AI-driven engines, especially those that generate natural language answers (Large Language Models like ChatGPT for instance).

Imagine a user asks ChatGPT: “What are the best ways to improve local SEO for a bakery in Birmingham?”

If our local SEO blog post, SEO in Birmingham service page, or even some FAQ content gets referenced in the answer the AI engine gives to the user, that's GEO in action.

Our content will have been:

• Crawled and indexed by AI during training or plugin access.
• Assessed for authority, clarity, and usefulness based on the content’s depth and presentation.
• Summarised into bite-sized chunks that are easily quoted or paraphrased.
• Deemed credible with signals like real authorship, citations, or clear structure.

The content needs to be judged to be of high quality, reliable and a helpful answer to the question.

Best-in-class GEO content is:

• Rich with expert-level insights and actionable advice.
• Written in natural, human-sounding language.
• Structured on the page for easy understanding with key takeaways and summaries.
• Published on authoritative, trustworthy websites.

When done well, the result for the user asking the question is seamless: they receive an AI written response that has used accurate, relevant, and well-cited information, drawn from GEO-optimised content.

For the producer of the content, the reward is visibility and esteem without relying on traditional rankings.

Why does being featured in AI-generated answers matter if no one is visiting my website?

It's a common and valid question; if AI responses don’t always link out or lead to traffic to my website, then what’s the benefit of being quoted in them?

But, the benefits of GEO are different to those of SEO.

Appearing in generative AI answers matters for your business in a number of ways:

• Brand visibility and recall: Even without a clickable link, your brand or business name being mentioned in an AI-generated answer helps position you as an expert in your field. It puts your name in front of users right at the point of their curiosity or decision-making.
• Perceived authority: If an AI tool references your insights, guides, or statistics, users are more likely to trust your expertise. That trust translates into brand recognition when users later search, visit your website, or explore service providers.
• Influencing buyer intent earlier: GEO puts your messaging into the “zero-click” space, reaching customers before they even Google it. You’re influencing the conversation at the top of the funnel.
• Supporting omnichannel visibility: Being cited by AI engines or assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini or Copilot reinforces your presence across platforms. This is useful as users usually bounce between search engines, AI platforms, and social media while researching.
• Long-tail lead generation: Even if users don’t click immediately, repeated exposure builds familiarity. When they do eventually search for services like yours, they’re more likely to recognise and choose your brand.

Think of GEO visibility as planting seeds in the minds of your future customers. You are guiding them at an earlier stage i.e. in the learning phase, rather than showing up only when they’re ready to buy.

Further to this, it's important to remember that every user case is different and more and more questions are being asked of AI models every day.

Consider for instance, a user asking an AI model for a list of "fun things to do as a couple in Birmingham".

If you were a company who hosted events or activities in Birmingham that fits that mould, a good GEO strategy would ensure that your business and a well-written description featured on the list that the model would generate.

Does GEO Help SEO? Or, is GEO a replacement for SEO?

It is important to think of GEO and SEO as two different things.

SEO builds the strong foundations that ensure your website is able to be found in search. GEO builds on those foundations to ensure your content can also be surfaced by AI.

Many of the same optimisations that help AI models understand your content (structured data, entity clarity, consistent tone, and expert-authored content) also help search engines crawl and rank it more effectively. Best practises for one are best practices for the other.

But there are absolutely ways that GEO can positively (albeit, indirectly) impact your SEO:

• Future-proofing your presence: Many AI tools are already including citations. By optimising for GEO now, you’re ensuring your business is already in the dataset being referenced as those systems evolve.
• Indirect SEO benefits: Mentions and citations across credible AI engines reinforce your entity signals and so strengthen Google’s understanding of your brand’s expertise, authority, and trust. Even without direct links, these support your organic search visibility over time.
• Putting you above the competition: Generative models like Google’s AI Overviews and Microsoft Copilot appear above traditional results on SERPs. Being featured here increases brand impressions and captures early-stage attention. These often appear with citations too, so can lead to click-throughs.

In short, GEO is not and won't be a replacement for SEO. Rather, it is an extension of it; GEO ensures your brand can be discovered both by search engines and the AI assistants shaping the next generation of online discovery.

Need help understanding what GEO is and how to implement it into your strategy?

If you still find yourself asking "What is GEO and why do I need it?", we'd love nothing more than to discuss it with you further and figure out how you can use it to your advantage.

At Lamplighter Digital, we help businesses in Birmingham, Solihull and across the UK adapt to the future of search. Whether you need AI-friendly blog content, GEO or SEO audits, or a full content overhaul, we’re here to help you light up online.

Get in touch to learn more about GEO or to discuss how GEO can be used to grow your business.