> answers/tech
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
UPDATED OCTOBER 30, 2026
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your website the source an AI assistant cites when someone asks it a question, in the way SEO makes it the page a search engine ranks. The mechanics are plain: answer the question in the first sentence, with a real number where one exists; keep one question per page; use clean headings and structured data; let the AI crawlers in; and be the kind of source a careful assistant would trust. Ghost builds every site this way, and this page is an example of it.
What AI assistants reward
- A direct answer at the top of the page, not after an introduction.
- Specific figures and dates, stated plainly.
- One clear question per page, with the question in the heading.
- Structured data (FAQ, Service, Organization) that says what the page is.
- Server-rendered HTML the crawler can read without running your JavaScript.
- Crawler access: GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot and the rest explicitly allowed.
How it differs from SEO
SEO competes for a position in a list of ten links. GEO competes to be one of a handful of sources an assistant reads and quotes in a single answer. Both reward the same things, clarity and trust, but GEO punishes padding harder: an assistant will skip a page that makes it work for the answer.
> faq
Related questions
- How do I get my business cited by ChatGPT?
- Publish pages that answer specific questions your customers ask, with real figures, in clean HTML, with the AI crawlers allowed. Then check: ask the assistant the question and see whether it quotes you.
- Is GEO the same as AEO?
- Answer engine optimization is the same idea under another name: being the quoted answer rather than the ranked link.
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