GEO: How to Get Your Brand into AI Answers

For more than 20 years, being found online meant one thing: showing up on the first page of Google. Today, more and more people put the question straight to ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Copilot — and get a ready-made answer without clicking a single link.

Google itself has changed. AI Overviews (the AI-generated summaries at the top of the results) answer the question before the user sees any website. The question is no longer just “where do I rank on Google?” It is also: “when someone asks AI about my sector, does my brand appear in the answer?”

That is where GEO comes in. In this article we explain what it is, how it differs from SEO, how AI tools choose the sources they cite and, above all, what you can do now to get your brand into those answers.

What is GEO?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is the set of practices that make it more likely for a brand, product or piece of content to be mentioned, cited or recommended in the answers of generative AI engines such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Copilot or Google’s AI Overviews.

The term was formalised in a study by researchers from Princeton University, Georgia Tech, the Allen Institute for AI and IIT Delhi, published in 2023 and presented at the ACM KDD 2024 conference. The authors found that optimising content specifically for these engines can increase visibility in generated answers by up to 40%.

Put simply: SEO works to get your website into a list of links. GEO works to get your brand inside the answer. You may also come across related terms such as AEO (Answer Engine Optimisation), AIO or LLMO — they all describe, in essence, the same goal.

GEO vs SEO: rivals or allies?

GEO does not replace SEO — it is built on it. Most generative engines search the web in real time before answering, and a site that is not crawlable, fast and properly indexed is unlikely to be used as a source. The difference lies in the end goal and in how success is measured.

	Traditional SEO	GEO
Where it appears	List of results (blue links)	Inside the AI-generated answer
Goal	Ranking position and clicks	Being cited, mentioned or recommended
Unit of optimisation	The whole page	The excerpt, the sentence, the specific fact
Key signals	Keywords, backlinks, technical setup	Clarity, verifiable facts, authority, brand mentions across the web
Type of search	Short (“marketing agency Braga”)	Conversational (“which agency can help me grow on social media in the north of Portugal?”)
Metrics	Rankings, organic traffic, CTR	Mention rate, AI share of voice, citations, AI referral traffic

In practice, the winning strategy is an integrated one: solid SEO as the technical foundation, and GEO as the layer that makes content easy for AI to understand, extract and cite.

Why GEO matters now

AI search is no longer a niche. In February 2026, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT had 900 million weekly active users — more than double the 400 million of February 2025. And that is just one platform: Gemini, Perplexity, Copilot and Claude are growing alongside it.

At the same time, the click is disappearing. A Pew Research Center study of 900 US adults found that when Google shows an AI summary, users click on a traditional result in only 8% of visits, compared with 15% when there is no summary. They are also more likely to end the session without visiting any website.

What this means for your business:

• The decision starts before the click. If the AI recommends three brands and yours is not among them, you are out of the running — even if you rank well on Google.
• People who arrive via AI arrive more decided. They have already had context and a comparison; by the time they visit your site, they are closer to buying.
• The window of opportunity is open. Many companies, especially SMEs in Portugal, are not yet working on GEO. Those who start now build an advantage before it becomes standard practice.

How AI chooses the sources it cites

Generative engines do not “know” everything from memory. When a question calls for current or specific information, they follow a process roughly like this:

1. They interpret the question and break it into several sub-queries (for example, “best digital marketing agencies in Braga” may trigger searches about services, reviews and case studies).
2. They search the web using a search index (Google, Bing or their own).
3. They retrieve excerpts from the most relevant pages — not the whole page, but the blocks of text that best answer each sub-query.
4. They assess how trustworthy the sources are: domain authority, consistency with other sources, freshness and clarity of the information.
5. They synthesise the answer and, in many cases, show the sources cited.

There is also a second route: the model’s own knowledge, learnt during training. If your brand is mentioned often and consistently on websites, in the news, in directories, forums and reviews, the model tends to “know” it and associate it with your sector.

The practical takeaway: the content AI cites is content that is easy to extract, easy to verify and comes from a source it trusts.

7 GEO strategies to apply now

1. Answer first, explain later

Open every page or section with a direct answer of two or three sentences. Then go deeper. AI extracts excerpts, and a clear opening paragraph is the ideal excerpt.

2. Structure content so it can be extracted

Use headings phrased as questions (H2/H3), lists, comparison tables and FAQ sections. Each block should make sense on its own, even outside the context of the page.

3. Add data, sources and quotes

The original GEO study showed that adding statistics, expert quotes and references to sources were among the techniques that boosted visibility the most. Swap vague statements (“many clients increase their sales”) for concrete facts (“an average 32% increase in traffic over 6 months”).

4. Build authority and E-E-A-T

Show who is writing and why they know the subject: a named author, a short bio, real case studies, certifications, update dates. AI favours sources with demonstrable experience and credibility.

5. Get your brand talked about beyond your website

Generative engines cross-check information. Mentions in the media, guest articles, podcasts, industry directories, LinkedIn, YouTube, Reddit and Google reviews strengthen the link between your brand and your subject. Make sure your name, address, services and description are consistent everywhere.

6. Look after the technical foundations

• Allow AI crawlers (such as GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot and Google-Extended) in your robots.txt file if you want to be cited.
• Use structured data (Schema.org): Organization, LocalBusiness, Article, FAQPage, Product, Review.
• Make sure your site is fast, works on mobile and keeps important content in readable HTML, not hidden in images or scripts.

7. Keep your content alive

Update your articles regularly with recent data and show the date they were last updated. For questions about the present, AI favours current information.

How to measure GEO results

GEO does not yet have a universal “Google Search Console”, but you can already track progress with clear indicators:

Metric	What it measures	How to track it
Mention rate	In how many answers the brand appears for a set of key questions	Regular tests in ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews, or AI visibility monitoring tools
AI share of voice	The brand’s presence compared with competitors in the same answers	Compare mentions of your brand and of 3 to 5 competitors
Linked citations	How often your site is shown as a source	Log the sources shown in the answers
AI referral traffic	Visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, gemini.google.com, copilot.microsoft.com	Google Analytics 4, with a custom channel group for AI
Sentiment and accuracy	Whether the AI describes the brand correctly and positively	Qualitative review of the answers
Branded searches	Growth in direct searches for the brand name	Google Search Console and Google Trends

A good habit is to draw up a list of 20 to 50 questions your customers would ask an AI and test them every month. It is the simplest way to see progress over time.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Dropping SEO. Without solid technical and indexing foundations, GEO has nothing to stand on.
• Stuffing the text with keywords. AI values clarity and substance, not repetition. Keyword stuffing can even reduce visibility.
• Publishing generic AI-generated content without reviewing it. If your text says the same as a thousand others, the AI has no reason to cite it. Add your own experience, data and opinion.
• Blocking AI crawlers by accident. Many sites block these bots through default plugin or firewall settings. Check your robots.txt.
• Inconsistent information about the company. Different addresses, services or descriptions across various sites confuse the models.
• Expecting instant results. GEO is built through consistency. The first signs appear within weeks; authority takes months to consolidate.

Conclusion: the next frontier of online visibility

The way people look for information has changed, and it is not going back. The brands showing up in AI answers today are building an advantage that will be hard to claw back later.

The good news is that GEO does not mean starting from scratch. It means clearer, more useful and more credible content, solid technical foundations and a consistent brand presence across the web — principles that also strengthen SEO, social media and reputation.

Want to know whether your brand shows up when your customers ask AI? The COSMOS team can analyse your brand’s current visibility across the main AI engines and help you put together a GEO strategy suited to your business. Get in touch and take the first step.

Frequently asked questions about GEO

What does GEO mean in digital marketing?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation: optimising content and online presence so that a brand is cited or recommended in generative AI answers, such as ChatGPT, Gemini or Google’s AI Overviews.

Will GEO replace SEO?

No. GEO complements SEO. AI engines rely on well-indexed, authoritative pages, so a good SEO foundation remains essential.

How long does it take to see results from GEO?

It depends on your starting point and your sector. Technical and structural improvements can take effect within a few weeks; brand authority in AI answers builds up over several months.

Do small businesses benefit from GEO too?

Yes, especially in local and niche searches. Questions such as “where can I find X in Braga” or “which company does Y in the north of Portugal” face less competition, and a well-positioned SME can be recommended ahead of bigger brands.

How do I know whether my brand appears in AI answers?

Ask ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity the questions your customers would ask, and note whether the brand appears, in what position and how it is described. For ongoing tracking, there are dedicated AI visibility monitoring tools.

Sources

• Aggarwal et al., GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, ACM KDD 2024
• Pew Research Center, Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results, July 2025
• TechCrunch, ChatGPT reaches 900M weekly active users, February 2026