What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

GEO is setting up your site so AI assistants (ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity) can cite you. What it is, what it is not, and how it sits next to local SEO.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is setting up your website so AI search engines and assistants can find, understand and cite your answers. It is not a replacement for SEO. It is the layer on top: extractable answers, attribution and access for AI crawlers.

People still type “seo drenthe” into Google. More and more often they get an AI block above or beside the results. If your text does not fit there, you see the impression and not the click.

GEO versus SEO, in one table

SEO GEO
Goal Higher in the ten blue links Cited in the AI answer
Unit The page The paragraph or the section
Signal Links, relevance, technical quality Clear answer + attribution + crawler access
Measurement Position, clicks, Search Console Citations, AI impressions (where GSC shows them)

You do both. A slow, blocked site gets cited nowhere.

What AI does pick up

  • A definition in the first 200 words, like the opening above.
  • Numbered steps that stand on their own.
  • Tables (price, difference, checklist).
  • FAQ with the question as the heading.
  • Figures with a source. “Studies show” without a name drops out.

What AI leaves behind: an eight-paragraph introduction, claims without origin, text that only appears in JavaScript.

What you actually do on an SME site

  1. Put the answer in the first paragraph, not in the conclusion.
  2. Give every H2 a heading that can be read as a question or a statement.
  3. Allow AI bots in robots.txt (GPTBot, PerplexityBot, ClaudeBot, Google-Extended).
  4. Publish an llms.txt that points to the most important pages.
  5. Keep LocalBusiness and FAQ schema identical to what is on the page.
  6. Update data every quarter. AI prefers a recent dateModified.

That is the track that sits in a quote on SEO and AI discoverability. GEO is not a separate product there. It is part of the same audit.

What GEO is not

Not a trick to buy ChatGPT. Not a guarantee that Perplexity will name you. Not a reason to spit out a hundred blog posts. And not a replacement for local SEO: the Google Business Profile, reviews and NAP remain the base for “tradesperson + town”.

Who it is worth it for

Owners in Drenthe and Overijssel who already have a decent site and notice questions shifting toward “what does … cost” and “what is …”. A recreation business near Giethoorn that wants to appear in AI answers about whisper boats. A software question such as “what is custom software” — that needs an extractable paragraph, not only a services page.

For a hairdresser in Meppel with five searches a month, GBP is more urgent. I say that in the conversation.

Rather have it done?

Technical SEO fixes are visible with me within two weeks. Organic positions move later. The SEO check beforehand is free; after that a fixed quote. Request the check or book a call.

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