GEO vs SEO: Get Your Business Cited by AI Search

Short answer: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring your content, facts and markup so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude understand your business and cite it in their answers. It builds on SEO rather than replacing it.

SEO vs GEO

SEO aims to rank your pages in a list of links. GEO aims to make your business the source an AI quotes when someone asks a question such as “who builds Shopify stores in Ontario?”.

A practical GEO checklist

Answer first. Put a clear, factual answer at the top of every key page.
Consistent facts. Use the same name, address, phone and services everywhere (site, Google Business Profile, directories).
Structured data. Add Organization, LocalBusiness, Service, FAQ and Article schema.
FAQ content. Write real questions customers ask, with concise answers.
Allow AI crawlers. Do not block GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot or Google-Extended in robots.txt if you want to be cited.
Publish an llms.txt. A short summary file that tells AI tools who you are and where key pages live.
Earn mentions. Reviews, directories, partnerships and press make AI more confident in your business.
Bilingual pages. Offer French and English versions with hreflang so each audience is served.

Does GEO guarantee citations?

No. No one can guarantee what an AI will say. GEO improves your odds by making your information easy to find, verify and quote.

We build GEO into every site we deliver. Book a free consultation to see how it applies to your business.