AI search
What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
By Mahimvir Singh, founder of Nine Digital ·
Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the work of making a business easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews, Gemini and Copilot to find, understand and cite when they answer a question. It combines crawlable, answer-first pages, structured data, consistent facts about your business across the web, and mentions on sources those assistants already trust.
How AI assistants pick which brands to mention
When an assistant searches the web to answer a question, it retrieves pages, then writes an answer from the ones that state facts clearly and agree with other sources. Brands get named when their own pages answer the question directly and when independent sources (directories, reviews, articles, lists) say the same thing about them.
GEO, AEO and SEO
- SEO: ranking pages in search results
- AEO (answer engine optimisation): formatting content so it can be lifted as a direct answer
- GEO: being named and cited inside AI-generated answers
- They share foundations: crawlable pages, clear entities, useful content
A practical GEO checklist
- Let AI crawlers in: check robots.txt for GPTBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended, ClaudeBot and Bingbot
- Server-render key pages so content is in the HTML
- Publish llms.txt with a plain summary and key pages
- Add Organization, Service, FAQPage and Person structured data
- Start every key page with a one- or two-sentence answer
- Keep name, address, phone and description identical everywhere (site, LinkedIn, Google Business Profile, directories)
- Earn third-party mentions: directory profiles, comparison lists, interviews and reviews
- Measure monthly with a fixed list of buyer prompts across the main assistants
A note on brand confusion
If your name is shared with other companies, assistants may mix you up. Disambiguate on your own pages (legal entity, city, founder, domain) and make sure profiles on other sites link to the right domain. We do this for ourselves: Nine Digital (ninedigital.co, New Delhi) is not The Nine or other similarly named agencies.
Questions
Can you guarantee my brand appears in ChatGPT?
No one can. Assistants change their answers and sources constantly. What can be done is to make your brand the easiest correct answer to cite, and to measure how often it is named.
How long does GEO take?
Technical fixes and structured data can be live in a week. Being cited depends on re-crawling and third-party mentions, so expect to judge progress over months.
See it working on your business, free for 7 days
Tell us your goal and we start with your fastest win. Founder Mahimvir Singh (about 27 years in marketing, ex-Microsoft India and HP EMEA) approves every output. You decide on day 7. Or call / WhatsApp +91 83684 06849.