What Is GEO? Generative Engine Optimisation Is Still SEO

TL;DR

• GEO is SEO: Google's own guide, updated in July 2026, calls optimising for AI search "still SEO".
• About 80% of GEO is the same fundamentals: pages that can be found, content worth citing and a brand others vouch for.
• The other 20% is newer work, led by digital PR for off-site mentions.
• Skip the hacks Google names, like chunking and llms.txt, and measure what's actually new.

GEO is SEO. By our count, about 80% of it is the same fundamentals we've been working on for years: pages Google and AI tools can crawl, content worth citing, and a brand other sites vouch for.

The other 20% is newer, but every piece of it still traces back to one of those fundamentals.

Jump to a section

• What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?
• Is GEO different from SEO?
• What stays the same in GEO? The 80%
• What's new in GEO? The 20%, and where each part comes from
• Which GEO hacks can you skip?
• Do you need a separate GEO agency?
• How do you measure GEO?
• FAQ

What is generative engine optimisation (GEO)?

Generative engine optimisation is the work of getting your website and brand mentioned in AI-generated answers. That covers Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Copilot.

Say someone asks ChatGPT for the best accountant in Geelong. GEO is the work that decides whether your business makes the list.

You'll also hear it called answer engine optimisation (AEO), AI SEO, LLM SEO or AI search optimisation. Five names, one practice. The acronym seems to change every quarter; the work underneath doesn't.

Most of the confusion comes down to one question: how much of this is actually new?

Is GEO different from SEO?

No. GEO is SEO, and Google now says so in writing.

Google's guide to optimising for AI features says those features are "rooted in our core Search ranking and quality systems". The guide, last updated on 10 July 2026, calls optimising for them "still SEO".

The guide also sets an entry ticket. To appear in an AI feature, "a page must be indexed and eligible to be shown in Google Search with a snippet". If Google can't index your page and show it with a snippet, it won't turn up in Google's AI answers either.

Google's said it on stage, too. "Good SEO is good GEO" was a slide at its Search Central Live events:

That's why we put the split at roughly 80/20. Most of what wins in AI answers is the same work that already wins in search. The rest is newer, but every part of it leans on something SEO built first.

What stays the same in GEO? The 80%

The 80% that stays the same is crawlable pages, content worth citing and a brand people trust. SEO has always done these jobs, and AI tools reward them for the same reasons Google does.

Pages that can be crawled and indexed

An AI tool can only quote a page it can reach. Crawling, indexing, site speed and a clean site structure still decide whether your content is even in the running.

Our own data shows how far the basics go. Across the websites in our analytics data, pages with readable URLs earned about 13 times more AI referral visits per page than pages with unreadable ones.

Part of that gap is intent: most unreadable URLs sit on cart and account pages, and nobody's asking an AI about those.

Content worth citing

Google's guide asks for "non-commodity content": expert, first-hand material that goes beyond common knowledge.

An AI tool has already read the generic version of your article a thousand times. The page it cites is the one that adds something new.

A brand other sites vouch for

Links, reviews and mentions tell Google which brands to trust, and AI tools read the same signals. If nobody else is talking about your brand, an AI is unlikely to put you on its shortlist.

What's new in GEO? The 20%, and where each part comes from

The new 20% is a set of jobs that take your brand beyond your own website, and each one traces back to an SEO fundamental.

Digital PR moves the needle most for our clients, because it earns mentions and builds strong links at the same time. And link building, last we checked, is SEO.

Earned mentions where AI answers look

AI answers pull from well beyond your website: news sites, YouTube, Reddit, Wikipedia, LinkedIn, Instagram, review sites and industry press. Digital PR is the most reliable way to earn a spot in them.

The key word is "earned". Google's guide says chasing "inauthentic mentions" across the web is less helpful than it looks. Wikipedia is volunteer-edited and removes promotional entries. Bought mentions get removed too, and they do little while they last.

Platforms also shift under you, so you need a steady flow of genuine mentions. In August 2026, tracking firm Promptwatch reported Reddit's share of ChatGPT Search citations falling from about 3.8% to about 0.5% within a week.

The cause is still unconfirmed, and Promptwatch calls the data provisional. Either way, a brand that shows up across several channels rides out one platform's change.

Traces back to: authority and backlinks.

Social presence, which Search Console now measures

Your social posts already rank in Google. Since July 2026, you can actually see how they perform.

Google added platform properties to Search Console in July 2026, covering Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube. We connected our own YouTube channel the week it launched.

In two days we saw 35,585 impressions, 1,005 queries and 303 page-one rankings. By 17 July, our YouTube content had earned 87 clicks from Google Search.

Social content gets seen in Google far more than it gets clicked, so judge it on visibility.

One catch: no tool can pull this data yet, not even Google's own Search Console API, so for now it's a manual export. Our guide to ranking social content on Google covers the how.

Traces back to: visibility in search.

Being findable in more than one index

Microsoft runs its own index and its own AI answers. Bing Webmaster Tools now has an AI Performance report showing how often your pages are cited in Copilot and Bing's AI answers, so verify your site there as well as in Search Console.

Traces back to: crawling and indexing.

Content AI crawlers can read without JavaScript

AI crawlers such as OpenAI's GPTBot and Anthropic's Claude crawler read the HTML a page sends and skip its client-side JavaScript, Search Engine Journal reported in 2025. If your key content only loads after a script runs, those crawlers see an empty page.

Serve your important text in the HTML, and brush up on best practices for JavaScript SEO.

Traces back to: technical SEO.

The same facts about your business everywhere

AI tools build their picture of your business from every source they read. If your website, Google Business Profile and directory listings disagree on your services, locations or prices, the answer an AI gives can be wrong.

Keep your details consistent across the web.

Traces back to: entity and local SEO.

Measuring citations as well as rankings

Rankings show where you sit in search results. Citations show whether AI answers mention you. You need both, and the measurement section below covers the tools.

Traces back to: SEO reporting.

Then there's the stuff that gets sold as GEO but is really just a hack.

Which GEO hacks can you skip?

Skip the ones Google lists by name. Its guide tells site owners to put "effective SEO strategies" ahead of "AEO/GEO hacks", then names them:

• Breaking content into tiny chunks: Google says its systems understand pages with several topics and show the relevant part.
• llms.txt and other AI files: Google says these files "will neither harm nor help" your visibility in Google Search.
• Special schema for AI: Google says structured data is optional for its AI features. It's still worth keeping as part of normal SEO.
• Writing in a special way for AI: Write for your reader. That's it.
• Chasing inauthentic mentions: Earned mentions work. Bought ones do little.

For the record, StudioHawk does publish an llms.txt file. Some services outside Google read it, and Google says it does no harm. We treat it as housekeeping, not a ranking lever.

Worth noting: Google's guide only covers Google Search. ChatGPT, Perplexity and other assistants may weigh signals differently, which is part of why the 20% exists.

With the hacks out of the way, the next question is who should do the work.

Do you need a separate GEO agency?

No. One team should cover GEO and SEO, because it's the same work. Put two teams on one website and they'll end up doing the same job twice, or undoing each other's.

Three red flags in a GEO pitch:

• It leads with the skip list: chunking, llms.txt or special AI schema as the main event.
• It guarantees your brand a place in AI answers. Nobody controls those.
• It offers to buy mentions on forums or review sites.

Whoever does the work, you still need a way to tell whether it's working.

How do you measure GEO?

Use your existing SEO reports, plus a view of AI citations. Four sources cover it:

• Search Console for rankings, clicks and your social platform properties
• Bing Webmaster Tools for citations in Copilot and Bing's AI answers
• GA4 for visits that arrive from AI assistants
• An AI visibility tool for how often each assistant mentions your brand

Analytics only sees the click. A brand can be cited in AI answers every day and barely register in GA4, so read all four together.

FAQ

Is GEO the same as SEO?

Yes. Google says optimising for its AI features is "still SEO", and we put about 80% of GEO down to the same fundamentals.

Do I need a separate GEO strategy?

No. Your SEO strategy is your GEO strategy. Add the newer 20%, led by digital PR, to the plan you already run.

Does GEO change how I should write?

Only in the way good SEO already does: answer the question, add something original and show your expertise. Google says writing for your reader is enough.

Which AI platforms should I optimise for?

The ones your customers use. In Australia, that usually means Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Copilot. The same fundamentals serve all of them.

Can I measure GEO?

Yes, with Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools, GA4 and an AI visibility tool. Track citations alongside rankings, because analytics only records the click.

Go further with AI search

Our free guide to ranking in AI search shows how to get cited by ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity.

Want our team to do the work? See our AI SEO services.

Sources

• Google Search Central, Optimising your website for generative AI features on Google Search, last updated 10 July 2026
• Google Search Central blog, platform properties in Search Console, 7 July 2026
• Google Search Central blog, platform properties roll out globally, 29 July 2026
• Bing Webmaster Blog, AI Performance in Bing Webmaster Tools, February 2026
• Search Engine Journal, Google's JavaScript warning and how it relates to AI search, 2 January 2025
• Search Engine Journal, on Promptwatch's Reddit citation data, August 2026
• StudioHawk URL study, websites in our analytics data, 15 January to 14 July 2026
• StudioHawk Search Console platform-property export, YouTube, 11 July 2026