The names for the discipline
What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the work of getting a brand named, cited and described correctly in answers written by generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Google AI Overviews. The term comes from a 2023 Princeton-led research paper.
What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?
Answer engine optimization (AEO) is structuring content so that search and AI tools can lift a direct answer from it, for example a two-sentence definition under a question heading, or a short FAQ. It predates generative AI: it started with featured snippets and voice assistants.
What is AI SEO?
AI SEO is an umbrella term for SEO work aimed at AI search results. Most people use it as a synonym for GEO.
What is AI search optimization?
AI search optimization is our term for GEO and AEO together: being named, recommended and described correctly in AI answers, built on a sound SEO foundation. Read the full guide: What is AI search optimization for insurers?
| Term | Main goal | Where you win |
|---|---|---|
| SEO | Rank high for a search | The list of blue links |
| AEO | Be the direct answer | Featured snippets, voice answers, AI answers |
| GEO | Be named and cited in AI-written answers | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, AI Overviews |
Metrics
What is share of AI answers?
Share of AI answers is the percentage of AI answers to a fixed set of buyer questions that name your brand. Because AI answers vary from run to run, it is measured across several engines and several runs of each question. See competitor AI share analysis.
What is recommendation rate?
Recommendation rate is the share of AI answers in which your brand is actively recommended, not just mentioned. Being listed as an option and being called the best fit are not the same result.
What is AI brand accuracy?
AI brand accuracy is how closely what AI engines say about your prices, eligibility, cover and claims matches your approved product facts. See life insurance brand accuracy.
What is an AI citation?
An AI citation is a source link or reference that an AI engine shows as the basis for its answer. Pages that get cited are the ones you can influence; see AI answer correction services.
Technical terms
What are Google AI Overviews?
Google AI Overviews are AI-written summaries that Google shows above its regular search results for many queries. They often answer the question before anyone clicks a link.
What is an AI crawler?
An AI crawler is a bot that reads web pages for an AI company. Some fetch pages live to answer a question (for example OAI-SearchBot and PerplexityBot); others collect training data (for example GPTBot and ClaudeBot). A site that blocks them in robots.txt or at its firewall can drop out of those tools’ answers.
What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed plain-text file at the root of a website that gives AI tools a short summary of the site and links to its most important pages. It is not an official standard yet, but it is cheap to add. See ours.
What is structured data (schema markup)?
Structured data is a set of machine-readable labels, usually written as JSON-LD with the schema.org vocabulary, that tells search engines and AI tools what a page is about: an organization, a service, an article, an FAQ.