Many people now ask an AI assistant instead of, or as well as, typing a query into a search engine. When someone asks “what is the best way to do X” or “which agency should I talk to about Y”, the assistant often writes an answer and cites a handful of sources. Generative engine optimization, usually shortened to GEO, is the work of making your company and content more likely to be understood, trusted and cited in those answers. This guide explains what we know, what is still uncertain, and what a startup can do without a large budget.<\/p>\n
GEO builds on classic SEO. AI assistants that browse the web, and AI features inside search engines, still rely on pages they can crawl, understand and trust. So the basics of technical SEO and quality content still matter. What changes is the format of the result: instead of ten blue links, the user sees a written answer with a few sources. Your goal is to be one of those sources, and to be described accurately.<\/p>\n
Be wary of anyone who promises a guaranteed ranking inside an AI assistant. These systems change often, vary by product and are not fully transparent. What you can do is improve the odds with practices that also help ordinary search and real readers.<\/p>\n
Check your robots.txt file and your hosting or security settings. Some companies block AI crawlers by default. That can be a legitimate choice, but if you want to be cited, do not block the bots that power search and answer features. Common user agents include OAI-SearchBot and ChatGPT-User from OpenAI, PerplexityBot and Perplexity-User from Perplexity, ClaudeBot and Claude-User from Anthropic, and Google-Extended for Google’s AI training controls. Names and behaviors change, so read each provider’s current documentation before you decide. Also make sure important pages return a normal 200 status, load without requiring a login and do not hide key content behind scripts that bots cannot run.<\/p>\n
AI systems extract passages. Pages that answer a question clearly near the top are easier to quote than pages that bury the answer under a long introduction. For each important page:<\/p>\n
This is also good writing for people, and it helps in classic search features such as featured snippets.<\/p>\n
Assistants need to know who you are. Use the same company name, description and key facts everywhere: your site, social profiles, directories and press pages. State what you do, who you serve and where you operate in a sentence anyone can understand. Add structured data in JSON-LD for your organization and, where relevant, for products, services, articles and FAQs. Only mark up what is visible on the page and true. Do not add review markup unless you have real reviews that are shown to users.<\/p>\n
Assistants are more likely to repeat what several independent sources agree on. Third-party mentions in respected publications, directories, comparison pages, community discussions and industry lists help the system understand that you exist and what you are known for. That means PR, partnerships and listings in reputable directories are part of GEO. Read more in our guide to earning coverage without paying<\/a>. Avoid fake reviews and manipulative link schemes; they risk penalties and damage trust.<\/p>\n Generic content that repeats what everyone else says gives an assistant no reason to cite you. Original material does: a well-run survey, a clear methodology, a calculator, a template, a comparison built on criteria you explain, or practical lessons from your own work. Say who wrote it, when it was updated and how the facts were checked. Keep important pages updated and show the update date when it is meaningful.<\/p>\n An llms.txt file is a plain text summary of your site, intended to help language models find your key pages. It is a community proposal, and AI providers have not generally committed to using it. It is cheap to create and harmless, so many sites add one, but do not expect it to change results on its own. Put effort first into the items above.<\/p>\n Pages that load slowly, rely entirely on client-side rendering or break on mobile are harder for crawlers and users alike. Server-rendered content, clean HTML, descriptive link text and alt text for meaningful images help every kind of visitor, including automated ones.<\/p>\n Measurement is imperfect, so set modest goals and use several signals.<\/p>\n GEO does not replace SEO, PR or good product marketing. It rewards the same fundamentals: clear positioning, trustworthy content and a reputation that other people confirm. If you want a review of how your site reads to crawlers and assistants, book a strategy call<\/a>, or read about how we work with AI startups<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Generative engine optimization explained: how startups can make their site and brand easier for AI assistants to understand, trust and cite.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9553,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"focaly_lang":"both","focaly_language":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai-and-search"],"language":"en","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9211,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9204\/revisions\/9211"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focaly.agency\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}5. Publish original, useful material<\/h2>\n
6. Consider an llms.txt file, with realistic expectations<\/h2>\n
7. Keep your site fast and accessible<\/h2>\n
How to measure GEO<\/h2>\n
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A 30 day starter plan<\/h2>\n
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