The GEO guide: getting cited by AI engines
What GEO (generative engine optimization) is, how it differs from SEO, local GEO, the indicators that matter and the priority actions: everything you need to appear in answers from ChatGPT, Gemini and Google.
Section 1
What is GEO?
GEO — generative engine optimization — covers the actions that help a brand, a product or a business get cited in the answers AI engines write. Classic SEO aimed for a place in a list of links. GEO aims for a mention in a paragraph that makes the choice on the user’s behalf.
The difference is stark: an AI answer cites two or three names, rarely ten. There is no such thing as fourth place. That is what makes measurement essential: without a daily reading, you don’t know whether you are in the selection.
Key takeaway
GEO does not replace your SEO: it measures and works on your presence in written answers, where space is far scarcer.
Section 2
GEO and SEO: what changes
The technical basics still matter: a site that is readable, fast, well structured and indexed. But the deciding signals are moving toward what can be cross-checked: consistent information, recent reviews, mentions in third-party sources, explicit structured data.
Another change: the query is no longer a keyword but a full question, often with context — a budget, a town, a use case. Your content has to answer these questions as they are asked, not as people used to type them into a search engine.
Pandi sums it up
Keep your SEO basics, then add consistent information and third-party sources that talk about you. That is what AI engines check before they cite you.
Section 3
How an AI engine chooses the names it cites
Before answering, an assistant runs its own searches, reads a few sources, then writes. It favors what it can verify across several independent sources, and what matches the intent of the question exactly.
In practice, a cited brand is almost always a brand that appears on the pages the engine consulted: a clear official site, a consistent business profile, reviews, comparisons, press. A single source, however good, is rarely enough.
- The sources consulted during the answer, not just your site.
- Consistency of your information from one place to another.
- An exact match with the intent of the question.
- Freshness: a review from yesterday weighs more than an article from 2023.
Section 4
Local GEO, for local businesses
For “a good physical therapist near the station” or “where to buy games in Denver”, assistants rely heavily on business profiles, review platforms and local directories. The website counts, but it often comes second.
So the useful effort is focused: complete the profile, align your name, address, phone number and opening hours everywhere, keep a steady flow of reviews, and create a clear page for each service and each area.
Is your business cited in your town?
Three questions your customers ask, put to ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews.
Section 5
Measuring your visibility: the indicators that matter
Five indicators are enough to steer by. Visibility is the share of answers that mention you. Position shows where you appear in the answer. Share of voice compares your weight with that of the other players cited.
Citation share looks at your sources: which domains AI engines draw on to talk about your market. Finally, sentiment sums up the tone used about you. Read each one as a trend, never as an exact measure.
- Visibility: the share of answers that mention you.
- Position: the average rank of your mention in the answer.
- Share of voice: your weight against the other players cited.
- Citation share: the weight of each source domain.
- Sentiment: the tone of the passages about you.
ChatGPT 26% 
AI Overviews 19% 
Gemini 9% Section 6
Ten priority actions
The fixes that pay off are almost always the same, in this order. They fall into authority, content, structure and technical — the four families of the technical analysis.
Work through them one at a time, and measure: it is the only way to know what actually moved your visibility on your questions.
- Complete your business profile and keep it up to date.
- Align your name, address, phone number and opening hours everywhere.
- Allow AI crawlers in robots.txt.
- Add explicit structured data.
- Create one page per service, product or area.
- Reply to reviews, and ask for new ones regularly.
- Get mentioned in recognized third-party sources.
- Make your content readable without JavaScript.
- Refresh your key pages at least twice a year.
- Track your customers’ real questions, not keywords.
Section 7
Mistakes to avoid
The first mistake is to bet everything on the volume of content: one more generic page does not make you citable. The second is to neglect consistency: a mismatched address or opening hours are enough for a competitor to be preferred.
The third is to draw conclusions too soon. Answers vary from one day to the next: a single reading proves nothing, and only the trend over several weeks can be used.
Section 8
Frequently asked questions
Do you need a website? It is recommended, but a complete profile and regular reviews already let you be cited on local questions. How long does it take? A few weeks for technical fixes, several months for reputation.
Can a citation be guaranteed? No, and nobody can guarantee one: the decision belongs to the engine. What you can steer is the likelihood of being chosen — and that can be measured.
Move from reading to measuring
Track your questions every day for 7 days, free of charge.