Generative engine optimization (GEO)

What is generative engine optimization?

Generative engine optimization makes content more likely to appear in AI-generated answers.

Search optimization competes for a place in a list. GEO competes to be the passage a model uses or cites. The useful unit is often the passage, not the whole page.

GEO doesn't replace search optimization. A page still needs to be crawlable, well structured and easy to retrieve.

Why it matters for product builders

Published research found that cited sources, quotations and statistics increased citation rates. Keyword stuffing reduced them. Clear, supported writing works better than repeating a phrase.

**Source note**

The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues at Princeton and collaborating institutions. The paper measured which content changes raised citation rates in generative engines.