GEO: getting found when customers search with AI

A growing share of your potential customers no longer opens Google to search. They write to ChatGPT, to Perplexity, to Gemini, or they read the answer box that Google itself now puts at the top of the results. They ask a question and get one answer, often with two or three recommended names. If you are not in that answer, you do not exist for that person, and you will never know it.

Optimising to be included in these answers has a name: GEO, Generative Engine Optimization.

From a list of links to a single answer

Classic search returns ten blue links and leaves the choice to you. Generative engines do the opposite: they read many sources, synthesise them and offer a single answer, citing only a few sources. The game is no longer "being on the first page", it is being the source the assistant decides to use and name.

The type of question changes too. On Google you type "app development Milan". To an AI assistant you write "which studio should I pick to build a management app, and what should I ask them?". Longer, more thoughtful questions, where whoever gets cited starts with a huge advantage.

What GEO (and AEO) is

GEO is the set of practices that make your site readable, understandable and citable by language models. You will also see it called AEO (Answer Engine Optimization): the concepts overlap, the emphasis differs. In both cases the goal is the same: when an AI assistant builds an answer in your field, you want to be among the sources it uses.

It does not replace traditional SEO. It extends it: many signals that help Google help assistants too, but some specific steps are needed.

How assistants choose what to cite

Nobody knows the exact formula, but the factors that matter come through clearly:

Clarity and structure. Models prefer content that answers directly, with sharp definitions, lists and sensible headings. Text that circles the point is hard to cite.

Authority and consistency. If the same information about you (what you do, where, how) is consistent on the site, in the legal pages, in external listings, the model trusts it more. Contradictions and stale data lower trust.

Citable facts. A sentence that states something concrete and verifiable ("we build websites, web apps and mobile apps, with code owned by the client") is far more reusable than an empty slogan.

Presence beyond the site. Assistants also draw from third party sources. Being named consistently elsewhere strengthens the signal.

Technical accessibility. If content is only readable after complex interactions or is buried in elements a crawler struggles with, it risks never entering the model's "knowledge".

What you can actually do

• Write to be cited: answer the real questions of your field directly, with paragraphs that work even when pulled out on their own.
• Structured data: mark up your company, services and FAQs so the meaning is explicit, not just visual.
• An llms.txt file: a clean, reliable summary of who you are and what you offer, made for assistants. The SPECTROSEC site already has one.
• Consistent information everywhere you appear: same name, same description, same contacts.
• Real FAQs: questions and answers are the format assistants love most, because they are already "answers".

GEO and SEO go together

It is not one against the other. A technically solid, fast and well structured site (the foundations we cover in the technical SEO article) is also a site that AI assistants read happily. GEO adds a layer: thinking about how your information will be summarised and repeated by a machine, not just read by a person.

How we approach it

When we build or review a site, we treat readability by assistants as part of the job: clear and citable content, structured data on company and services, well made FAQs, a curated llms.txt and consistent information across every page. We do not promise "ChatGPT will cite you", because nobody controls what a model says. We promise a site built so that, when an assistant looks for a reliable source in your field, you are a serious candidate.

It is new ground and it moves fast. If you want to understand where you stand today with these engines, we can take a look at your site. The first assessment and the quote are free.