GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
Making a page usable as a source by AI answer engines, rather than only rankable by search engines.
GEO is the practice of shaping content so that answer engines — ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews — can quote it. The mechanics differ from classical SEO in one decisive way: many AI crawlers do not execute JavaScript, so a client-rendered page can rank in search and still be invisible to the systems that answer questions.
Key facts
- Many AI crawlers do not run JavaScript, so a client-rendered page can serve zero readable text to them while looking complete in a browser.
- A user-agent ending in -User, such as ChatGPT-User, is a live person's question being answered right now, not a scheduled crawl.
- Answer engines quote resolved statements rather than rules, so a worked result travels further than the formula that produced it.
- Counting crawler traffic per visitor rather than per page view undercounts it heavily, because crawlers carry no visitor identity.
Frequently asked questions
How is GEO different from SEO?
SEO optimises for being ranked and clicked; GEO optimises for being read and quoted by a model that may never send a click. The overlap is large, but the JavaScript question separates them: a page can rank well and still be unreadable to an answer engine.
Do I need a separate page for AI crawlers?
No, and serving different content to crawlers than to people is cloaking, which is penalised. Render the same content server-side so both see it — the goal is one page that works without JavaScript, not two pages.
Machine-readable copy of this page:
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