Generative AI Engine Optimization, also known as Generative Engine Optimization (or short: GEO) refers to a set of strategies, aimed at optimizing website content for AI-based search algorithms.
What Is GEO & What’s the Story behind It?
With the rapid evolution of generative AI tech, the importance of AI-driven search has swelled really fast, too. In fact, according to Gartner, the search engine volume as we know it is likely to drop by over 25% by 2026, whereas over 70% of consumers are predicted to use AI-powered search engines in 2025.
Quite predictable, this accelerating trend is forcing digital publishers to reconsider their website optimization tactics in order to maintain and grow their traffic volumes amid the changing realities. And this is when Generative Engine Optimization or simply: GEO steps in.
In brief, the main goal behind GEO is to ensure high visibility and discoverability of publishers’ website content by the AI-powered search engine tech, like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and Gemini, Perplexity, etc.
Namely, this goal is being achieved through a vast array of tactics, from analyzing how AI-driven search algorithms process and synthesize content from multiple sources on the whole, and how these integrate and prioritize particular websites’ content, in particular, to optimizing content discoverability and trustworthiness for its higher discoverability, accordingly, and its continuous adaptation, based on the tracked results.
For instance, one of the notable specs of AI-powered search algorithms as of the beginning of 2025, is the higher prioritization of top-ranked, top-authority content sources, hence citing these in the publisher’s website content (with proper reference and linking) might be beneficial.
Benefits of GEO & Perspectives of Its Adoption
Quite predictably, the proper use of GEO tactics can help digital publishers to increase reach, while also ensuring their competitive advantage in terms of collaboration with premium advertising partners in the months and years to come.
In view of this, as the use of AI-based search engines is only growing with time, the adoption of GEO is likely to accelerate in the near future as well, reflecting publishers’ plans to ensure their sustainable traffic acquisition volumes, and consequently, ad revenue outcomes.