GEO vs SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been the standard for online visibility for 25 years. Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the emerging practice of making your content accessible and useful to AI agents and generative AI systems — a different kind of reader with different needs.

The core difference

	SEO	GEO
Target	Search engine crawlers (Googlebot)	AI agents, LLMs, generative search
Output	Ranking in search results	Citations in AI answers
Discovery	Keyword matching	Semantic understanding
Format	HTML pages	Structured data, plain text, Markdown, APIs
Engagement	Click-through to your site	Content used directly in the answer
Key files	sitemap.xml, robots.txt	llms.txt, robots.txt, sitemap.xml, Content Signals

What they share

GEO and SEO have more in common than they differ:

• Quality content — Both require clear, accurate, well-structured content.
• Technical health — Fast pages, correct HTTP status codes, valid HTML.
• Structured data — Schema.org markup helps both Google and AI agents.
• Crawlability — Both need a well-configured robots.txt and sitemap.xml.
• Authority — Trusted, frequently cited content ranks better in both.

If your SEO foundation is solid, GEO is mostly additive.

What GEO adds

1. Machine-readable context

AI agents don't care about visual presentation. They read content as text and extract meaning. GEO adds:

• llms.txt — A curated guide to your site for AI agents.
• Explicit structure — Clear headings, lists, and tables rather than flowing prose.
• Definitions — Defining terms explicitly ("GEO is...") helps agents cite your content accurately.
• Markdown responses — Serving text/markdown via content negotiation reduces token usage by 60–80%.

2. Actionable content

AI agents can execute tasks, not just find information. GEO ensures:

• Forms are accessible to automated tools.
• APIs exist for key actions (pricing, availability, booking).
• CTAs are clear and consistent.

3. Explicit permissions

robots.txt rules for AI crawlers tell agents what they can and cannot use. Content Signals headers (Content-Signal: ai-train=yes, search=yes, ai-input=yes) express your content usage policy to AI systems.

4. Freshness signals

AI models can have knowledge cutoffs, but retrieval-augmented systems (like Perplexity or ChatGPT with browsing) fetch live content. Keeping your content up to date, with clear datePublished and dateModified in JSON-LD, increases the chance of being cited with current information.

Do you need to choose?

No. A well-optimized SEO site is already 70% ready for GEO. The additions are:

1. Add llms.txt.
2. Add or improve Schema.org JSON-LD markup.
3. Review your robots.txt for AI-specific rules.
4. Ensure your content is clear enough to be quoted directly.
5. Add Content Signals policy headers.

Think of GEO as a layer on top of SEO, not a replacement.

The ranking analogy

In SEO, you optimize to rank in position 1–10. In GEO, you optimize to be the source that gets cited in an AI-generated answer. The mechanics differ, but the goal is the same: being the most trusted, most accessible source on a topic.