For twenty years, being visible online meant one thing: ranking high in Google’s results. That is no longer entirely true. A growing share of questions is now put to AI assistants, which answer directly and cite only a few sources. Two disciplines now coexist: SEO and GEO.
SEO in brief
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) covers everything that improves your site’s place in a search engine’s results: technical quality, content relevance, popularity (links), mobile experience, local presence. The result is easy to measure: a position, clicks, traffic.
GEO in brief
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) aims at your brand’s presence in the answers generated by ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude or Google’s AI Overviews. There is no “position 1”: the answer mentions your brand, cites your site, or it doesn’t.
What they have in common
- A technically healthy site that robots can read.
- Clear content that answers a question precisely.
- A reputation and reliable mentions elsewhere on the web.
- A consistent business identity: name, address, activity.
What changes with GEO
- You no longer aim for a rank but for a mention and a citation.
- Competition happens over very few sources: three to five per answer.
- Third-party sources (directories, media, comparisons) weigh more.
- Measurement is new: you have to query the AIs regularly, with the right questions.
Where to start?
Start by measuring. What are your rankings on your ten most important searches? When you put those same questions to an AI, are you mentioned? Who is mentioned instead of you? This simple snapshot usually shows where the quickest gains are.