Generative engine optimization, in plain English
GEO, AEO, LLMO, AI SEO — new acronyms for getting named by AI engines, and a lot of new invoices. Here is what is genuinely different from ordinary SEO, what is identical, and what is being oversold.
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What the words mean
They largely mean the same thing, and which one someone uses tells you more about when they started selling it than about what they do.
- GEO — generative engine optimization. Getting favourably represented in text generated by AI engines.
- AEO — answer engine optimization. Slightly older, originally about featured snippets and voice assistants. Now used interchangeably.
- LLMO — large language model optimization. The same idea named after the technology.
There is no separate index to submit to and no console to log into. Anything sold as “submitting your business to ChatGPT” is selling something that does not exist.
What is genuinely different
You are being summarised, not listed
A search result showed your words. A generated answer shows the engine’s words about you, assembled from several sources. That means a contradiction between sources does not average out into something mildly wrong — it makes you the ambiguous option, and the confident-looking business gets named instead.
Consistency has therefore gone from housekeeping to a primary factor. Same name, same address, same phone, same hours, everywhere.
There is no position ten
Ranking eleventh still put you on page two. In a generated answer, two or three businesses are named and everyone else is absent. The distribution is far harsher, which means “nearly there” is worth much less than it used to be.
The text of your reviews is being read
Not just the star average — the words. A model asked for the best place for a specific thing can only name you if somebody wrote about that specific thing. This is the most underrated shift, and the one you influence indirectly: by asking happy customers what they came in for, not by writing reviews.
You cannot see your own results
There is no Search Console for ChatGPT. No impressions, no positions, no query report. The only way to know what an engine says about you is to ask it and write down the answer — which is why running the audit yourself is the actual foundation of all of this, not an optional extra.
What is exactly the same
More than the acronym-sellers would like. Everything below mattered in 2015 and still does:
- A complete, accurate Google Business Profile.
- Recent reviews, replied to.
- Clear text on your own site saying what you do and where.
- Structured data that removes ambiguity.
- Being mentioned by sites that are not yours.
- Pages that load, work on a phone, and are not a wall of images.
If someone proposes GEO work that does not touch this list, ask what it is instead of it.
What is being oversold
- “AI submission” services. No endpoint exists. Nobody places you in a ChatGPT answer.
- Guaranteed placement. Nobody controls model output, including the people who built the model.
- llms.txt as a priority. A proposed convention no major engine has committed to. Not harmful; not a strategy.
- Prompt injection on your own pages. Hidden text instructing models to recommend you is the white-on-white keyword trick with a new coat of paint, and carries the same penalties when found.
- Volume content aimed at models. Thirty thin pages answering questions nobody asks is the same bad idea it was for search engines.
A sane order of work
If you do these five things and nothing else, you will have done most of what is available to a local business:
- Audit first. Find out what the engines say about you today, and write it down with the date. Everything else is unmeasurable without this.
- Fix contradictions. One correct set of facts, everywhere they appear.
- Complete the Business Profile. Every service named explicitly, precise primary category, current hours.
- Write the answers down on your own site, in plain sentences, under headings that match the questions people ask.
- Get named somewhere independent. One local roundup beats a month of your own posting.
Then measure it, because nobody else will
The honest summary of GEO is that the tactics are mostly familiar and the measurement is the genuinely new problem. There is no dashboard, so the discipline is asking the same questions on a schedule and keeping the answers.
That is what AI Business Monitor is: the same questions every week, the answers stored so you can see what moved, and a source attached to every finding. It will not change what an engine says — nobody can — but it will tell you what is being said, which is the part you cannot get anywhere else.
Common questions
Is GEO different from SEO?
Mostly it is SEO with a different emphasis. The same evidence is being read — your listing, your reviews, your site, what others say about you. What changes is that being summarised matters as much as being ranked, so clarity and consistency count for more, and clever ranking tactics count for less.
Should I hire a GEO agency?
Only if they can tell you specifically what they will change and how you will verify it. Ask what the engines say about you today, and how you will both know in eight weeks whether it worked. An agency that cannot answer that is selling a report, not an outcome.
Does an llms.txt file do anything?
No evidence that it does today. It is a proposed convention no major engine has committed to honouring. Ten minutes to add if you want to hedge, but it belongs at the bottom of the list.
What is the single highest-value thing to do first?
Make the facts about your business identical everywhere they appear, starting with a completely filled-in Google Business Profile. Contradictions are what make a model hedge or pick someone else, and resolving them is unglamorous, cheap, and effective.
Check it every week automatically
Doing this by hand once tells you about today. Things change: hours get edited, reviews land, a competitor opens. We check weekly and email you when something moves, with the source behind every finding.