SEO, AEO and GEO
Generative engine optimization (GEO) for B2B
What GEO and AEO mean for B2B brands, how AI search picks its sources, and what makes a page easier to cite.
Key takeaways
- AI tools quote passages, so answer each question in its first lines.
- Pages get cited when they answer early and source their claims.
- Several AI crawlers skip JavaScript, so serve the text in HTML.
- Track citations, not just clicks: many AI answers send no visit.
Generative engine optimization (GEO), also called answer engine optimization (AEO), is the work of making your pages easy for AI search tools such as Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, Copilot and Perplexity to find, trust and cite. For B2B brands it starts with normal SEO: crawlable pages, clear answers and real sources.
How is GEO different from SEO?
Classic SEO earns a ranking on a results page. GEO earns a mention or a citation inside an answer that an AI tool writes for the buyer. The two overlap far more than the new names suggest. Google states that SEO best practices still apply to its AI features, AI Overviews and AI Mode, and that there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed to appear in them.[1]
The difference is in what gets lifted. An answer engine quotes a passage, a definition or a short list, not a whole page. A page that answers one question cleanly, near the top, gives the engine something it can use.
Definition
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of structuring and sourcing content so that AI answer tools can find it, trust it and cite it. Answer engine optimization (AEO) is a common name for the same work.
We treat both as one discipline, which is why our B2B SEO and GEO service covers rankings and AI citations together.
How do AI tools choose sources?
Each tool works differently, and none publishes its full selection logic. What can be checked is how they gather pages. Google’s AI features draw on pages in Google’s own index.[1] ChatGPT search and Perplexity use their own crawlers, which site owners can allow or block in robots.txt.[3][4]
Research points the same way. In a study published at KDD 2024, researchers tested ways to rewrite web pages and found that methods such as adding citations, quotations and statistics raised a source’s visibility in generative engine answers by up to 40 percent on their benchmark.[2] Treat that as a direction, not a promise: results vary by topic and by engine.
What makes a page easy to cite?
For B2B topics, the pages that tend to be cited share a few traits:
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One question per section. An H2 phrased as the buyer’s question, answered in the first 40 to 60 words below it.
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Specific claims with sources. A number, a named standard or a documented step, linked to where it comes from.
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Plain structure. Short paragraphs, real lists and tables, and captions that make sense on their own.
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A consistent company identity. The same name, description and profiles everywhere, so engines connect them. Entity-based SEO explains how.
Illustrative sample
Vague: “Our platform improves efficiency.” Citable: “Report preparation dropped from two days to two hours after CRM and ad data were joined in one view.” The second can be quoted and checked. Publish a claim like it only when it is true and you can show where it comes from.
Want to know if AI tools can read your site?
A free growth diagnostic checks crawlability, answers and sources on your key pages. Your top 3 findings and a 30-day fix plan in writing within 2 business days.
What do AI crawlers need?
AI crawlers can only cite what they can read. Several major AI crawlers, including OpenAI’s and Anthropic’s, do not run JavaScript, so a page whose text appears only after scripts load can look empty to them.[7] The fixes are technical but well understood:
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Serve the full text, headings and links in the HTML, by pre-rendering or server-rendering each page.
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Allow the crawlers you want in robots.txt, and check that your CDN or firewall does not block them by default.[3][4]
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Give every page one canonical URL, return a real 404 for missing pages and keep a current sitemap.
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Add structured data that matches what the page shows. Google uses it to understand pages and show rich results; Google says AI features need no special optimization beyond normal SEO.[5][1]
One file gets a lot of attention: llms.txt, a proposed list of a site’s key pages for AI tools. It is cheap to publish, but it is a proposal rather than a standard, and it does not replace pages that crawlers can read.
How do you measure GEO?
Clicks undercount GEO, because many answers satisfy the buyer without a visit. Three measures help:
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Citations. The AI Performance report in Bing Webmaster Tools shows verified sites how often Copilot and Bing AI summaries cite their pages.[6]
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A prompt log. Once a month, ask the AI tools your buyers use the 15 to 20 questions you want to own, and record who is cited.
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AI referrals. Group visits from chatgpt.com, perplexity.ai, copilot.microsoft.com and similar sources as their own channel in analytics.
Read these as trends over months. One week of citations says little.
Where should a B2B team start?
Start with the pages that already earn search impressions, not with new content:
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Check that your key pages show their full text without JavaScript.
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Rewrite the opening of each page to answer its main question in the first 60 words.
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Add a source to every number, and remove numbers you cannot source.
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Make your company name, description and profiles match everywhere.
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Set up citation tracking, then review it monthly.
None of this is separate from good SEO. It is good SEO with the answer, and its source, at the top.
Sources
Written under our Editorial and AI Policy. Sources checked 17 Oct 2026. Reviewed by DGo Digital on 19 Oct 2026.
FAQ
Questions about GEO
Want these answers for your own site? The free growth diagnostic checks your key pages and sends your top 3 findings and a 30-day fix plan in writing.
That is a business choice. OpenAI runs separate crawlers for model training (GPTBot) and for search (OAI-SearchBot), so robots.txt can allow one and block the other. Blocking the search crawlers keeps your pages out of those answers. We allow both on our own site, because being cited is the goal.