What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

GEO is Generative Engine Optimization: making your content the source AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity quote when they answer a question directly instead of listing links. SEO won you a ranking. GEO wins you the citation inside the answer. Why it matters for traffic: AI assistants are becoming the front page of the internet, and traffic follows the answer, not the link. Google's own AI Overviews, live since May 2024, already answer above the 10 blue links. I put it bluntly: if you are not in the answer, you are invisible. I co-founded the IAB in 1997 and watched the ranking game get born. Now it is over. The citation game has begun.