Generative engine optimization consulting
Short answer
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is answer engine optimization (AEO) approached from the retrieval side. Answer engines break one question into many smaller queries before they compose a reply, and GEO covers that fan-out: the entities, the sub-questions and the sources a model reaches for while it assembles an answer. I run it as one program with AEO and search engine optimization (SEO).
What the work covers
Fan-out coverage: the sub-questions behind each priority query, found with a hybrid of AI and classical research and planned as main and satellite keywords. Entity gaps: the associations a model holds about your category and where your brand is missing from them. Source coverage: the pages and third-party sources a model reaches for, and how your brand gets into them. Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) draws on the indexes assistants retrieve from, so the SEO foundation is part of the work.
How it is measured
Coverage of the fan-out (how many of the sub-questions your pages answer), citations and share of voice on the priority queries, and the queries moved into cited positions, by engine, month over month.
Questions I get asked
Is GEO the same as AEO?
They share the goal, a brand cited in AI answers, and differ in where they start: AEO works on the brand’s own pages and entity, GEO works on the queries and sources an engine assembles an answer from. I run them as one program because the fixes land on the same mechanism.
What is a fan-out query?
One of the smaller searches an answer engine runs from a single question before it writes the reply. Ask for the best accounting software for a small agency and the engine also asks about pricing, integrations, reviews and alternatives, then composes from what those searches return. GEO covers those searches, so the brand is in the material the answer is built from.
Does GEO work without SEO?
GEO builds on SEO. Assistants retrieve from search indexes, so a page has to be crawled, understood and trusted in search before any answer can quote it.