AI ranking is called GEO

What exactly is GEO?

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the set of techniques that make a business appear when someone asks an artificial intelligence a question. When you type “where can I have a good dinner in Granada?” into ChatGPT and it answers with a list of three or four restaurants, someone had to be on that list. GEO is the work that makes it more likely that someone is you.

For twenty years, the goal of showing up online has been called SEO (Search Engine Optimization): optimizing so that Google places you at the top of its list of blue links. GEO is the natural evolution of that idea for a world in which more and more people are not looking for a list of links, but for a direct answer already written out. When the answer is written by an AI, ranking in the top ten on Google stops being enough: you have to do the work to end up inside that answer.

It is worth busting the myth right from the start: you do not pay to appear in AI (ChatGPT, Gemini) and there is no ad that puts you there. Nor is there any guarantee that a model will name you on any given day. What does exist is concrete work —clear content, structured data, a coherent presence on the web— that increases your chances. That is GEO.

GEO or AEO? Why does it have two names?

It is normal to see it written two ways, and that confusion over names is exactly what leads many people to search for “what is this called”. They are two acronyms for a very similar idea, born almost at the same time because the field is new and no single term has settled in yet:

In practice, when someone says GEO or AEO they mean the same thing: getting artificial intelligence to know your business and be able to recommend it. On this site we use GEO because it is the most widespread, but if your manager or your nephew talks to you about AEO, they are talking about this.

How does GEO differ from SEO?

GEO does not replace SEO: it builds on it. A good part of the underlying work is shared (a fast website, honest content, a well-kept Google listing). The difference lies in the end goal and in how success is measured. SEO wants people to click on you in a list; GEO wants you to be named within an answer.

The most important consequence: in SEO there was room for ten results on the first page. In an AI answer, there is often room for three or four names. The space narrows, and that is why the work of staying inside is starting to matter so much. The good news for a local business is that almost no competitor is working on it yet.

Why is GEO emerging now?

GEO did not appear as a fad, but because the way people search has changed. More and more people, instead of opening Google and going through links, ask a chatbot directly and take its answer at face value. When that happens, a business the AI does not know simply does not exist for the person asking.

More than one in three internet users in Spain —that 35 % from the figure above— already uses these tools. This is not science fiction or the distant future: it is people who, today, in Spain, ask where to shop, where to eat or who to call, and get an answer with a few names inside. GEO is, quite simply, the craft that is being born to respond to this new way of searching.

What does the work of GEO involve?

To understand the concept without jargon, these are the building blocks the work is based on. It is not a list of promises: it is what gets done so the AI has material to understand you and name you.

1. A website the AI can read and extract from. Clear text, direct answers and good structure. If your website is a pretty picture with no readable information, the AI has nothing to draw on.
2. Structured data (schema). Technical markup that tells the machine, without ambiguity, what you are, where you are, what your hours are and what you offer.
3. A presence in the sources the AI draws on. Doing well on Bing (which ChatGPT feeds on), having a complete Google listing and appearing consistently wherever your sector is discussed.
4. Reviews and real signals. Genuine customer reviews are one of the clues the AI relies on most to decide who to recommend.
5. Brand consistency. Making sure your name, address and phone number say the same thing everywhere, so the model does not doubt who you are.

If you want to see this turned into actionable steps for your business, we develop it in the guide on how to appear in ChatGPT. And if you prefer the full picture of how Google and AI fit together, it is all on our page on ranking on Google + AI.