GEO (generative engine optimization)

Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making your business show up and get recommended inside AI answer tools, such as ChatGPT, Google's AI Mode, and Google's AI Overviews. Where classic Local SEO optimizes for a ranked list of links, GEO optimizes for the moment an assistant names a few businesses in a sentence. The inputs overlap (accurate listings, consistent details, real reviews, clear service descriptions), but the payoff is being one of the handful of names the AI mentions at all.

This is a fast-emerging channel, not a hypothetical one. The share of consumers using AI to find local business recommendations jumped from 6% to 45% in a single year, and ChatGPT (31%) now leads Google's AI Mode (23%) for those recommendations. As zero-click searches reach 68%, more discovery happens inside an answer rather than on a page of links, so the businesses AI knows and trusts capture demand the rest never see.

Practically, GEO rewards the same fundamentals that feed AI Overviews: a complete Google Business Profile, structured and consistent business data, and a body of genuine reviews the models can read. Founden structures your site and listings so assistants can parse and cite you. See Local SEO and Social Content.