What is generative engine optimization (GEO)?

Generative engine optimization, or GEO, is the work of making your business the answer AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google's AI Overviews give when someone asks about your industry. It is the AI era's version of ranking first. If those tools can read your site and trust your authority, they name you. If not, they name a competitor.

What is the difference between GEO and SEO?

SEO competes for the ten blue links on a search page. GEO competes for the single answer an AI gives, where there is no page two. They overlap, and good GEO still rests on solid SEO, but AI reads and cites sites differently. Altaway optimizes for both, AI first.

Why do people say SEO is dead, and is it true?

No, it changed. People still search, they just get an AI answer first more often. The sites that win are the ones AI can read and trust. SEO did not die, it grew a new front, and that front is where the early movers are getting named.

How do I get my business cited by ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity?

Two things decide it: whether the AI can cleanly read your site, and whether enough trusted sources vouch for you. Altaway fixes the first directly and builds the second over time, then measures whether your name starts coming up. Get a free visibility score above to see where you stand today.

How long does GEO take to show results?

Faster than classic SEO, but not instant. The Done With You install is five focused days, your pages start going live in week one, and AI citations build over the following weeks as your authority grows. We re-measure every 90 days and close the next gap.

Where does Altaway work, and who is it for?

Altaway works remotely with operating businesses across the United States. It is built for businesses doing roughly $250K to $3M in revenue with a real website, service led or product led. Regulated industries are welcome, we work within the rules.

What makes Altaway different from other GEO agencies?

Most agencies sell the work and never prove it. Altaway scores your site on the same audit we run on our own site, then re-measures every quarter so you watch the number move. Dallin does the work directly, not a junior handed your account.

What does a GEO engagement cost, and how do we start?

Two options. Do It Yourself is $750 one time and you run the kit. Done With You is $9,500 and Dallin runs a five day install with your team, with an optional AI Visibility Retainer at $1,000 a month to keep it compounding. Start with the free score above, or email Dallin at draltaway@gmail.com with the subject Discovery DWY or Discovery DIY.

Guide

What is answer engine optimization (AEO)?

Answer engine optimization, or AEO, is the work of becoming the answer an AI or search engine hands back when someone asks a question, rather than just one link in a list. It is the same core goal as generative engine optimization (GEO): your business getting named and cited, not buried.

What answer engine optimization means

An answer engine is anything that returns a direct answer instead of a page of links: ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and voice assistants. AEO is the work of making your business the answer those systems give.

Some people use AEO, some use GEO. The terms point at the same shift and the same work. We focus on the result either way: your name coming up when a buyer asks.

How answers get chosen

Answer engines pull from sources they can cleanly parse and that they trust on a topic. That means clear, structured pages that directly answer real questions, plus authority signals from around the web.

If your site is hard to read or no trusted source points to you, the engine names someone else. The fix is to be both readable and corroborated.

How to optimize for answer engines

Answer the real questions plainly, in your own pages, with structured data wrapped around them. Publish a plain-text source of truth at your domain. Let the AI crawlers in. Then build the references that make engines confident citing you.

It is the same foundation that gets you cited by ChatGPT and shown in Google's AI Overviews, which is why we build for all of them at once.

Common questions

Answered.

Is AEO different from GEO?

Not meaningfully. AEO and GEO are two names for the same goal: being the answer an AI hands back rather than a link in a list. The underlying work is the same.

How is AEO different from SEO?

SEO optimizes for ranking in a list of results. AEO optimizes for being the single answer an engine returns. They share a foundation, but AEO is built for a world where the answer often replaces the click.

Which engines count as answer engines?

ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Google's AI Overviews, and voice assistants all return direct answers, so all of them are answer engines worth optimizing for.

Keep reading

What is GEO?GEO vs SEO Is SEO dead?AI visibility glossary

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