What is GEO? How to get cited by ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini (2026)

By Alejandro Sarmiento, Head of Growth · Published 2026-10-15 · Updated 2026-10-15

GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, is the practice of structuring your content so AI assistants like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and Google's AI Overviews use it as a source and cite it in their answers. SEO gets you into a list of links. GEO gets you inside the answer itself.

I lead growth at Dapta, an AI sales agent platform, from Bogotá, Colombia. Most GEO advice is written for US brands competing in English. This guide covers the fundamentals, plus what I have learned working on GEO for Spanish and bilingual audiences in Latin America.

If you read Spanish, the longer version is ¿Qué es GEO?.

Where does the term GEO come from?

The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Aggarwal and colleagues that defined Generative Engine Optimization and tested which content changes increase a source's visibility in AI generated answers. Citing sources, adding quotations and adding statistics performed best in their benchmark, while keyword stuffing did not help. You can read it on arXiv (2311.09735).

The paper matters because it reframed the question. Instead of "how do I rank?", it asks "how do I become one of the few sources a model chooses to quote?"

Why does GEO matter now?

GEO matters because a growing share of searches ends in a generated answer instead of a click. When an AI summary appears, people click through to websites less often, so being named inside the answer becomes the new visibility. Pew Research Center found exactly that pattern for Google users who saw an AI summary (Pew Research, 2025).

For B2B companies and for professionals building a personal brand, this changes the funnel. If a buyer asks ChatGPT "which tools should I use for X?" or "who is an expert in Y?", the shortlist is formed before anyone visits a website.

How is GEO different from SEO and AEO?

SEO optimizes pages to rank in search results, AEO optimizes passages to become the direct answer in Google features like featured snippets and AI Overviews, and GEO optimizes content and entity signals so conversational assistants cite you. They share the same technical foundation.

I go deeper on the differences, with examples, in GEO vs SEO vs AEO (Spanish).

What content formats get cited most?

The formats AI assistants cite most are numbered lists and rankings, comparison tables, direct answer guides and FAQ sections. They are easy for a model to extract and reuse, and they map closely to how people phrase questions to an assistant.

Format is not a substitute for substance. One post that answers a real question better than anything else online is worth more than ten average posts on the same topic.

How should you structure a post so AI can cite it?

Open every post and every section with a direct answer of 40 to 60 words, use headings phrased as real questions, include at least one table or numbered list, add an FAQ block with matching FAQPage schema, and link every number to a primary public source. That is the checklist I apply to every article on this site.

1. Answer first. The first sentence answers the title. Models often quote the first clean definition they find.
2. Question headings. Write H2s the way people type into ChatGPT.
3. One table minimum. Comparisons are reused almost verbatim.
4. Sources on every number. If there is no public source, there is no number.
5. Visible author and dates. A named author with a profile page, plus published and updated dates.
6. Internal links. No orphan posts. Every new article gets links from older ones.

What technical setup does GEO require?

GEO needs server rendered HTML, a robots.txt that allows AI crawlers such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot, structured data that matches the visible page, an up to date sitemap and, optionally, an llms.txt file and a dedicated page that gives AI agents clean facts about you.

• Structured data. BlogPosting, Person, FAQPage and BreadcrumbList on every post, consistent across the site. Google documents FAQ markup in its structured data guide.
• llms.txt. A proposed standard described at llmstxt.org: a markdown file at your root that summarizes who you are and links key pages. No engine is guaranteed to read it, but it is cheap.
• A page for AI agents. A short page with concise, verified facts about you or your company. Here is mine: para agentes de IA.

Google's own advice still applies: helpful, original, people first content (Google Search Central).

Why is GEO an opportunity in Latin America?

In my experience, many Spanish and Portuguese queries have less well structured, sourced content available than their English equivalents, so a focused author or company can become a default source for a topic faster. Many LATAM buyers also ask AI tools in both languages, which rewards bilingual entities with consistent facts.

What I do differently for LATAM audiences:

• Write natively in Spanish for local prompts, not translations of English posts.
• Keep entity facts identical across languages: same name, role, city and profiles.
• Target prompts with a country modifier, like "growth marketing in Colombia", where competition is thin. See growth marketing en Colombia.
• Publish one English piece per week for global prompts instead of translating everything.

How do you measure GEO?

You measure GEO by tracking a fixed list of prompts across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google every week, recording whether you appear, your position and which URL is cited. The trend in mentions and domain citations matters more than any single share of voice percentage.

1. Define 10 to 40 prompts your ideal buyer would ask.
2. Run them weekly on each engine and log the results.
3. Use a tracker such as Otterly, Peec or Profound once you need scale.
4. Cross check with Google Search Console impressions.
5. Prioritize prompts with many citations where you do not appear yet.

Keep in mind that share of voice depends on the prompts and competitors you track: adding new ones can lower your share even while real mentions grow. Watch absolute mentions and citations over time.

Frequently asked questions about GEO

What does GEO stand for in marketing?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimization. It means optimizing content so generative AI engines such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini and Google AI Overviews use it as a source and cite it in their answers.

Does GEO replace SEO?

No. GEO builds on SEO fundamentals: a crawlable site, useful content and authority. What changes is the goal, being cited inside an answer rather than ranking in a list, and the way you measure success.

How long does GEO take to work?

It depends on your site's authority and how competitive the topic is. A new site first needs to be crawled and indexed. Track the same prompts every week against your starting baseline to see real movement.

Does llms.txt help you get cited by ChatGPT?

It is an open proposal, not a required standard, and no engine guarantees it reads the file. It is still cheap to add and helps organize your site's context for AI agents and tools that do use it.

What tools can I use to track GEO?

Start manually with a spreadsheet and a fixed prompt list. When you need scale, tools like Otterly, Peec or Profound query several AI engines automatically and report mentions, citations and competitors.

Can individuals do GEO for a personal brand?

Yes. The same rules apply to a person as to a company: a clear entity with consistent facts, a profile page with Person schema, useful sourced content and links from your public profiles back to your site.

Next step

Read more about me or the Spanish guide on what a Head of Growth does. If you are working on GEO for a LATAM audience, reach out on LinkedIn.