A growing number of people are now starting their research with AI assistants rather than Google. They ask ChatGPT 'what's the best web design agency in South Africa?' or ask Claude 'who should I hire for SEO?' The businesses that appear in those answers have a significant advantage over those that don't.
Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making your business visible to AI language models — so that when someone asks an AI assistant a question relevant to your services, your business is cited, recommended, or mentioned.
GEO is different from traditional SEO. Search engines rank pages. AI models synthesise information from across the web and generate answers. To appear in those answers, your business needs to be well-represented in the sources those models draw from.
The foundations of GEO are: authoritative content that clearly establishes your expertise; structured data (schema markup) that helps AI models understand what your business does; consistent brand mentions across reputable websites; and a strong digital footprint that signals credibility.
One of the most effective GEO tactics is creating content that directly answers the questions AI models are asked. If someone asks an AI 'how much does web design cost for a small business?', and your site has a comprehensive, well-structured answer to that exact question, you're more likely to be cited.
GEO is still an emerging discipline — the rules are being written in real time. But early movers are already seeing the benefits. At Gro3th, we've been tracking AI citation patterns since the early days of ChatGPT, and we've developed a methodology that consistently improves our clients' visibility in AI-generated answers.