- GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
- The work whose goal is for a generative AI system's answer to include your brand, your content or your website — quoted, linked or named as a source.
- SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
- Search optimisation: the work whose goal is for your website to appear higher among search results.
- AI probe
- Asking an AI system a specific question in order to check whether the company or website under examination appears in the answer.
- llms.txt
- A text file placed at a website's root that briefly summarises what the site offers, with the aim of letting AI systems read and interpret it more accurately.
How does it differ from SEO?
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| What is the goal? | Appearing in a good place in the results list. | Appearing inside the answer itself. |
| What does the user get? | A link to click. | An answer — with no click. |
| What do you optimise for? | Keywords, links, technical state. | Factuality, quotability, machine readability. |
| Measurability | Position, traffic, click-through rate. | Whether the brand appears in the answer, and in what context. |
What gets cited?
There is no guaranteed recipe, and anyone promising a guarantee is worth listening to sceptically. What practice shows so far is coherent and not surprising:
- A direct answer to the question — if the first paragraph answers the question in the title, that paragraph is quotable. If the point comes after three paragraphs of preamble, it is not.
- Factuality and specifics — a number, a process, a condition, an exception. Generality cannot be quoted, because it says nothing.
- Clear structure — question-shaped subheadings, short paragraphs, tables, lists. The structure is information too.
- Reachability — if your website blocks AI crawlers, there is nothing to cite. That is a technical setting.
- Machine-readable extras — structured data (schema.org) and llms.txt, where they make sense.
- Freshness — dated, recently reviewed content is a more credible candidate.
What does Pagioo do about it?
- Generated articles are structured, with question-shaped subheadings and a concrete close — so the structure is GEO-friendly by default.
- The SEO feedback flags missing metadata, alt text and structural problems.
- SEO/GEO research shows where you stand now, with a live AI probe.
- What remains yours: fact-checking, your own specifics, and your website's technical settings.
Do I need an llms.txt file on my website?
It is not required and by itself brings no visibility. A well-written llms.txt does help summarise accurately what you offer — low effort, small but positive effect.
How do I know whether I appear in AI answers?
There is no precise, continuous measurement: the answers change. An AI probe is a snapshot, but repeated over time it gives a trend.
Do SEO and GEO contradict each other?
No. Both largely want the same thing: useful, factual, well-structured content. GEO adds that the answer should be directly extractable.