Six months ago I started calling half my work GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — because the playbook had drifted far enough from classic SEO that the old name was getting in the way of client conversations.
Why GEO needs its own name
Classic SEO optimises for a ranked list of ten blue links. GEO optimises for being chosen as a source inside a synthesised answer. The signals overlap but the optimisation targets don't. A page can rank #3 on Google and never get cited by Perplexity, and vice versa.
- Rankings reward depth, dwell time, and backlinks.
- Citations reward extractability, factual density, and entity clarity.
- The same page can win one without winning the other.
The four-layer GEO model
Every client engagement now runs through four layers in this order: entity, claim, evidence, and reinforcement. Entity defines what the page is fundamentally about. Claim states what's true. Evidence cites a primary source. Reinforcement is the rest of the site agreeing.
LLMs don't cite pages. They cite paragraphs. Write paragraphs that can stand alone.
What's actually working in May 2026
Three tactics moved the needle for every client I've shipped this quarter: (1) one-sentence answer leads at the top of every section, (2) numerical specificity instead of vague qualifiers, and (3) explicit source links inside the prose, not just in a footer.
Skip any of those and you'll keep ranking on Google but disappear from the answers that increasingly precede the ranked list.