GEO · · 2 min read
GEO is here — and it's not the same as SEO
In 2026 Google often answers with an AI summary before you see any blue links. If ChatGPT does not cite you, you have vanished from half the buyer journey.
By Mediseo
Half the searches I ran yesterday never ended up on a website.
They ended in an AI summary. A Google AI Overview. An answer from ChatGPT. A recommendation from Perplexity. Three sentences, sources at the bottom, done.
It's happening for your customers too. If you're not one of the sources those three sentences pull from, you've lost the most important place to be seen in 2026.
GEO is not a new acronym for SEO
GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — is about how AI models pick who they cite. A lot of the work overlaps with classic SEO. But it isn't the same thing.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Measures | Ranking in blue links | Citation in AI answers |
| Rewards | Backlinks, intent, freshness | Clear structure, sources, definitions |
| Wins | Broad topic pages | Question-driven, compact answers |
Most good GEO work helps SEO too. But not all good SEO work helps GEO. That's the nuance.
Three things you should do this week
- Write a clear definition at the top of your main pages. AI models love sentences of the type "X is Y because Z." Put them high up, not hidden far down.
- Turn some headings into full questions. People write complete sentences to ChatGPT. If your pages match those sentences, you get cited more often.
- Add an
llms.txtto the root of your website. A small markdown document that tells AI models who you are and what they can pull from you. Takes 30 minutes. The effect is measurable within weeks.
Is Google going to stop sending traffic?
No. But they're sending less.
People who search "what's the difference between X and Y" will often get the answer in an AI overview and never click through. People who search "dentist Sandefjord" still come — that's buyer intent, and you rarely get that in an AI summary.
The strategy isn't to drop SEO. It's to do both — deliberately, at the same time — and stop pretending it's one game.
What we're doing for clients right now
Every new SEO engagement starts with a basic GEO review:
- We check whether your brand gets mentioned when someone asks ChatGPT about your industry in your area.
- We rewrite the main pages with clear definitions and question-driven headings.
- We set up
llms.txtand structured data (schema.org) that make the content machine-readable.
It's not magic. It's tidying up. But that tidying takes you from invisible to cited on the searches that are actually about your business.
Want to see where your site stands? We do a free GEO check on the first call. Talk to us.