What GEO actually is
Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of earning citations and mentions inside AI-generated answers — in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Gemini — rather than optimizing for a position in a list of links.
The shift matters because the unit of competition changed. Traditional search returns ten results and lets the user choose. An AI answer synthesizes a handful of sources into a single response and names a small set of brands. If you are not in that set, you are not in the consideration set at all — and unlike page two of Google, there is no scrolling to find you.
Start here: What Is Generative Engine Optimization? covers the plain-English definition. If you are weighing whether GEO deserves its own budget line, I argued both sides in the "GEO is just SEO" debate.
How each AI engine chooses its sources
There is no single "AI search algorithm." Each engine retrieves differently, and a strategy tuned to one can leave you invisible on another. The practical consequence: optimizing only for ChatGPT is already obsolete.
- Google AI Overviews — runs query fan-out, turning one prompt into dozens of sub-queries before filtering down to a few cited passages. How AI Overviews choose citations →
- ChatGPT — retrieves from Bing's index, not Google's. If you are missing from Bing, ChatGPT cannot cite you at all. Why ChatGPT can't see your website →
- Perplexity — reads roughly ten pages per query but cites only three to five, via a retrieve-and-rerank pipeline. How Perplexity picks sources →
- Gemini — behaves differently on informational versus recommendation queries. Gemini's split brain →
The ARC Method
ARC is the framework I use to turn all of that into a sequence of work: Audit where you actually appear, build Reddit & Reputation signals off-domain, and make your own content Citable. Each stage has its own cluster of work below.
A — Audit: measure before you move
You cannot improve a visibility problem you have not measured, and most brands have never checked. Begin with how to audit your brand's AI search visibility, then decide what success looks like using AI search ROI — AI-referred traffic converts several times higher than traditional organic, which changes how you value comparatively small referral numbers.
R — Reddit & Reputation: the off-domain layer
Reddit is the most-cited domain across major AI platforms, which makes it the highest-leverage off-site channel available. It is also the one most brands execute badly.
- Why Reddit dominates AI search citations — the data behind it
- Find the exact threads AI Overviews cite in your niche
- Subreddit selection — which communities actually feed AI Overviews
- The answer-passage formula — writing comments AI extracts
- Getting a Reddit thread to rank inside AI Overviews
Reputation is the other half: when AI describes your brand inaccurately, that is a source-level problem, not a prompt problem. See AI reputation management.
C — Citability: make your own content quotable
Retrieval favours content an engine can lift cleanly: a self-contained claim, evidence next to it, consistent naming. Start with making your content citable, then close the consistency gap — AI resolves conflicts by counting sources that agree, so your facts must match everywhere.
Citability also depends on being a recognized entity. If Google cannot confidently identify who you are, AI systems have nothing stable to attach your expertise to. That work starts with schema and the Knowledge Graph.
Where to start if you're starting today
In order: confirm you are indexed in Bing (or ChatGPT cannot see you), audit which queries name competitors instead of you, fix the highest-traffic pages for extractability, then build off-domain presence where your buyers actually ask questions. The sequenced version is the 90-day GEO roadmap.
The full system — ARC in depth, the Reddit playbook, and the ninety-day roadmap — is in the book.
