What is GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) and how to measure it

GEO, for Generative Engine Optimization, is the term that was missing to describe a very concrete problem: how do you get ChatGPT, Gemini, or Perplexity to recommend your product instead of a competitor's, when a customer asks a question instead of typing a Google search. In France and across Europe, the vocabulary is still fuzzy, often copied straight from English, while brands need a clear definition to know what to measure and what to fix.

GEO, a definition

GEO refers to the set of practices aimed at getting visibility, a citation, or a favorable recommendation from AI answer engines when a user asks them a question related to your product category. It's the equivalent of SEO for a world where the answer is no longer a list of ten blue links but a single synthesized answer, with or without a mention of your brand.

GEO isn't SEO, even though it inherits its foundations

GEO relies on foundations close to SEO: clean product data, real domain authority, clear content. But the goal is different. In SEO, you optimize a position in a list of clickable results. In GEO, you optimize the odds of being cited or recommended inside a generated answer, one where sometimes only a single brand gets mentioned, or none at all. Ranking third on Google is still a position. Being absent from a ChatGPT answer means not existing for that customer.

How to measure GEO: the signals that matter

• Visibility: is your brand or product mentioned on the relevant queries in your category
• Relative position: how you're presented against the competitors cited in the same answer
• Sentiment: the tone the AI uses when it talks about your brand
• Cited sources: which domains the engine relies on to build its answer
• Change over time: these signals tracked engine by engine, not a single snapshot

Measuring GEO seriously means tracking these signals continuously, across several engines at once, rather than running a one-off search on ChatGPT to feel reassured. That's exactly what Tadow's MAP pillar covers, before FIX corrects the catalog and PROVE connects it all to revenue, in euros.