Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) for B2B

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Generative engine optimisation, GEO, is the practice of getting your content cited inside AI-generated answers, the summary ChatGPT or an AI Overview gives instead of a list of blue links. For B2B companies, it matters more than the term suggests: a buyer researching vendors now often gets a shortlist from an AI tool before they visit a single website.

Google results page for the query 'best crm software for b2b saas startups' showing an AI Overview that names HubSpot CRM as the best overall option, cites Reddit and aimers.io as sources, and sits above the traditional blue-link results — A B2B buying query on Google: the AI Overview names a vendor and cites its sources before the first blue link appears.

GEO isn’t a separate discipline from SEO, it’s an extension of it #

I don’t treat GEO as a new, bolted-on service. It’s the same SEO work, technical structure, on-page clarity, content built around real buyer questions, extended to a second kind of search result.

The same foundation feeds both. Fix the technical structure and the content once, and it works for rankings and AI citations together.

The techniques overlap almost entirely:

Answer the question first. The first few sentences of a key page should answer the actual question directly, with real numbers, rather than three paragraphs of preamble. AI tools lift the part that answers cleanly, buried answers don’t get cited.

Real FAQ schema. Actual questions your buyers ask, short answers, marked up so an AI tool can read the structure, beyond just the text.

Comparison tables. AI answers lean on tables for anything comparable, pricing, features, specs. A page without one is a page that doesn’t get quoted when someone asks an AI tool to compare options.

Track it monthly. AI visibility and AI-referred traffic belong on the same dashboard as rankings and clicks, so it’s a measured result, not a claim. See how I measure results for the full method.

How to tell if it’s already a problem #

Practical tool

Ask an AI tool a question a prospect would ask

Try “best [your category] for [a specific use case],” or “[you] vs [a named competitor].”

GEO is built into every B2B SEO audit I run, rather than sold as a separate add-on. If you want to know where you actually stand, get in touch.