Search is changing. When someone asks ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity “what’s the best tool for X?”, they get an answer — not a list of blue links. If your brand isn’t in that answer, you’re invisible.
That’s what GEO — Generative Engine Optimization — is about.
What GEO means
Traditional SEO optimizes for search engine crawlers. GEO optimizes for AI models: the large language models that generate answers to questions directly.
There are two types of AI models you need to think about:
Retrieval-based (Perplexity, Bing AI) — these models fetch live content from the web when answering. They index Reddit threads, comparison posts, FAQ pages, and news articles in real time.
Training-based (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok) — these models answer from what they learned during training. Wikipedia, authoritative publications, and widely-cited content influence what they know.
Why it matters now
AI search isn’t a future trend — it’s happening. Perplexity serves millions of queries a day. ChatGPT has search built in. Claude cites sources. If your brand doesn’t appear in AI-generated answers for your category, you’re losing to competitors who do.
What you can do today
- Publish comparison content — “Your Brand vs Competitor” posts get cited heavily by retrieval models
- Seed Reddit threads — authentic discussions about problems in your space (mentioning your brand naturally) get indexed by Perplexity
- Write FAQ pages — comprehensive, structured answers to category questions get picked up by both types of models
- Build Wikipedia presence — the strongest training-data signal for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini
- Get cited by authoritative sources — press mentions and blog citations influence future model training
How Minnal helps
Minnal tracks your AI visibility score across 5 models, identifies content gaps vs your competitors, and gives you a prioritized GEO Playbook with ready-to-use Claude prompts for each tactic.