SSD-0016 · Status: emerging · Version 1.0 · Reviewed 12 November 2026 · Wikidata Q134083964
Definition
Generative engine optimization (GEO) is the practice of making content more likely to be retrieved and cited by generative AI systems that answer questions directly, rather than ranked in a list of links.
生成式引擎最佳化（GEO）是指讓內容更可能被「直接回答問題」的生成式 AI 系統檢索並引用的實務，而不是在連結清單中被排名。
In practice
The work overlaps with technical SEO and diverges at the point of selection. A generative system retrieves passages, checks whether they support a claim, and cites what survives. That makes three things matter more than rank: whether a passage is self-contained enough to be quoted alone, whether the claim is attributable to a named and checkable source, and whether the page is reachable by the retrieval crawler at all. Measurement is immature — referral traffic from AI answers is frequently unattributed, and no vendor can observe citation share across every system.
這項工作與技術 SEO 重疊，但在「選取」這一點上分岔：生成式系統檢索段落、檢查它是否支持某個說法，然後引用存活下來的部分。這使三件事比排名更重要：段落是否自足到可以被單獨引用、說法是否可以歸屬於一個具名且可查證的來源、以及頁面是否根本能被檢索爬蟲到達。量度方法仍未成熟——來自 AI 答案的推薦流量往往無法歸因，也沒有任何廠商能觀察到所有系統中的引用佔有率。
What it is not
- Not a replacement for SEO. Retrieval still depends on crawlability, structure and trust.
- Not a settled discipline. There is no agreed metric set, and no shared definition of success.
- Not identical to AEO, though many practitioners use the two interchangeably. GEO emphasises retrieval and citation; AEO emphasises being the answer.
Status
Emerging. The term entered practitioner use around 2023 and only acquired a Wikidata item recently, which is a fair indicator of how new it is. Definitions still differ between sources; the one above is the narrowest that covers actual practice.
Identity
- Wikidata: Q134083964 — generative engine optimization
- English aliases: GEO; generative engine optimisation; AI search optimization
- 中文正名：生成式引擎最佳化（香港、台灣）；中國大陸作「生成式引擎优化」
- Primary official source: none. No search engine publishes a definition of GEO.
Related terms
- AI Overviews
- Answer engine optimization (AEO)
- Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG)
- llms.txt
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
Sources
- Wikidata, item Q134083964 “generative engine optimization” (accessed 12 November 2026).
- Google Search Central documentation on AI features in Search, developers.google.com/search/docs (accessed 12 November 2026).