GEO, short for generative engine optimization, is the work of making your pages easy for AI answer tools to find, quote correctly, and credit. Those tools include ChatGPT search, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews (the AI-written summaries at the top of many Google results). The term comes from a 2023 research paper by Pranjal Aggarwal and colleagues, published at the KDD 2024 conference.
In practice, most GEO is plain editing. The six before-and-after examples below show what that editing looks like on one page. GEO meaning covers the definition in more depth. This page is the examples.
Why do small edits matter to an AI answer tool?
Before an AI tool writes an answer from the web, it runs retrieval: it looks up the pieces of text most likely to answer the question, then writes from those pieces. Often it works with pieces rather than your whole page. Google, for example, says its systems can understand a page with several topics and “show the relevant piece to users.”
That is why every edit below works on a piece: a paragraph that answers on its own, a sentence that names its subject, a heading that says what follows. Each after-version is easier to match to a question and to lift without losing its meaning.
One rule before the examples: none of these edits guarantees a citation. Google states that even a page meeting all its requirements may not be crawled (read by Google’s crawler, the program that fetches pages), indexed (stored for search), or shown.
The example page
All six examples use one hypothetical business: Kade Cycles, a made-up e-bike repair shop in Utrecht. Its prices, numbers, and staff are invented for illustration. The page being edited is its “E-bike service” page.
1. Buried answer, then answer first
Before
Since 2011, Kade Cycles has been the place in Utrecht for people who love to ride. We believe every bike tells a story, and our mechanics treat each one like their own. (Three more paragraphs.) Our standard service is €89.
After
A standard e-bike service at Kade Cycles costs €89 and usually takes one working day. It covers brakes, gears, tires, chain, and a software check of the motor. Parts and battery repairs are charged separately.
Why it helps. The question people ask is “how much does an e-bike service cost?” In the before-version, the price sits three paragraphs away from any words about servicing an e-bike. In the after-version, the question’s words and the answer share two sentences, with the condition (parts are extra) attached. Answer-first writing goes deeper on this edit.
2. Vague claim, then a sourced number
Before
E-bike batteries last a long time if you treat them well.
After
Of the 212 e-bike batteries we replaced in 2025, half were more than four years old (Kade Cycles workshop log, January 2026). Your battery’s manual states its rated life in charge cycles, so check that first.
Why it helps. The before-sentence could sit on any bike site, so there is no reason to quote this one. The after-sentence holds something only this shop knows, with its source and date attached. Google’s guide to AI features asks for “non-commodity” content, meaning content that goes beyond common knowledge, and points to first-hand experience as one way to get there.
The GEO paper tested this kind of edit in a lab. Adding statistics, quotations, and citations to credible sources increased a source’s share of the AI answer by roughly 30 to 40% on the paper’s headline measure, Position-Adjusted Word Count. Stuffing in extra keywords did little or nothing. The study used a simulated answer engine, so read it as a direction, not a promise.
3. Pronoun soup, then named things
Before
It works with most of them. We can also do it the same day if you book before ten.
After
The Kade Cycles battery health check works on mid-drive and rear-hub e-bikes. Book before 10:00 and you get the result the same day.
Why it helps. A passage travels without the paragraph above it. Once lifted, “it” and “them” point at nothing. My book The RAG Engineer (available now) calls this chunk anonymity, a chunk being a slice of text that a retrieval system stores on its own. Its example is a chunk that reports revenue growth for “the company” without naming the company or the quarter, so no search that names either can find it. Put the product, what it works on, and the business in the sentence itself.
4. A price list as an image, then a real table
Before: a designed image of the price list, with the prices baked into the picture.
After:
| Service | Price | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Standard e-bike service | €89 | 1 working day |
| Battery health check | €35 | Same day if booked before 10:00 |
| Brake pads, front and rear | €45 plus parts | While you wait |
Why it helps. A picture of a price list is a picture. A table in text is text: a crawler can read it, a screen reader can read it aloud, and each cell can be matched to a question and quoted. Google’s page on AI features lists keeping important content available in text form among the basics. If the design needs the image, keep it, and put the same table in text next to it.
5. A marketing heading, then a question heading
Before: a section headed “Passion meets precision”.
After: the same section headed “How long does an e-bike service take?”
Why it helps. A heading is a label on the section below it. Retrieval systems built the way The RAG Engineer recommends cut pages at their headings and keep the heading attached to each piece, because a heading is the author’s own signal that a new topic starts. “Passion meets precision” labels nothing. A question heading tells the reader, and any system that splits the page, which question the next paragraph answers. Google makes the human version of the same point: organize pages into sections with headings that give a clear structure.
6. Undated and anonymous, then dated with a named author
Before
Posted by admin
After
By [first and last name], head mechanic at Kade Cycles since 2016. Last updated: 24 September 2026.
Why it helps. A reader deciding whether to trust a page wants to know who wrote it and how old it is. Google’s guidance asks for both. Its helpful-content checklist asks: “Is it self-evident to your visitors who authored your content?” Its page on dates says: “Add a user-visible date to the page and feature it prominently.” A named author also gives an answer engine a person to attach the claim to. Person entity SEO covers that side.
All six on one card
| # | Before | After | Why it is easier to quote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Answer in paragraph five | Answer in the first two sentences | Question words and answer sit in one passage |
| 2 | ”Batteries last a long time” | A number, its source, its date | Specific and checkable, so worth quoting |
| 3 | ”It works with most of them” | Product and scope named in the sentence | The passage still makes sense when lifted alone |
| 4 | Price list as an image | Price list as a text table | Text can be read, matched, and quoted cell by cell |
| 5 | ”Passion meets precision" | "How long does an e-bike service take?” | The heading labels the answer below it |
| 6 | ”Posted by admin” | Named author, visible date | Readers can see who stands behind it and how old it is |
What these examples do not promise
No edit here buys a citation. Google says a page can meet every requirement and still not be shown, and the publisher pages from Google, OpenAI, and Perplexity checked for this article contain no formula for choosing sources.
GEO is also not a bag of tricks. Google says you do not need special AI text files such as llms.txt (a proposed file that lists a site’s key pages for AI tools), or special schema markup (code that labels facts on a page for machines), to appear in its AI features. The GEO paper found keyword stuffing did little. The edits above are the same ones that help a hurried human reader, which is the point.
And if an engine cannot read the page at all, no edit matters. How to get cited by ChatGPT covers crawler access.
Try this today (20 minutes)
- Pick the one page you most want quoted. Write the question it should answer at the top of a blank note.
- Edit 1 (5 minutes): move the answer into the first two sentences, with its main condition.
- Edit 5 (5 minutes): rewrite each heading as the question its section answers.
- Edit 3 (5 minutes): find paragraphs that start with “it”, “this”, or “they”, and name the thing instead.
- Edit 6 (5 minutes): add a named author and a visible “last updated” date.
Then copy the first paragraph into an empty document. If it still answers the question on its own, the page is easier to quote than it was twenty minutes ago. Once each page is clean, content architecture for answer engines is the next step: one claim, one URL.
Cite this:GEO examples: six before-and-after edits that make a page easier for AI to quote.Len P. van der Hof. https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/geo-examples/ ·