--- title: "GEO examples: six before-and-after edits | Len P. van der Hof" description: "Six GEO examples, each with a before and an after: small edits that make a page easier for ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google's AI answers to find and quote." image: "https://lenvanderhof.com/media/generated/blog-hero-geo-examples-v1.18f617258792.wide.webp" --- [SEO, GEO and AEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/category/seo-geo-aeo/) Research guide # GEO examples: six before-and-after edits that make a page easier for AI to quote Most GEO is plain editing. Here is what it looks like on one page. Len P. van der HofPublished 12 October 20268 min read Same clay, same size. Only one of them pours. Direct answer GEO (generative engine optimization) is the work of making a page easy for AI answer tools such as ChatGPT search, Perplexity and Google's AI Overviews to find, quote correctly and credit. In practice it is mostly editing: put the answer first, replace vague claims with sourced numbers, name things instead of writing 'it', turn image tables into text, write headings as questions, and show a date and a named author. None of these edits guarantees a citation. ## Key takeaways - GEO is mostly editing, not a secret technique. - AI tools lift pieces of a page, so each piece must make sense on its own. - A number with a source and a date is worth quoting. A platitude is not. - Text beats images, questions beat slogans, names beat pronouns. - No edit guarantees a citation. Google says even a page that meets every requirement may not be shown. **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](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735) 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](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/what-geo-means/) 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](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/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](https://lenvanderhof.com/books/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:** ServicePriceTimeStandard e-bike service€891 working dayBattery health check€35Same day if booked before 10:00Brake pads, front and rear€45 plus partsWhile 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](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/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](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) asks: “Is it self-evident to your visitors who authored your content?” Its [page on dates](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/publication-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](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/person-entity-seo/) covers that side. ## All six on one card #BeforeAfterWhy it is easier to quote1Answer in paragraph fiveAnswer in the first two sentencesQuestion words and answer sit in one passage2”Batteries last a long time”A number, its source, its dateSpecific and checkable, so worth quoting3”It works with most of them”Product and scope named in the sentenceThe passage still makes sense when lifted alone4Price list as an imagePrice list as a text tableText can be read, matched, and quoted cell by cell5”Passion meets precision""How long does an e-bike service take?”The heading labels the answer below it6”Posted by admin”Named author, visible dateReaders 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](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) covers crawler access. ## Try this today (20 minutes) 1. Pick the one page you most want quoted. Write the question it should answer at the top of a blank note. 2. Edit 1 (5 minutes): move the answer into the first two sentences, with its main condition. 3. Edit 5 (5 minutes): rewrite each heading as the question its section answers. 4. Edit 3 (5 minutes): find paragraphs that start with “it”, “this”, or “they”, and name the thing instead. 5. 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](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/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/](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/geo-examples/) · Published 12 October 2026. ## Terminology - [GEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/geo/) ## Sources 1. [GEO meaning](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/what-geo-means/) 2. [If the answer is in paragraph nine, you did not write a page](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/answer-first-writing/) 3. [Person entity SEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/person-entity-seo/) 4. [Content architecture that answer engines can lift](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/content-architecture-for-answer-engines/) 5. [How to get cited by ChatGPT](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/how-to-get-cited-2026/) 6. [The RAG Engineer](https://lenvanderhof.com/books/the-rag-engineer/) 7. [Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide) · Google Search Central 8. [AI features and your website](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features) · Google Search Central 9. [Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/creating-helpful-content) · Google Search Central 10. [Influence your byline dates in Google Search](https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/publication-dates) · Google Search Central 11. [GEO: Generative Engine Optimization (Aggarwal et al., KDD 2024)](https://arxiv.org/abs/2311.09735) · arXiv 12. [Publishers and developers FAQ](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/12627856-publishers-and-developers-faq) · OpenAI Help Center 13. [Overview of OpenAI crawlers](https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/bots) · OpenAI 14. [Perplexity crawlers](https://docs.perplexity.ai/guides/bots) · Perplexity ## Further reading - [GEO meaning](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/what-geo-means/) - [If the answer is in paragraph nine, you did not write a page](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/answer-first-writing/) - [Content architecture that answer engines can lift](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/blog/content-architecture-for-answer-engines/) - [GEO](https://lenvanderhof.com/glossary/geo/) About the author ## [Len P. van der Hof](https://lenvanderhof.com/en/authors/len-p-van-der-hof/) Entrepreneur, AI Innovator and Venture Builder Len P. van der Hof builds practical AI systems, digital ventures and evidence-informed tools for founders. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Person", "@id": "https://lenvanderhof.com/#person", "name": "Len P. van der Hof", "alternateName": [ "Len van der Hof", "L.P. van der Hof", "Leendert Pieter van der Hof" ], "honorificSuffix": "MSc", "url": "https://lenvanderhof.com/", "image": [ "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-portrait-1.jpg", "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-portrait-2.jpg", "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-portrait-3.jpg", "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-portrait-4.jpg", "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-speaking.jpg", "https://lenvanderhof.com/photos/len-hero.jpg" ], "jobTitle": "Entrepreneur, AI Innovator and Venture Builder", "description": "Len P. van der Hof, MSc, is a Dutch entrepreneur and AI innovator in Zwijndrecht. 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