The most common objection
“We already have an SEO agency.”
Good. Keep it. SEO and GEO answer two different questions – and only one of them can be answered by an SEO report.
SEO (search engine optimisation) measures where your website ranks in a results list and how many people click. GEO (generative engine optimisation) measures whether an AI system names your company in its answer when someone asks for a provider. Both share the technical basis and the quality of the content. They differ in what is measured, what is optimised and who decides.
Search engine optimisation
What an SEO agency measures
- Positions of your pages for keywords in a results list
- Clicks, impressions and traffic from the search engine
- Backlinks, page speed, technical health
- Ten places on page one – and an algorithm that ranks pages
GEO – visibility in AI answers
What we measure
- Whether ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Grok name your company when a customer asks – without the company name in the question
- How often, in which position and in which context – and who is named instead of you
- Which sources the systems cite, and whether your website is among them
- Usually three to five providers per answer – and a model that decides for itself
The difference, question by question
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| What gets measured? | Ranking position and clicks for keywords. | Mention rate: share of AI answers that name the company. |
| What is the question? | A keyword: "photovoltaics Siegen". | A real customer question: "Who installs photovoltaics with storage in my region?" |
| How many winners? | Ten places on page one, many more below. | Usually three to five providers in an answer. Whoever is not among them does not appear. |
| What decides? | A ranking algorithm with known factors. | A language model that weighs sources, entities and statements – and can decide differently tomorrow. |
| What helps? | Keywords, backlinks, technical health, content. | Citable statements, structured data, llms.txt, mentions on third-party sites, answers to real questions – plus the same technical basis. |
| How is success proven? | Ranking report from the search console. | Measurement before and after with the same questions in four AI systems. |
What both share
A website that AI systems cannot read is also weak in search engines. Crawler permissions, clean structure, fast loading times and content that answers questions help both. Good SEO work is not wasted for GEO – it is the foundation.
Where SEO stops
An SEO report shows position 3 for a keyword. It does not show whether an AI system names you when a customer asks it instead of the search engine. Ask your SEO agency for that number. If they can show it with real questions and a date, you are well served. If not, that number is exactly what we deliver.
Do you need both?
Yes, as long as your customers use both. Search engines are not disappearing; AI answers are being added. Our measurement shows where you stand in AI answers – your SEO agency keeps doing its job. We work alongside agencies, not against them.
What we do differently
We measure first and only then recommend. No promise of a placement – the models decide for themselves. What we can do: show where you stand, do the work that makes a mention more likely, and measure again.
Questions we hear in this conversation
Can my SEO agency do GEO as well?
Some can. The test is simple: ask for a measurement of how often AI systems name your company for real customer questions – with a date and without your company name in the questions. If that number exists, fine. If not, GEO has not been measured yet.
Does GEO replace SEO?
No. Search engines are still used; AI answers are added. GEO builds on the same technical basis and adds what AI systems need: citable statements, structured data, mentions on third-party sites and answers to real questions.
Do you work together with our SEO agency?
Yes. We deliver the measurement and, if wanted, the GEO building blocks as ready-made files and copy that your agency installs. We check afterwards and measure again.
Is a good Google ranking enough to be named by AI?
Not necessarily. In our measurements, companies with strong websites are often rarely named because the AI systems lack machine-readable details and citable statements. A ranking is a hint, not a guarantee.