Terms of Trade · Edition 4: The AI pitch, and Barking Cat’s own terms
GEO. Generative engine optimisation
Definition
Generative engine optimisation: the label agencies use for the work of making a retailer’s content more likely to be found, selected and cited when a customer asks ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews what to buy. It overlaps heavily with SEO; what changes is the outcome, from a ranking on a page to an appearance in an answer.
Field note
GEO is the new AEO, which was the new SEO. Same agency, new deck.
Board question
When a customer asks an AI assistant for the best product in our category, are we in the answer, and who checked last month?
Applied through
The Agentic lens of the AI Diagnostic; the practice asks the same question of itself every month, with a fixed panel of ten prompts across four assistants.
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