Generative engine optimisation (GEO) is the practice of making a brand easy for AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude to find, understand, trust and recommend. For beauty and wellness brands, GEO decides whether an assistant names the brand when a customer asks which serum, supplement or clinic to choose.
Key takeaways
- GEO, in marketing, means generative engine optimisation: shaping how AI assistants describe and recommend a brand.
- AI assistants build answers from trusted third-party sources, so Glossy PR's position is that independent press coverage is the biggest GEO lever a beauty or wellness brand can pull.
- GEO builds on SEO rather than replacing it, because assistants that search the web still rely on pages that are crawlable, structured and trusted.
- Brands control their own entity description, FAQ content, schema, robots.txt and llms.txt, and each one makes the brand easier for assistants to read.
- Glossy PR measures GEO with a five-prompt visibility test, run monthly across the main assistants.
What does GEO mean in marketing?
In marketing, GEO stands for generative engine optimisation, the work of earning a place in answers written by AI assistants. The term is ambiguous because GEO also refers to geography, geotargeting and local SEO, so marketers should always spell it out on first use.
Search data shows how many people are trying to pin the term down:
| Search term | UK monthly searches | Keyword difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| what is geo | 1,900 | 30 |
| geo seo | 1,300 | 53 |
| ai search optimisation | 590 | 47 |
All figures are from Semrush UK, October 2026. Generative engine optimisation is also called AI search optimisation, and sits close to answer engine optimisation (AEO), which focuses on being the direct answer to a question. Glossy PR uses GEO as the umbrella term.
How do AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity build their answers?
AI assistants build answers by combining what their model learned in training with pages they retrieve live from the web, then summarising the sources they judge most relevant and trustworthy. A brand that appears often, in context, across trusted sources is far easier for an assistant to name with confidence.
The process usually runs in four stages:
- The prompt is interpreted. The assistant works out what the customer is asking, for example "best fragrance-free moisturiser for sensitive skin UK".
- Sources are gathered. Assistants with web search, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google AI Overviews and Claude, retrieve pages that match the question.
- Sources are weighed. Established publications, expert reviews and well-known retailers tend to carry more weight than a brand's own claims.
- An answer is written. The assistant summarises those sources and, in Perplexity and Google AI Overviews, links to the pages it used.
| Assistant | How sources appear to the user |
|---|---|
| Perplexity | Numbered citations beside the answer |
| Google AI Overviews | Linked source cards beside the summary |
| ChatGPT | Linked sources when it searches the web |
| Claude | Cited sources when web search is used |
Google's shift is already visible. In a Semrush UK pull on 6 October 2026, 24 of the 30 search terms glossypr.com appeared for triggered a Google AI Overview.
What is the difference between GEO and SEO?
SEO aims to rank a brand's pages in Google's list of results, while GEO aims to get the brand named and cited inside AI-written answers. The two overlap heavily, because assistants that search the web draw on the same crawlable, trusted content that good SEO produces.
| SEO | GEO | |
|---|---|---|
| Goal | Rank pages in search results | Be named and cited in AI answers |
| Where results appear | Google's list of links | ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews, Claude |
| Unit that wins | A page | A passage or a brand mention |
| Strongest external signal | Backlinks from trusted sites | Mentions in sources assistants cite |
| Brand-side work | Technical SEO, content, internal links | Entity consistency, FAQs, schema, AI crawler access |
| How it is measured | Rankings, clicks, organic traffic | Brand presence in answers to set prompts |
Generative engine optimisation does not replace search engine optimisation. A brand with weak SEO usually has weak GEO too, which is why Glossy PR plans both together through PR for SEO and AI search.
Why is PR the biggest GEO lever for beauty and wellness brands?
In Glossy PR's assessment, PR is the biggest GEO lever for beauty and wellness brands, because assistants answering "which brand is best" draw on independent judgement, and features in respected titles are exactly that. Beauty and wellness buyers ask trust questions, and assistants answer trust questions with third-party sources, not brand websites.
Earned coverage strengthens GEO in three ways:
- Citation: titles that assistants already cite for a category mention the brand directly.
- Consistency: repeated coverage describes the brand the same way, so assistants describe it the same way too.
- Search strength: coverage earns links and branded search, which supports the pages assistants retrieve. Our guide on does PR help SEO explains that mechanism in full.
Glossy PR plans campaigns using the Visibility Ladder: featured, found, named, chosen. Being named by an assistant is step three, and it rarely happens without steps one and two. James Jardella, Founder of Skin Sapiens, described the kind of titles that make this possible: "Glossy generated great coverage with some fantastic titles from month one."
What can a beauty brand control for GEO on its own website?
A beauty brand controls five GEO inputs directly: a consistent entity description, FAQ content, schema markup, a robots.txt file that allows AI crawlers, and an llms.txt file. None of them replaces earned coverage, but each makes the brand easier for an assistant to read and describe accurately.
- One entity description. Write a single sentence on who the brand is, what it sells and who it serves, and use it on the website, retailer listings, Instagram bio, LinkedIn and press kit.
- FAQ content. Answer real customer questions about ingredients, suitability and results in clear, self-contained paragraphs.
- Schema markup. Add Organization, Product and FAQPage structured data in the page's raw HTML, so crawlers read it without running JavaScript.
- Robots.txt access. Make sure GPTBot, PerplexityBot and ClaudeBot are not blocked.
- An llms.txt file. Publish a short markdown summary of the brand and its key pages at the site root. Adoption by AI companies is still uneven, so treat it as low-effort housekeeping.
Worked example: a robots.txt that welcomes the main AI crawlers includes lines such as these.
User-agent: GPTBot
Allow: /
User-agent: PerplexityBot
Allow: /
User-agent: ClaudeBot
Allow: /
For a fuller beauty-specific checklist, read how to get your beauty brand recommended by ChatGPT.
How do you measure GEO with the five-prompt visibility test?
Measure GEO by asking AI assistants the questions customers actually ask, then recording whether the brand appears, which competitors appear and which sources are cited. Glossy PR runs this as the five-prompt AI visibility test, repeated monthly on the same day so movement is easy to see.
- Write five prompts a customer would type, such as "best vegan skincare brands UK".
- Run each prompt in ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google and Claude, using a private browser window.
- Record the result: brand named or not, competitors named, and publications cited.
- List the repeat titles. Publications cited across several answers become priority PR targets.
- Repeat monthly with identical prompts and compare.
Worked example: a supplement brand runs the test and finds two health titles cited in most answers, with three competitors named and the brand absent. Those two titles move to the top of the PR plan, and the same five prompts are re-run each month to track whether the brand starts appearing. Glossy PR's position holds here: cuttings are an output, visibility is the result.
Frequently asked questions about GEO for beauty brands
Is GEO the same as SEO? GEO is not the same as SEO. SEO ranks pages in search results, while GEO earns a brand a place inside AI-written answers, although both depend on trusted, crawlable content.
Can a beauty brand pay to appear in ChatGPT answers? A beauty brand earns its place in ChatGPT answers rather than buying it. ChatGPT's answers draw on the sources it uses, so a beauty brand influences them by earning coverage in trusted titles and keeping its own brand facts consistent.
Does a small wellness brand need GEO? A small wellness brand needs GEO when customers research before buying, because assistants increasingly answer those research questions directly and name the brands their sources mention.
How often should a brand check its AI visibility? A brand should check AI visibility monthly, using the same five prompts across the same assistants, so changes reflect real movement rather than different questions.
How to find out whether AI assistants name your beauty or wellness brand
Glossy PR is a UK public relations agency for beauty, health, and wellness brands. Part of SugarNova Group, it is the first beauty PR agency built around GEO, turning earned media coverage into the citations AI engines surface when buyers and founders research which brands to trust.
Take the 2 minute visibility check and see whether ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google name your brand today, and who they name instead.
About the author: Shayne Williams is Founder and Group CEO of SugarNova Group, the London growth group behind Glossy PR. Since founding SugarNova in 2016, Shayne has built PR, SEO and paid media into one system for UK brands, with Glossy PR serving beauty, health and wellness. Last updated: 23 October 2026.