Short answer
Generative engine optimisation is the work of getting named when somebody asks an AI tool to recommend a business. It is decided by corroboration rather than ranking: these tools name businesses they can verify from several independent sources, so consistency matters more than keywords.
Of the three acronyms this is the newest, the least understood and the one being sold hardest. It is also real, which makes separating the two awkward.
What it actually is
When somebody asks ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity to recommend a plumber in their area, something decides which businesses get named. Generative engine optimisation is the work of being one of them.
That is a different thing from ranking. There is no list of ten results. There is one answer naming two or three businesses, and either you are in it or you are not.
How these tools decide
They are built to sound confident and to avoid being wrong. Recommending a business that does not exist, or is closed, or does not cover that area, is the failure they most want to avoid.
So they favour businesses they can verify from more than one place. If your business name, address and phone number read identically on your website, your Google Business Profile and a handful of other listings, you are safe to name. If your name appears three different ways and two phone numbers are floating about, you are a risk, and something else gets named instead.
That single idea explains most of what works here.
What actually moves it
Consistency, everywhere. Same name, same number, same address format. Dull, free, and the highest leverage thing on this list.
A complete Google Business Profile. It is a primary source about local businesses and these tools lean on it heavily. An unfinished one gives them very little.
Mentions on sites that are not yours. A local trade association, a supplier listing you as an installer, a local news piece, a genuine directory. This is the part that is genuinely extra work beyond ordinary SEO, and the reason GEO can honestly be charged as an add-on.
Being specific about where you work. Vague coverage claims are hard to verify. Named suburbs are easy.
Reviews on real profiles. Independent evidence that you exist and do decent work. Testimonials typed onto your own site do nothing here, because anybody can write those.
What does not move it
Stuffing AI related words onto your website. These tools are not counting keywords, they are looking for facts they can corroborate.
Paying for a position. There is not one to buy.
A page titled best plumber in town. Self description is the one kind of evidence that carries no weight at all, precisely because everybody writes it.
How to check where you stand
Ask the tools yourself. Open ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity and ask each for a recommended plumber in your town, the way a customer would phrase it.
Three things to notice. Whether you appear at all. Who does appear, and what those businesses have in common. And whether anything said about you is wrong, because an out of date phone number in an AI answer is worse than not appearing.
Do it from a logged out or private session if you can, so you are not being shown yourself because the tool knows you.
The honest position
This is worth doing, because nearly all of it is work you should be doing anyway. It is not worth panicking about, and it is definitely not worth paying a premium for while your profile is still half finished.
The reason it is a separate line on the pricing page rather than folded into the SEO is the mentions part. Getting written about on other people’s sites is real, slow, manual work. The rest of it is just doing the basics properly.