The short answer
SEO covers technical access, indexing, structure and search presence. GEO examines the next step: how a generative system assembles the answer, which suppliers it names, which sources it displays and whether it can connect your product to a buyer's actual task.
What Google officially says
Google states that AI Overviews and AI Mode require no special AI markup. A supporting page still needs to be indexed, eligible for a search snippet and compliant with standard Search requirements. Useful text, internal links, accessible HTML and accurate structured data remain the foundation.
What a generative answer adds
A classic rank does not describe the whole result. A single answer may combine your brand, a competitor and an independent source. We therefore record the mention, the brand's role, cited sources, repeat stability and differences between systems.
The false positive businesses create
A prompt containing the company name tests recognition, not discovery. A useful control describes the task, market, budget or constraint without naming the brand. It should then be repeated under the same conditions instead of being treated as a one-shot screenshot.
What can actually be improved
Teams can remove access blockers, clarify the product and category, publish verifiable facts, cases and comparisons, and align first-party claims with independent evidence. No serious operator can guarantee a specific position in ChatGPT or an identical answer on every run.
Do not begin by rewriting the entire site for GEO. Record technical readiness, a controlled set of buyer scenarios and the sources already used by the systems. Only then can you separate an indexing problem from weak product language or missing independent evidence.
Primary sources
These links point to platform documentation and research supporting the claims in this article.