GreenBanana is a Generative Engine Optimization agency helping brands earn visibility and citations in ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Copilot — providing SEO (and now AEO/GEO) since 2009.
A Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) agency helps your brand get included, cited, and recommended inside AI-generated answers (ChatGPT, Gemini, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Claude) by making your content easy to retrieve, easy to trust, and easy to reuse.
At GreenBanana, GEO combines (1) technical access + crawl reliability, (2) entity/AEO trust signals, (3) answer-ready content architecture, and (4) authority/citation building—so AI systems use your pages as source material, not just a link.
Proof: See real outcomes from our AI visibility work in our AEO case study results.
Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the process of making your brand and content easy for AI answer engines to retrieve, trust, and reuse when they generate responses to customer questions. Instead of optimizing only for rankings and clicks, GEO optimizes for in-answer visibility—so your ideas, products, and expertise are pulled into responses inside tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity.
Done right, GEO helps AI systems clearly understand what you do, what you’re known for, and which pages are the best source for specific questions. That requires content that’s structured for AI consumption: clean definitions, scannable answer blocks, strong entity clarity, supporting citations, and pages written in a way that’s easy to summarize without losing accuracy.
Most brands treat AEO and GEO like interchangeable buzzwords. They’re not.
AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) is the trust layer. It helps AI systems confirm who you are, what you do, and whether you’re credible enough to cite. This includes entity signals, structured data, author credibility, and authority footprints across the web.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is the expression layer. It shapes how AI systems use your content when they generate answers—what they pull, how they summarize it, how they compare you to alternatives, and whether they recommend you at all.
If you want the full breakdown, read: AEO vs GEO — why they’re not the same and why most brands get it wrong.
In other words: AEO earns eligibility. GEO influences the output.
| Discipline | Primary goal | Where you “win” | What you optimize |
|---|---|---|---|
| SEO | Rank + earn clicks | Google results pages | Keywords, links, technical SEO, on-page content |
| AEO | Become a trusted source | Citations in answers | Entity clarity, schema, authority, author trust |
| GEO | Influence generated responses | Inclusion + phrasing | Answer blocks, structure, retrievability, rewrite-safe content |
“What does a Generative Engine Optimization agency do, and how do I choose one?”
We structure the page so the definition, selection criteria, deliverables, and FAQs are immediately extractable.
Most AI engines follow a predictable process, even if they describe it differently:
Entity
First, the system tries to identify “who” and “what” it’s dealing with. Is your brand a real company? Are you a recognized expert? Do you have consistent naming, locations, services, and authorship across the web? If the engine can’t confidently resolve your identity, you’re unstable data—and unstable data doesn’t get used.
Validation
Next comes trust. AI systems look for corroboration: reputable mentions, citations, consistent facts, and signals that your claims aren’t isolated. This is where AEO work overlaps with GEO—schema, author proof, third-party references, and clean site architecture reduce ambiguity and increase confidence.
Embeddings
Then your content gets translated into a machine-friendly representation of meaning. Pages that are verbose, scattered, or unclear often lose their “shape” here. Pages with crisp definitions, clear sections, tables, lists, and FAQs are easier to map to specific questions—so they show up more reliably during retrieval.
Output
Finally, the engine generates a response. This is the moment of truth: will it cite you, paraphrase you, recommend you, or ignore you entirely? If your content is structured in a way the engine can summarize accurately and quickly, you’re far more likely to appear in the final answer.
Here’s a painful reality: being cited isn’t the same as being used, and being used isn’t the same as being chosen.
Cited means the engine is willing to reference you as a source. This usually requires strong validation signals and clean entity resolution.
Used means your content actually influenced the wording, structure, or recommendation inside the answer. That typically requires “rewrite-ready” content blocks—tight definitions, direct answers, and structured supporting details.
Brands “vanish” when they only optimize one layer. A brand might have authority and backlinks (so it’s credible), but the on-page content is too messy to reuse (so it gets skipped). Or the brand might have beautifully structured content, but weak validation signals (so the engine doesn’t trust it).
GEO closes that gap by ensuring your content is not only credible—but also easy to retrieve, easy to summarize, and hard to misinterpret.
Before an AI engine can cite you, it has to reach you. That sounds obvious—but it’s where a lot of GEO campaigns quietly fail. We start by making sure your content is accessible, renderable, and retrievable across both traditional crawlers and AI-driven retrieval systems.
That includes tightening up indexability (correct canonicals, no accidental noindex, clean internal linking), improving rendering reliability (so critical content isn’t trapped behind scripts), and reducing JavaScript bloat that can slow or block extraction. We prioritize semantic HTML—clear headings, clean section structure, and human-readable page layouts that are also machine-friendly. If your “best answers” are buried in accordions, sliders, or heavy front-end frameworks, AI engines may never consistently see them.
This layer isn’t glamorous, but it’s foundational: if the system can’t reliably access your best content, nothing else matters.
GEO without trust is just content. That’s why our approach builds AEO into the system from day one—because AI engines don’t only ask, “Is this a good answer?” They ask, “Is this a credible answer from a real entity?”
We establish entity clarity and validation signals across your site and the wider web: consistent brand naming, author credibility, structured data that removes ambiguity, and proof that independent sources recognize you. This is where we reinforce the “identity layer” so AI engines can confidently connect the dots: who you are, what you specialize in, and why you’re worth citing.
Most agencies treat trust as an afterthought. We treat it like infrastructure. Because if the engine can’t validate you, your content may still appear occasionally—but it won’t compound into consistent, repeatable visibility.
Once access and trust are in place, we build the content in a format AI can actually use. AI engines love clarity. They reward pages that can be summarized without distortion.
That means we structure content into answer-ready blocks, not fluffy paragraphs:
crisp definitions written in plain English
direct “best answer” sections that resolve the question fast
scannable supporting details (bullets, steps, tables)
FAQs that mirror real user prompts
fact-sheet style sections that are easy to extract and reuse
This is also where we engineer the page to handle comparison queries (“best,” “vs,” “cost,” “worth it,” “how does it work”)—because those are the prompts that drive high-intent decisions inside AI tools.
The goal isn’t longer content. The goal is clean content shape: easy to retrieve, easy to summarize, and hard to misunderstand.
AI engines don’t trust islands. They trust networks.
This layer is about building the external validation that makes AI engines comfortable using your brand as a source. We focus on earning credible citations and mentions in the places AI engines already rely on: industry publications, reputable directories, partner sites, podcasts, event pages, associations, and third-party roundups.
But we don’t chase random links. We build a system:
define the few topics you want to “own”
create a proof-backed content hub on your site
push supporting references outward on credible surfaces
connect everything with consistent entity signals so it all reinforces one brand graph
This is where your visibility compounds. Because when multiple sources say the same thing about your brand—consistently—AI engines gain confidence. And confidence is what produces citations and recommendations.
GEO isn’t “set it and forget it.” AI engines change fast, and the prompts people use change even faster. So we treat GEO like an ongoing experiment loop.
We research the prompts your market is actually using, test how engines respond, track when you’re cited vs when you’re ignored, and iterate based on what’s happening in the real world—not just what “should” work in theory.
Outputs:
* Required fields
Risk if ignored
Rankings can hold while clicks and leads drop as behavior shifts
Even strong brands can disappear from AI answers and recommendations
Opportunity
Still a major growth channel for demand capture and intent-driven traffic
First-mover advantage in AI search: earn citations, mentions, and “recommended” placement
At GreenBanana SEO we do both—so you don’t sacrifice organic rankings while becoming the top answer-choice for conversational queries.
| Service module | Goal | Primary outputs |
|---|---|---|
| GEO Audit + Competitive Citation Recon | Find what’s being cited and why | Prompt set, citation map, roadmap |
| Technical GEO | Make content reliably retrievable | Indexability, rendering, schema |
| Content Engineering | Make answers rewrite-safe | Definitions, answer blocks, tables, FAQs |
| Authority + Citations | Increase validation signals | Digital PR targets, mentions, entity reinforcement |
Every GEO program starts with one question: what is the engine already saying—and why? Our GEO Audit maps your current visibility across ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Claude, and Perplexity, then compares it to the competitors who keep showing up instead of you.
We identify the prompts that matter (high-intent questions, comparison prompts, “best” queries, and brand/solution searches), and we document where you’re being mentioned, cited, ignored, or misrepresented. From there, we reverse-engineer the sources and page types the engines are pulling from, so we can build a plan that wins on real-world evidence—not assumptions.
Deliverable: a GEO scorecard, competitor citation map, and a prioritized “visibility roadmap” (quick wins + compounding plays).
If AI systems can’t reliably access your content, they can’t use it. Technical GEO ensures your site is both human-friendly and machine-friendly—so your best answers are retrievable, extractable, and unambiguous.
This includes crawl and index diagnostics (canonicals, robots rules, internal linking, thin/duplicate issues), rendering checks (critical content visible without heavy JS), and improvements that reduce friction for extraction. We also implement structured data where it actually matters—so AI engines can resolve entities, understand page purpose, and connect facts confidently.
Where appropriate, we support AI access management using modern conventions like llms.txt, and we strengthen accessibility signals (clean headings, readable structure, descriptive labels) because accessibility best practices also tend to improve machine parsing.
The outcome: cleaner retrieval, higher confidence, fewer “AI missed it” failures.
This is where GEO becomes real. AI engines don’t reward “more content.” They reward better-shaped content—pages that answer quickly, define terms clearly, and provide supporting detail in a format that’s easy to reuse.
We build or refactor pages into an answer-engine-first structure:
definition blocks (plain English, citable)
direct answers at the top (“best answer” sections)
comparison tables and decision guides (“X vs Y,” “best for…,” “cost,” “timeline”)
FAQs built from real prompt language
fact sheets, checklists, and step-by-step frameworks
We also write for “rewrite safety”—meaning the content is difficult to distort when summarized. That reduces ambiguity and increases the odds your brand becomes the wording engine, not just a footnote.
AI engines don’t trust isolated claims—they trust patterns across the web. This service builds the authority layer that increases citation probability and recommendation strength.
We develop a citation strategy around the topics you want to own, then earn mentions and references on surfaces that AI engines already rely on: industry publications, credible directories, associations, podcasts, events, partner sites, comparison lists, and expert roundups.
This isn’t random link-building. It’s entity reinforcement:
consistent brand naming and expertise signals
third-party validation that supports your claims
interconnected references that strengthen your “brand graph”
The goal is simple: when AI engines cross-check, they keep finding you.
AI discovery is increasingly multimodal. Your videos, diagrams, and images can influence what engines understand—and what they reuse.
We optimize supporting media with clear titles, descriptions, contextual captions, and page placement that ties media to the questions it answers. We also reinforce with structured support (where appropriate) so your media assets connect to the same entities, topics, and proof signals as your written content.
This helps you win in formats beyond text: AI summaries, video-driven SERP features, and “explain it” queries where engines lean on visual context.
You’ll get a focused, execution-ready 180-day plan built around the exact questions your customers ask in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. We identify the highest-value prompts (purchase-intent, comparison, “best,” “cost,” “near me,” and problem/solution queries), map where you’re currently showing up (or not), and prioritize the fastest paths to wins.
Then we execute. You’re not just receiving a plan—you’re getting the work done in the right order: what to fix first, what to publish first, and which prompts are most likely to produce near-term citations and visibility.
You won’t be handed “templates” and told to figure it out. We create the actual GEO assets: the writing, the page structure, the FAQ blocks, the definition sections, the comparison tables, and the structured data (schema)—fully built and ready to publish.
Each page is engineered for AI retrieval and rewriting: clean, citable definitions; short answer blocks; scannable support sections; and FAQs written in real conversational language. The goal is content that AI engines can confidently pull into answers without distortion—while still reading naturally to humans.
GEO needs visibility, not vibes. You’ll receive a reporting dashboard that tracks your presence across answer engines—mentions, citations, and which pages are being used—plus a monthly experiment log documenting what we changed, what we tested, and what moved.
This creates a measurable iteration cycle instead of a black box. You’ll know what’s working, what’s not, and exactly what we’re doing next to increase AI visibility and lead impact.
GEO success isn’t measured by “rankings” alone, because AI engines don’t behave like a traditional SERP. We track the signals that actually reflect whether you’re being pulled into answers: brand mentions, source citations, and which specific pages (or sections) AI engines use when responding to key prompts.
We also measure share-of-voice by engine—because visibility is not uniform across platforms. You might be cited in Perplexity but missing in Gemini, or showing up in AI Overviews while ChatGPT ignores you. Our reporting separates performance by engine so you can see exactly where you’re winning, where you’re weak, and which prompts and topics are driving that outcome.
Visibility is only valuable if it creates demand. We connect GEO work to business outcomes by tracking lead quality, assisted conversions, and pipeline impact tied to the pages and topics we optimize. That includes monitoring changes in conversion rates on high-intent pages, changes in branded search volume and “decision-stage” traffic, and whether inbound inquiries reference the exact problems, comparisons, and language we’re targeting in AI answers.
The goal is not vanity mentions. The goal is more “ready-to-buy” prospects who show up pre-sold because the AI engines already taught them what to believe about you.
Some GEO gains can happen quickly (cleaner page structure, clearer definitions, stronger internal linking, technical access fixes). But the biggest wins compound over time because they rely on trust + repetition across multiple surfaces.
Expect early movement in visibility as pages get engineered and published. Broader, more consistent presence typically builds as citation signals and entity confidence stack up. The payoff is durability: once your content is easy to retrieve and your authority footprint is reinforced across the web, your visibility becomes more stable—and less dependent on any single algorithm change.
If your brand isn’t showing up in ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity, or Google AI Overviews, your best prospects are still getting answers—just not from you.
Request a GEO Visibility Audit and we’ll show you exactly where you stand today, what your top competitors are getting cited for, and which pages and prompts you need to win to become the recommended answer.
Here’s what happens next:
Quick call to confirm your goals, markets, and highest-value services
Audit + competitive citation recon across major answer engines
180-day GEO roadmap with priorities, page targets, and clear next steps
Ready to become the brand AI engines trust and write into answers? Get your GEO Visibility Audit.
A GEO agency helps your brand get pulled into AI-generated answers—not just ranked as a link. That means optimizing your site and content so systems like ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews can retrieve it, trust it, and reuse it. Practically, that includes technical access, answer-ready content structure, schema, entity clarity, and authority/citation building so your brand becomes a reliable source.
GEO is making your website and brand easy for AI to understand and confidently summarize. Instead of only chasing clicks from Google, you’re optimizing to be the information AI uses when people ask questions and get an instant answer.
AEO is the trust layer. GEO is the output layer.
AEO focuses on credibility: entity signals, authority, consistency, and proof (including backlinks/citations) so AI engines believe you’re real and reliable. GEO focuses on structure and usefulness: shaping content so the engines can pull it cleanly and write you into answers accurately.
In short: AEO gets you recognized. GEO gets you written in.
It’s an additional layer. SEO still drives demand capture, rankings, and traffic, and it also feeds many of the same signals AI systems learn from and retrieve from. GEO builds on top of SEO by optimizing for in-answer visibility and “no-click” discovery, where the customer may never visit a results page before forming an opinion.
You need two things working together:
Trust signals (AEO): clear entity identity, consistent brand facts, credible third-party mentions, and authority signals (including relevant backlinks/citations).
Retrieval-ready pages (GEO): pages that answer specific questions directly with definition blocks, short answer sections, tables, and FAQs—so the engines can confidently reuse the content.
When those align, citations become more consistent and less random.
You improve your odds by combining:
strong SEO fundamentals (indexability, crawlability, site quality)
content that directly answers intent (clear “best answer” blocks, comparisons, concise summaries)
entity and authority reinforcement (schema + off-site validation)
AI Overviews tend to reward pages that are clear, specific, and corroborated by other sources.
Some wins can happen quickly (weeks) when you fix access issues and publish well-structured answer blocks that match common prompts. Bigger, more reliable visibility usually takes longer (often a few months) because trust signals and citations compound over time. Think of GEO as a system: speed comes from structure; durability comes from authority.
The best-performing formats are the ones AI can safely summarize:
Plain-English definitions (tight, citable)
Short answer blocks near the top of the page
Comparison tables (“X vs Y,” “best for,” “cost”)
Fact sheets / checklists (structured supporting details)
FAQ sections written in real conversational phrasing
These formats reduce ambiguity and increase reuse.
Schema isn’t the only factor, but it helps remove ambiguity and strengthens entity understanding. The most common “high leverage” types are:
Organization (and/or LocalBusiness if relevant)
Person (founder/author credibility)
WebSite + WebPage
Article / BlogPosting (for editorial content)
FAQPage (when FAQs are truly present on-page)
Service (where appropriate)
Product (if you sell products)
Review / AggregateRating (only when compliant and real)
We pick schema types based on what you’re trying to be cited for—not just “schema for schema’s sake.”
An llms.txt file is a newer convention some sites use to provide guidance to AI crawlers about what content is important and where key resources live. It’s not a magic ranking switch, and not every engine uses it the same way. We treat it as a supporting asset—helpful in some cases, but never a substitute for clean architecture, strong content structure, and real authority signals.
We measure GEO in two layers:
Visibility: mentions, citations, which pages get pulled, and share-of-voice by engine (ChatGPT vs Gemini vs Perplexity vs AI Overviews).
Business impact: assisted conversions, lead quality, pipeline influence, and performance lift on the pages tied to GEO prompts.
The goal is to connect “AI visibility” to actual revenue outcomes.
Any industry where customers ask questions before buying benefits—especially:
home services, healthcare, legal, finance, SaaS, ecommerce, education, and B2B services
If prospects research, compare options, ask “best,” “cost,” “near me,” “is it worth it,” or “who should I hire,” GEO can drive disproportionate advantage.
Confusing GEO with AEO—or doing one without the other. Brands either:
create “AI-friendly content” without building trust (so it isn’t used), or
have authority and links but messy pages that AI can’t reuse (so they vanish in answers).
The winners build trust + structure together.
Small businesses can absolutely do GEO—often with faster wins because the scope is tighter. The key is prioritization: focus on a handful of high-intent prompts, build a few flagship pages with strong structure, and reinforce trust signals (reviews, citations, local entity clarity, a few high-quality relevant backlinks). Enterprise can scale it wider, but GEO isn’t “enterprise-only.”
Yes—backlinks still matter, especially as part of AEO/entity stacking. Relevant, credible links and third-party mentions help establish authority and trust, which increases the likelihood AI engines will cite or rely on your content.
Links are one type of signal (authority flow and discovery).
Citations/mentions are broader: they include references to your brand on trusted sites—even without a followed link. In AI systems, consistent mentions across reputable sources can reinforce entity confidence, while strong links can boost the perceived authority of the pages that contain your best answers. The strongest programs build both: links for authority + citations for validation + GEO structure for reuse.
GEO pricing depends on scope: how many priority pages you need engineered, the competitiveness of your market, and how much authority/citation work is required. Most programs start with an audit + roadmap, then move into monthly execution that blends technical fixes, page builds, and citation engineering.
Stop losing customers to AI-optimized competitors and partner with the agency that has delivered proven results for over 15 years. GreenBanana SEO combines deep traditional SEO expertise with cutting-edge AI search optimization, ensuring your business dominates both current and future search technologies.
Our proprietary AI ranking analysis tool provides exclusive insights into how your business compares to competitors across ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and other major AI platforms. This competitive intelligence reveals exactly where you stand and creates a roadmap for AI search domination that you simply cannot access through other agencies or DIY approaches.
With experience across 30+ industries and hundreds of successful client partnerships, GreenBanana SEO understands the unique challenges your business faces in AI search optimization. Our customized solutions deliver measurable results while you focus on serving customers and growing your business.
We handle the complex technical implementation, ongoing optimization, and strategic positioning required for AI search success. Our team monitors algorithm changes, adapts strategies in real-time, and ensures your business maintains competitive advantages as AI search continues evolving. This hands-off approach means you get professional results without the learning curve, technical challenges, or resource drain of attempting AI optimization internally.
Our proven track record includes documented case studies and client testimonials that demonstrate consistent growth in search rankings, organic traffic, and qualified lead generation. We don’t just promise results—we deliver measurable outcomes that directly impact your bottom line through increased visibility, better lead quality, and improved conversion rates from AI search traffic.
At GreenBananaSEO, our Answer Engine Optimization Agency helps businesses adapt to the future of search. Unlike traditional SEO, SEO vs AEO explains how answer engines require structured data and entity optimization. If you want to see real-world proof, check out our AEO case study results where traffic and conversions improved dramatically. For a full breakdown of the methodology, see what is Answer Engine Optimization
TL;DR: If you want to go deeper into AI-driven search, check out our SEO vs AEO guide, explore schema for AI visibility, or learn how conversion-optimized AEO turns traffic into leads. For tools, see our ChatGPT SEO agency services, Gemini SEO services, and Claude SEO strategies.
Kevin Roy is a performance-driven leader who has built his career around providing a vision for profitable growth strategies, products, services, and new market entries. Throughout his career, he has delivered tens of millions of dollars in revenue for private and public organizations in technology, finance, manufacturing, non-profits, retail, defense, biotech, fintech, and many other businesses. As a change agent, he has a proven history of increasing profitability and finding innovative solutions to complex issues. Kevin excels at building collaborative, cross-functional relationships that improve business outcomes, enhance customer experience, and drive up annual profit margins.
📈 Over 7,000 tracked events in the last 5 months from ChatGPT-driven traffic alone.
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