Until recently, the customer’s path to purchase began with a search bar. Today, more and more often, it begins with a dialogue: a person asks ChatGPT, YandexGPT, Perplexity or Alice “which agency to choose”, “which service is better”, “where to order” - and receives a ready-made answer with specific recommendations. If you are in this answer, you get a client. If not, it is received by a competitor whom the neural network named instead of you.
Working to ensure that neural networks know, understand and recommend your business is called GEO - Generative Engine Optimization, or promotion in neural networks. Let's look at how it works, how it differs from classic SEO, and what exactly to do to get into AI responses.
What is GEO and why is it no longer the future?
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) is optimization for generative neural networks. If SEO is responsible for the site’s position in search results, then GEO is responsible for ensuring that the AI mentions and recommends you in its answers.
The difference is fundamental. In the search, the user sees a dozen links and chooses where to click. The neural network’s response often contains no links at all—there is only one ready-made conclusion and one or two recommendations. The user does not compare options; he trusts the AI answer. Therefore, getting into this answer is more valuable than taking third place in the search: you become not “one of”, but “the one”.
According to analysts, today a significant share of information and commercial requests goes to neural networks and AI assistants, and this share is growing rapidly. A business that starts working with GEO now will get a head start over competitors who don’t even think about it yet.
How does a neural network decide who to mention in an answer?
To get into AI responses, you need to understand where the neural network gets its information from. Simplified - from two sources:
- From the data on which it was trained. This is a huge array of open texts from the Internet: sites, articles, reference books, reviews, forums. The more often and better your brand is mentioned in these sources, the higher the chance that the model “knows” about you.
- From current search in real time. Many services (Perplexity, YandexGPT, AI search) pull up fresh pages and cite sources when answering. The important thing here is that your site is accessible, machine-friendly, and provides direct answers to questions.
This is where all the practical work comes from: to make sure that there is a lot of correct information about you in open sources, and that your neural network website can be easily read and cited.
How GEO differs from SEO and AEO
These three areas are often confused, although they solve different problems:
- SEO — brings your site to the TOP of links in search results.
- AEO — takes “zero position”: quick answers and voice responses in the search engine itself.
- GEO — makes generative neural networks recommend you in their answers.
Important: they do not compete, but reinforce each other. Moreover, quality SEO is the foundation for GEO. In order for the neural network to cite your page as a source, this page must be authoritative, structured, and visible in searches. Therefore, promotion in neural networks is almost always built on top of strong search engine optimization, and not instead of it.
How to get into the answers of neural networks: 6 steps
1. Prepare the site for reading by neural networks. The first thing you need is for AI crawlers to be able to correctly “read” your site. This includes the llms.txt file (similar to robots.txt, but for neural networks), a clean structure, fast loading and clear navigation. All this is laid out at the stage website creation and technical optimization.
2. Write content that the AI wants to quote. Neural networks respond with specifics: facts, figures, clear definitions, step-by-step instructions, structured lists and tables. The model will ignore vague advertising texts “we are market leaders.” Answer real audience questions directly and to the point.
3. Implement structured data. Schema.org markup helps the neural network understand what kind of company it is, what services, prices, facts. Machine-readable data increases the algorithm's confidence in information about you.
4. Work with mentions in open sources. Neural networks rely on what they write about you: directories, industry catalogs, reviews, articles, expert platforms. The more correct mentions of the brand, the more “confident” the model recommends you.
5. Build an expert trail. Publish expert materials, cases, analyzes - on your website and on reputable platforms. This is both SEO content and “food” for training neural networks.
6. Monitor your AI visibility. Regularly check what ChatGPT, YandexGPT, Perplexity and others answer about you: whether they mention you, whether the data is correct, who is recommended instead of you. Based on this data, the strategy is adjusted.
Russian and global neural networks - you need to work both there and there
Audiences use different AIs, and it’s worth covering both worlds:
- Russian: YandexGPT and Neuro in Yandex, GigaChat from Sber, voice assistant Alice. They are increasingly embedded in the searches and devices your customers use every day.
- World: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini. Their audience is also growing, especially among the active and solvent part of users.
The set of neural networks to be developed is selected according to your audience: in some places Alice and YandexGPT are more important, in others ChatGPT and Perplexity.
Frequent mistakes in promotion in neural networks
- Focus on GEO instead of SEO. Without an authoritative, search-visible website, the neural network simply has nothing to link to.
- Advertising content without facts. AI quotes specifics, not slogans.
- Ignoring mentions. If they don’t write about you anywhere, the model “doesn’t know” about you.
- One-time use. Neural networks update knowledge gradually—GEO works over a long period of time, not in a week.
- No measurements. Without monitoring AI visibility, it is impossible to understand what is working.
Who needs advancement in neural networks now?
- Services and B2B - where the client asks the AI who to choose and follows the recommendation.
- Complex and expensive products - with long study and comparison through AI assistants.
- Young brands — GEO gives a head start where there is high competition in classic SEO.
- Companies that AI “doesn’t know” or shows outdated or other people’s data about them.
How long does it take and how to measure the result
GEO is a long-term job. Neural networks update their “knowledge” gradually: some models are rarely retrained, others pull up fresh data with each response. Therefore, the first changes in what AI responds about your brand are usually noticeable after 1-2 months, and a sustainable effect accumulates over several months of systematic work.
They measure the result not by “positions”, but by AI visibility: how often neural networks mention you on target topics, whether the data is correct, whether they recommend you in answers to commercial questions, and who is named next to you. To do this, the models are regularly asked control questions and the dynamics are recorded. This is an honest metric of promotion in neural networks - not abstract impressions, but a real presence in the answers that your clients use.
Conclusion
The search is changing before our eyes: responses from neural networks have grown next to the classic search results, and the client is making more and more decisions there. GEO is a way to find yourself in these answers not by chance, but systematically.
But it only works in conjunction: strong SEO like a foundation AEO for quick answers and GEO for neural networks. Together they cover all the points where people are looking for and choosing you today. Since 2014, the Dom Marketing agency has been building such a turnkey presence - from website preparation to working with mentions and monitoring AI visibility. You can start with a free audit: we’ll show you what neural networks say about your business right now and what you can do to get them to recommend you.