Foundations
Most disagreements about GEO come from mixing up three things: what search engines document, what research measured, and what practitioners believe. The entries here pin down the core terms against primary sources first.
Start here
Section titled “Start here”- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) — where the term comes from, and why Google calls it SEO.
- E-E-A-T — what Google means by experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust, and what it says E-E-A-T is not.
- How Google Search works — crawling, indexing and serving, which AI features build on.
- Google Search Essentials — Google’s baseline: technical requirements, spam policies, best practices.
- People-first content — Google’s self-assessment questions.
- Claim: Google penalizes AI-generated content — what Google actually says about AI-written content.
Entries in this topic
Concepts
- E-E-A-TE-E-A-T is not a specific ranking factor. It names aspects of helpful content (experience, expertise, authoritativeness, trustworthiness) that Google's systems identify through a mix of signals. Trust matters most, and quality raters' assessments are not used directly in ranking.
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)GEO is the practice of improving how often and how accurately content is surfaced and cited in AI-generated answers. The term comes from a 2023 research paper; Google's position is that optimizing for its generative AI features is still SEO.
- How Google Search worksGoogle Search works in three stages: crawling, indexing and serving. Not every page makes it through each. Google does not guarantee any stage or accept payment to crawl or rank pages. AI Overviews and AI Mode draw on the same index.
- People-first contentPeople-first content is created primarily for people, not to manipulate rankings, and Google publishes self-assessment questions for it. Warning signs include mass content on many topics, extensive automation and writing to a word count. Google says it has no preferred word count.
Reference
- GEO regulation in ChinaChina has not banned GEO; it targets fabricated content fed to models. The CAC's April 2026 Qinglang campaign lists GEO for malicious marketing as AI data poisoning, and AI content must be labeled since 1 September 2025. In the US, the FTC bans fake, bought and insider reviews.
- Google Search EssentialsGoogle Search Essentials has three parts: technical requirements most sites already pass, spam policies that can demote or remove pages, and key best practices. Meeting all of them still does not guarantee crawling, indexing or serving.