AI search and working with a developer
What is Generative Engine Optimisation?
Generative Engine Optimisation is making content retrievable, extractable and corroborated so AI answer engines cite it. It has three prerequisites in strict order: crawlers must be able to fetch you, content must be in the HTML, and independent sources must confirm you exist.
Also called: GEO · AI search optimisation
How it differs from classic SEO
Classic SEO competes for a position in a list. A generative engine produces an answer and names a few sources, so the unit of competition moves from "rank for a query" to "be the passage that gets quoted".
The three prerequisites, in order
- Access — AI crawlers must receive 200, which many shared hosts silently prevent
- Rendering — content must be in the HTML, because these crawlers do not execute JavaScript
- Corroboration — independent surfaces must agree you exist, or a model has no basis to name you specifically
Measuring it honestly
There is no Search Console for AI answers. What works is indirect: server log filtering by user-agent, referrer tracking for assistant domains, and a fixed set of buyer questions asked monthly across the major assistants with the cited sources recorded.
Where this is covered in depth
A definition can only go so far. Generative Engine Optimization: being the source an AI answer quotes covers this properly — 4 minutes, free, no email required.
Who wrote this
Anas Bin Masud builds e-commerce sites and does technical SEO for businesses in the UK, Canada and Pakistan. These definitions come from client work rather than from a content brief — where an entry describes a mistake, it is usually one found on a real site. More about how I work.