GEO SEO: Generative Engine Optimisation or Local SEO?

“GEO SEO” has two meanings. In AI search, GEO stands for generative engine optimisation: the work that gets your organisation named and recommended in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot and Google AI Mode. In older SEO usage, “geo” means geographic: local SEO and geo-targeting, which get you found by people searching in a particular place. Most businesses that serve a local area need both, and the two share more groundwork than the clash of names suggests.

If an agency has pitched you “GEO SEO”, or you have searched the term and found pages that seem to be about different subjects, this is why. Below we separate the two, explain what each involves, and give you a simple way to decide which deserves your budget.

Why does “GEO SEO” mean two things?

“Geo” has been shorthand for location in marketing for years. Advertisers talk about geo-targeting, SEOs talk about geo-modifiers (the “in Enfield” or “near me” part of a search), and local SEO tools describe geo-grids of map rankings.

Then in November 2023 a group of researchers published a paper titled GEO: Generative Engine Optimization, which studied how to make content more visible in AI-generated answers. The name caught on, and “GEO” became the industry label for AI search visibility. So the same three letters now describe two quite different jobs, and search results for “geo seo” mix both.

Meaning one: generative engine optimisation

Generative engine optimisation is about being included in the answer an AI writes. When a buyer asks an assistant “who are the best employment solicitors in north London?”, the assistant names a handful of firms and describes each in a sentence. GEO is the work that gets you onto that list and makes the description accurate.

We cover the full method in what is GEO and compare it with traditional search in GEO vs SEO, so here is the short version. GEO combines a site AI tools can read and quote, consistent facts about your organisation everywhere they appear online, mentions in third-party sources AI tools trust, and monthly tracking of what the assistants actually say.

Meaning two: geographic or local SEO

Geographic SEO is about ranking for searches with a location attached, stated or implied. “Plumber Enfield”, “accountant near me” and “solicitor in Milton Keynes” all trigger local results, usually a map with three businesses (the local pack) above the normal links.

Google says local results are based mainly on three factors in its guidance on improving your local ranking:

• Relevance: how well your Business Profile matches what the person searched for.
• Distance: how far your business is from the searcher, or from the location in the search.
• Prominence: how well known your business is, which Google says draws partly on links, reviews and ratings.

The practical work follows from those three. You complete and maintain your Google Business Profile, keep your name, address and phone number identical across directories, collect reviews steadily, and build pages on your site that match the services and places you cover. Our step-by-step guide to local SEO walks through it, and how to optimise Google Business Profile covers the profile itself.

The two meanings side by side

	Generative engine optimisation	Geographic (local) SEO
The question it answers	Does the AI name us when buyers ask who to use?	Do we appear when people nearby search for our service?
Where it shows	ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, Google AI Mode and AI Overviews	Google Maps, the local pack, Bing Places, Apple Maps
Main assets	Clear service pages, consistent entity details, third-party mentions	Google Business Profile, directory listings, reviews, location pages
Who needs it most	Any organisation whose buyers ask AI for recommendations	Businesses that serve customers in a defined area
How it is measured	Share of mentions across a fixed set of prompts	Map rankings across your area, profile actions, calls

Where the two overlap

The overlap is the reason the confusion matters less than it seems. When someone asks an AI assistant for a local provider, the assistant needs facts about local businesses, and it gets many of them from the same places local SEO looks after.

Google’s own guidance on optimising for its generative AI features says that keeping a Google Business Profile up to date can help your services appear in AI responses as well as in normal results. Other assistants lean on review platforms, directories and local press. So a business with a neglected profile, three different addresses across directories and a handful of old reviews tends to struggle in both.

In practice, four pieces of work count twice:

1. Consistent business details. One name, one address format, one phone number and one description of your services, everywhere.
2. Reviews that say something specific. “Sorted our VAT return in a week” gives a person and an AI more to work with than “great service”.
3. Service pages that state the area. “We handle residential conveyancing across Enfield, Barnet and Haringey” answers the local search and the AI prompt in one sentence.
4. Listings on the directories your sector uses. These feed map rankings and are common sources for AI answers.

How to tell which one an agency means

Ask three questions:

1. “What will you track each month?” Map rankings and Business Profile calls point to local SEO. Prompt results from ChatGPT and Perplexity point to generative engine optimisation.
2. “Which platforms is this for?” Google Maps and the local pack, or AI assistants?
3. “Can you show me what an AI assistant says about us today?” An agency doing generative engine optimisation should be able to run that check in a few minutes.

If the answers are vague, ask for the deliverables in writing. Both disciplines are legitimate. Paying for one when you thought you were buying the other is the problem.

Which do you need?

Use your customers’ location as the deciding factor.

• You serve one town or borough (trades, clinics, high-street professional services): start with local SEO. It brings enquiries fastest, and it lays the factual groundwork AI assistants depend on.
• You serve several locations: do local SEO for each branch properly, with a profile and a real page per location, then add generative engine optimisation once the details are consistent.
• You serve the whole UK or work remotely (B2B services, membership bodies, software): generative engine optimisation matters more, because buyers ask AI for “the best X in the UK” rather than searching a map. Local SEO still helps for your head office.

A worked example

Take a hypothetical accountancy practice in Enfield with eight staff. Most clients live within five miles, but it also wants construction subcontractors across London. The practice should fix its Google Business Profile, citations and reviews first, because that wins the “accountant Enfield” searches and the map. It should then build a strong page on Construction Industry Scheme returns and earn mentions in trade directories, because subcontractors across London are more likely to ask an assistant “which accountants specialise in CIS?” than to search a map.

Where to start

Search your main service plus your town in Google, then ask ChatGPT the same question. If you are missing from the map, local SEO comes first. If you are in the map but absent from the AI answer, generative engine optimisation is the gap.

We handle both: local SEO sits in every SEO retainer, and our GEO service covers the AI side, reported together so you can see which one is bringing in enquiries.