Be there wherever your customers look for you.

GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) covers the techniques that help a brand appear in the answers of AI answer engines — ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode. Where SEO optimizes a ranking in a list of links, GEO optimizes the likelihood of being directly recommended by the assistant when a user asks it a question.

The approach rests on four measurable dimensions: Visibility (being cited), Priority (at what rank), Authority (which sources are used) and Trust (sentiment and reputation). Digital Bricks combines these four criteria into its proprietary index, IRIA (AI Recommendation Index).

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) optimizes a website's ranking on Google's results pages. Its currency is the click: the user compares several links and picks one. GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) optimizes the likelihood of being cited directly in a conversational answer from an AI assistant (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode). Its currency is the recommendation: the AI does not return ten links, it suggests one or two brands.

SEO mainly reads a site's technical structure (tags, backlinks, speed). GEO reads a distributed semantic reputation: local listings, reviews, third-party sources, press mentions, authority signals. The two disciplines complement each other, they do not compete.

ChatGPT does not work like a traditional search engine: it does not rank links, it synthesizes an answer from sources it considers relevant and reliable. For a brand to be cited, its information must be present and consistent across several independent sources: Google Business Profile listings, quality reviews, industry websites, trade press, Wikipedia, structured content.

ChatGPT then weighs these sources by authority and freshness. A brand is not "indexed". It emerges in answers when enough signals converge to make it credible in the model's eyes. That is exactly what the AI Recommendation Index (IRIA) measures.

ChatGPT and the other LLMs choose which brand to recommend based on four criteria at once:

Visibility: is the brand named in the sources used to answer the query? Priority: where does it rank among the alternatives: first, third, last? Authority: is the brand mentioned by credible sources (press, official websites, neutral industry sources) or only by itself? Trust: what sentiment comes through in the mentions: positive reviews, warnings, explicit recommendations?

These are the four dimensions Digital Bricks measures in IRIA (AI Recommendation Index) on ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode.

AI engines (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode) pull together several categories of sources to answer questions about a local brand:

Business listings: Google Business Profile, Apple Maps, industry directories, vertical platforms (TripAdvisor, Yelp, TheFork, etc.). Customer reviews: Google, Trustpilot, specialized platforms. Neutral third-party sources: regional and trade press, institutional websites, Wikipedia. The brand's official website, provided it is semantically structured (schema.org, named entities, FAQ).

Being absent from several of these sources immediately results in a low IRIA score, however good the brand actually is on the ground.

Three structural causes explain why a brand is missing from ChatGPT or Perplexity answers:

Weak signals: the brand does not have enough presence on reference sources (incomplete listings, few reviews, no press mentions). Inconsistency across platforms: information varies from one channel to another (address, opening hours, services). AI engines do not know whom to believe and prefer not to mention the brand. Competitive cannibalization: a direct competitor occupies the semantic space with stronger signals.

A GEO audit identifies which of these causes weighs most for a given brand, and ranks the levers to pull first.

To show up in ChatGPT answers, a brand needs to work on four sets of levers in parallel:

Local listings: Google Business Profile, Apple Maps and major directories, synchronized and complete. Quality reviews: volume, freshness and semantic diversity of reviews on the platforms ChatGPT reads. Third-party sources: presence in the trade press, neutral industry websites, Wikipedia, validated partnerships. Website semantics: schema.org markup, named entities (experts, services), FAQ structure.

None of these levers is enough on its own. Digital Bricks first audits a brand's IRIA score to pinpoint the specific gaps, then prioritizes actions over 90 days.

A Google Business Profile that AI engines read must go beyond the bare minimum:

A precise primary category plus 2-3 well-chosen secondary categories. Complete attributes (services, options, accessibility, payment methods), 100% filled in. A long description, structured with named entities (products, areas of expertise, areas served). Weekly posts documenting activity: AI engines value freshness. Regular photos, geotagged. Reviews handled systematically with contextual replies.

Above all: strict consistency with your other listings (Apple Maps, industry directories). Any discrepancy weakens the trust ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity place in the brand.

Gemini has one distinctive trait: it relies heavily on the Google Search index and on Google Knowledge Graph data. The levers that improve visibility on Gemini add to those of the other LLMs, with three priorities that matter even more:

A flawless Google Business Profile: strict consistency, freshness, complete attributes: Gemini turns to it first for local queries. schema.org structured data on the website: Organization, LocalBusiness, FAQPage, Person — Gemini values semantically explicit sources. Traditional SEO signals: quality backlinks, authority pages, fresh content.

A brand that ranks well on Google automatically benefits from better placement on Gemini.

No, GEO does not replace SEO. It extends it. SEO remains essential as infrastructure: without a well-structured website, backlinks and quality content, AI engines have nothing to read. GEO adds an extra layer of optimization, focused on the signals that LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode) specifically value: presence on neutral third-party sources, semantic consistency across platforms, review quality.

The future isn't one replacing the other, it's the two working together: high-performing brands will have excellent SEO and excellent GEO, with teams or providers able to run both in parallel.

Every statistic shown on this site comes from primary studies by recognized institutes, cited at their original source. No aggregation, no second-hand figures. Here are the four references used in AI by the numbers:

28.1 million people in France: Médiamétrie, L'Année Internet 2025: cross-device audience measurement on the Internet Global panel (52,000 internet users), annual review of conversational AI usage (ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, Claude). 44% of the online French population, up 2.3x in a year.

40% of consumers: IBM Institute for Business Value with the National Retail Federation (NRF), January 2026: survey of 20,000 consumers in 26 countries, including France. Share of respondents who say they use an AI tool for at least one step of the buying journey (>60% among under-35s).

73% of 16-25 year-olds: Ifop for Jedha AI School, 2025: online survey of a representative sample of 2,000 young people in France (quota method), weekly use of generative AI (41% daily).

68% of local searches: Semrush, 2026 AI Overviews study: analysis of more than one million Google queries, AI Overview trigger rate by search intent (>90% on specific and informational queries).

This editorial discipline (traceability, freshness, independence) is the same one we apply in our client audits: every lever we recommend is backed by signals measured on real AI engines, not by a generic rule of thumb. The institutes cited are neither partners nor clients of Digital Bricks.