GEO by Model: Optimizing Your Content for ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini & Copilot

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is quickly shaking up what we all thought we knew about traditional SEO. Instead of optimizing for Google’s crawlers, brands are now optimizing for AI recommendation engines. But the difference is that these models don’t just find information—they interpret, rank, and rewrite it. And each one plays by its own rules.

Standing out depends on understanding how each model decides what (and who) to recommend. ChatGPT values social trust. Perplexity prizes structure. Gemini favours real-time expertise. Claude respects legacy authority. And Copilot rewards clarity.

You’ve already mastered optimizing content for humans and search engines. Now it’s time to impress the newest audience in the room: AI models. 

ChatGPT: The Consensus Builder

ChatGPT sits at the center of the GEO ecosystem with the broadest user base and the most complex recommendation mix. Its algorithm blends five signals: authoritative lists, awards, online reviews, customer data, and social sentiment.

But it isn’t a purely technical affair. ChatGPT operates like a digital word-of-mouth engine, surfacing results that sound like what an informed human would recommend. That means it leans heavily on perception: the frequency of mentions, the tone of reviews, and the credibility of citations across trusted outlets.

If Google values authority, ChatGPT values reputation. The more your name pops up in trustworthy lists or glowing reviews, the more confidently it will recommend you.

In short: make your credibility visible. Publish thought leadership, appear in top-ranked directories, and keep your digital reputation clean. ChatGPT is fluent in social proof.

Perplexity: The Data Minimalist

Where ChatGPT interprets context, Perplexity translates structure. Its algorithm is lean—mainly authoritative lists, awards, and aggregated reviews. It loves data that’s neatly packaged, ranked, and ready to cite.

Perplexity builds much of its output from structured data, which means listicles, tables, and side-by-side comparisons are its love language. Think rankings, pros-and-cons charts, and tidy summaries that spell everything out. The model isn’t looking to infer meaning; it’s looking to present information.

Optimization here is a minimalist art. Keep your structure clean, your metadata standard, and your reviews visible. Perplexity wants precision, not personality. 

Gemini: The Real-Time Hybrid

Gemini is Google’s AI brain: half generative model, half live search engine. It’s the only engine that understands context and freshness simultaneously, pulling directly from Google’s ranking signals in real time.

That means optimizing for two audiences at once: Google’s search algorithm and Gemini’s reasoning engine. It wants to see topical depth, credible authorship, and strong connections between people, products, and ideas. No model enforces E-E-A-T—experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness—quite as seriously.

To succeed here, your content can’t sit still. Keep it living and breathing with regular updates, visible timestamps, and sections that evolve with the news cycle. Back it up with solid technical structure: schema markup, FAQs, and clear entity linking that help Gemini understand how your ideas fit into the wider web.

Gemini isn’t static, and your strategy shouldn’t be either. Think of GEO as an ongoing conversation, proving that your authority is earned continuously rather than one-and-done.

Claude: The Knowledge Traditionalist

Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, used to feel like a well-read librarian sealed off from the internet. But with its new web search capability, it’s finally stepped into the present. Now it blends its structured training data with real-time information, pulling recent updates and citing live sources in conversation.

But even with the upgrade, Claude’s core personality hasn’t changed. It still values accuracy, neutrality, and credibility, leaning on trustworthy outlets, long-standing references, and verified data.

To optimize for Claude, think both archival and active. Maintain clean directory listings and industry profiles, but keep your content fresh with timely updates and source-backed claims. Claude remembers authority, but it now respects agility too.

Copilot: The Conversational Searcher

Microsoft Copilot is the quiet powerhouse woven into Windows, Edge, and the Microsoft 365 suite. Because it runs on Bing’s search index, the fundamentals of SEO still matter, but its conversational style changes how authority shows up.

Copilot looks for crisp, factual content pulled from sites that speak clearly. FAQs, how-tos, and question-style headings are its comfort zone. It wants answers that feel ready to use, not wrapped in marketing polish. Since it lives inside productivity tools, it favours guidance that helps users get things done.

Optimization here is a matter of clarity and cadence. Keep your site fresh and your content authentic, strengthen Bing indexing, and write to answer real questions directly. Think “how to calculate ROI” instead of “why ROI matters.” Copilot doesn’t reward charm for its own sake. It rewards usefulness, every single time.

One quick win for visibility is to claim and complete your business listing on Bing Places. It helps Bing—and by extension, Copilot—recognize your business as a trusted, verifiable source, giving you a leg up in local and branded queries.

Make Every GEO Model Work for You

Each GEO model now interprets authority through its own logic, and treating them all the same only waters down your reach. Build trust for ChatGPT, structure for Perplexity, freshness for Gemini, permanence for Claude, and practicality for Copilot.

But don’t get it twisted—traditional SEO strategies aren’t dead. They’re just evolving. Keywords, schema, and technical health still matter because AI engines learn from the same foundations that made Google work. But now, GEO keywords and context-rich phrasing help AI models understand intent rather than just match terms.

AI search is splintering discovery into new ecosystems, each powered by its own interpretation of authority. To make sure your brand thrives across all of them, you first need to know where you stand. The Brand Brew ®’s SEO & GEO Keyword Strategy can help you do just that.

Design a strategy that keeps your brand discoverable, trustworthy, and ready for every audience—algorithmic and otherwise. Book a call with our team, and let’s turn your website into something every GEO model wants to recommend.