Carolyn Shelby published an article on SEJ the other day with the headline Stop Trying To Make GEO Happen.
“Stop trying to make GEO happen. It’s not going to happen,” she wrote.
With all due respect to Shelby, whom I know and have tons of respect for (she’s a contributor at Search Engine Land as well), GEO is already happening.
The arguments I’ve seen dismissing GEO on LinkedIn and elsewhere lately (often by “it’s just SEO” people) seem to ignore history and reality.
GEO is already real
“Generative Engine Optimization” isn’t just a buzzword someone cooked up on LinkedIn.
The GEO term was formally introduced in a research paper in December 2023.
Since then, it has appeared in conference talks, industry analyses, and practitioner discussions.
Marketers and researchers alike are already using it.
This isn’t wishful thinking. It’s early adoption.
Language evolves
Look no further than a certain American multinational corporation and technology company – nobody assumes “Apple” only means fruit.
Tech is built on redefined words.
“Cloud” doesn’t just mean a white thing in the sky.
“Cookies” aren’t just baked goods.
“Spam” isn’t just canned meat.
We didn’t reject those terms because of any “linguistic baggage.”
People embraced them and adopted them.
GEO is no different.
Pronunciation isn’t a dealbreaker
The argument that nobody will say “G-E-O” just doesn’t hold.
I’ve been to conferences and heard it mentioned. I’ve heard it in meetings.
Nobody has a problem saying the letter G-E-O in succession. Just like they can easily say S-E-O.
C’mon. It’s a one-letter difference. If I showed my 4-year-old daughter those three letters, she could say them.
We have plenty of initialisms and acronyms that aren’t “perfect.” CTR. CRO. ASO. CWV (you know, LCP, INP, and CLS). GSC.
GEO is, if nothing else, more memorable than many of those.
GEO can be said as “gee-oh” or “G-E-O.” Both work. Neither is a barrier to adoption.
Search engines catch up to language
The idea that GEO can’t compete with entrenched meanings in Google or LLM training data is shortsighted.
Comparing GEO to “FBI = For Better Indexing” is a false equivalence. The FBI is one of the most globally recognized initialism in existence. That’s not GEO’s situation.
Think about content marketing. In the early 2010s, hardly anyone was using the term.
By the mid-2010s, it wasn’t just mainstream – it had conferences, software, dedicated teams, and entire agencies built around it.
Search intent shifted. Authority shifted. Google caught up to the way the community was using the language.
That’s exactly how new terms gain traction.
Authority and intent aren’t fixed permanently; they evolve as people adopt and reinforce new concepts.
GEO is following that same path.
Search engines and LLMs will follow the users if they adopt GEO.
Let’s stop pretending SEO is a perfect name
Everyone seems to forget this: Search Engine Optimization is itself a pretty dumb name.
We’re not actually “optimizing search engines.” We’re optimizing content for search engines.
SEO easily could have been “Content Optimization for Search Engines” (COSE?) or something equally clunky.
Oh, and by the way, SEO isn’t even an acronym. It’s an initialism.
You don’t say “see-oh” — you say the letters: S-E-O. Same will be true for G-E-O.
So why hold GEO to some linguistic purity standard?
GEO is just as “bad” or just as “good” as SEO.
And like SEO, GEO will stick if it’s useful.
GEO is a chance to reframe SEO’s reputation
Let’s be honest: SEO as a discipline has always been undervalued and misunderstood.
Externally, it’s often reduced to clichés about “gaming Google” or “keyword stuffing,” while those of us inside the industry know the reality – that SEO drives visibility, revenue, and long-term growth for brands and businesses of all sizes.
That’s why GEO matters. It’s not just about adapting to AI-driven search. It’s a chance to rebrand our field for the next era, to shed some of the baggage SEO has carried for two decades.
GEO signals that optimization isn’t static. It evolves with technology – and so does the value of the people doing it.
In other words, GEO isn’t just a new initialism. It’s a fresh opportunity to get the recognition this discipline deserves.
GEO isn’t going away
Generative Engine Optimization is an attempt to describe the reality of how search is changing.
Is it a perfect name? No. But again, neither was SEO.
What GEO tries to do is define the real shift in optimization practice as AI-driven search reshapes discovery.
The initialism is already in circulation in academia and the marketing industry. Communities are adopting it. Again, the language will follow the people.
The choice isn’t whether GEO will “happen.” It already has.
The only choice is whether you want to be ahead of the curve or play catch-up.
First, they ignored GEO. Then they laughed at GEO. Now they’re fighting GEO. Maybe this means GEO will indeed win?
Dig deeper. What’s next for SEO in the generative AI era