The GEO paper · October 2026
A paper on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) and why the brands AI recommends are built beyond owned content.
Generative engines like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini don’t just read what brands say about themselves. They learn from what journalists publish, what creators share and what communities discuss and recommend. In other words: Generative Engine Optimization isn’t just a search strategy. It’s a reputation game.
First the theory: what GEO is, and how an AI answer is built. Then the 3 places AI gets its answers from (owned, earned and community), each with a live test in ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, the fixes that matter and the full GEO checklists to download. We close with how to measure your visibility in AI answers, and your next steps.
Jonas Van Gerrewey leads digital strategy and AI adoption at OONA/BAAS, with 15+ years of experience in how brands show up in search, social and now AI answers.
OONA/BAAS is a community-first communications agency that connects brands with the cultural voices that shape our zeitgeist. Based in Antwerp and Amsterdam, we help local champions scale across Europe and support global brands in becoming local heroes. We combine PR, influencer marketing, social media and event management to help brands earn a place inside communities, and turn that presence into measurable impact.
In this paper
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Generative Engine Optimization: all activities to optimize how your brand shows up in AI answers, in platforms like ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot.
With GEO, your brand is
Named
Your brand shows up in the AI answers
Recommended
AI puts your brand forward as a good choice
Described
AI uses the right facts and tells your story the way you want
Being named is only half of it. If an assistant mentions you with an old price, a wrong address or a return policy you dropped 2 years ago, it sends customers away with confidence. GEO is about presence and accuracy at the same time.
We used to Google everything. Then we started searching on social media. Now, we ask AI.
3 keywords become a 23-word question. “Private bank Belgium” becomes “I’m 32, I just inherited 80,000 euro and I’ve never invested before. Which Belgian bank should I go with, and why?” People describe their situation, their budget and their doubts, in their own language.
10 links become 1 answer. A search engine gives you a list and lets you decide. An assistant reads that list for you and writes a single answer, usually with 2 to 5 brands in it.
AI decides which brands it trusts. The judgment that used to happen in the reader’s head now happens inside the model, based on what the media report, what creators recommend and what customers say.
This is not a future scenario. In the Benelux and beyond, a large and fast-growing group already uses AI before they buy.
of Belgians use AI when they buy online. Late 2025: 21%.
BeCom, BE, 2026of Dutch consumers already use AI when they shop.
Deloitte, NL, n=1,000, May 2026of Dutch people rely on AI for information.
Deloitte, NL, n=1,000, May 2026of Flemish adults use generative AI every month.
imec.digimeter, BE, n=3,001, 2025bought a product AI recommended in the past 6 months.
Klaviyo, 2026of AI users decided not to buy something because of what a chatbot said.
Semrush, US, n=2,338, Jul 2026start product research with AI. Search engines: 33%, social media: 15%.
Emplifi, US and UK, n=1,638, 2026of all ChatGPT messages seek information: the job a web search used to do.
OpenAI, Harvard, Duke, NBER, 2025Look twice at the 58%. More than half of AI users have walked away from a purchase because of what a chatbot told them. AI does not only send customers your way. It also talks them out of it.
If you have invested in search engine optimization, that work is not wasted. GEO grows from the same roots, but the game is played differently.
Everything an AI can read about your brand falls into 1 of 3 groups. We use them throughout this paper.
What brands say about themselves: your website, social profiles, newsroom, FAQ and product data.
What journalists, media, experts and creators say about your brand.
What people say about your brand: reviews, forums, comments and threads.
AI reads all 3. When a brand says one thing but the media and the community say another, AI often believes the media and the community.
AI looks your brand up and believes what other sources say.
What AI shows you
What AI also reads, without a link
Training data
Sites, news and forums it learned from
Web pages it scanned
Results it read to decide on an answer
Ratings & listings
Review scores, opening hours, Google profiles
The few links you see are only the tip of the iceberg.
The less a question names your brand, the more others decide the answer.
“Which moisturizer works best for sensitive skin?”
Decided almost entirely by what others say
“Is brand X’s or brand Y’s oat milk better for coffee?”
Reviews, creators and comparisons decide
“What is bank X’s mortgage rate for a new home?”
Brand content carries the answer
* The shares are indicative, to show the direction.
The practical consequence: your own website mostly wins the questions people ask once they already know you. The questions that bring in new customers, discovery and comparison, are won or lost in earned and community sources.
What others say matters a lot.
Not really. Ads buy a spot next to the organic answer.
LiveChatbot
Sponsored links under the answer. Only shown to free and Go users.
Coming soon?Chatbot
Runs on your Microsoft Advertising campaigns. Not yet confirmed for BE and NL.
No ads inside, in BE or NLGoogle Search
The AI summary at the top of Google. Ads sit around it, not inside it.
No ads in Gemini and Claude (for now).
You can buy the space around the answer, not the answer itself. To be named in it, AI has to trust you.
What a brand says about itself matters
What others say about it matters even more
That is why GEO is a reputation game
In this paper
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O
1 of 3
What brands say about themselves. Everything you publish and control. Easiest to fix. Least trusted on its own.
Typical sources
Your own channels are the starting point: AI checks what you say against what others say about you.
OWebsite and product pages
OSocial profiles and posts
ONewsroom and press releases
ONewsletters, FAQ and support pages
OAds and campaigns
OApps, product data and brand factsAn information question, the kind where your own pages should carry the answer. We put it to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini while preparing the webinar.
Only shop websites: 3 return pages compared.
1 shop website, plus trade press.
4 shop websites compared, plus trade press.
Your FAQ becomes the answer
For a factual question like this, all 3 engines went straight to the retailers’ own return pages. The brand with the clearest, most complete page, Torfs, won in every engine. Claude and Gemini only added trade press as context.
Let AI in
Write it out
Answer the top questions
1 fact sheet
Same bio everywhere
Clean up the old
Your GEO checklists to get started
The owned, earned and community checklists from the webinar in 1 free PDF. Share them with your team and tick them off one by one.
E
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What journalists, media, experts and creators say about your brand. Someone else decides to write it. That is why AI trusts it more.
Typical sources
When a brand says one thing but media say another, AI often believes the media more.
ENews and trade media
EExpert articles, studies and rankings
ECreator content
EPodcasts
EAwards and trade groups
EWikipedia and public recordsA comparison question. Every supermarket says it is good value. Who does AI believe?
3 independent price checks, including the Dutch Consumentenbond. No supermarket page.
1 trade title reporting the Test Aankoop study, plus Test Aankoop itself. Nothing else.
Names Test Aankoop and cites 4 open sites.
The “cheapest” supermarket claim is decided by a third party
Not one engine used a supermarket’s own website. Independent price studies settled the answer in all 3, with Test Aankoop named in 2, repeated by open news and trade sites.
A press mention only helps you in AI answers if AI can read the article.
AI can only scan where it’s allowed. The big media groups block AI on their titles, so the most credible coverage is often exactly what AI cannot read. Some trade, lifestyle and regional titles are still open, but their article pages are rarely written for AI search. Stories that get republished elsewhere still get in. This is how the main titles looked when we checked them for the webinar:
Publishers change these settings, sometimes per month. Test the titles that matter to you again every quarter.
Public registers
Open and factual: where AI checks your basic facts
Media that let AI in
Not only small titles: many trade and lifestyle media are open
Target them on purpose: one article there is read by AI, a front page in De Standaard or De Telegraaf is not
Experts, creators, studies and awards
Independent voices AI quotes as proof
Your story, republished
A release or article picked up by an open site reaches AI, even when the original sits behind a wall
For GEO, pick media AI can read
1 fact, many sources
Be in the comparison
Give media hard facts
Earned includes creators
Keep the records clean
Checks for press, creators and the records AI uses to verify you.
Your GEO checklists to get started
The owned, earned and community checklists from the webinar in 1 free PDF. Share them with your team and tick them off one by one.
C
3 of 3
What people say about your brand. Unfiltered, in public, and read by AI as the closest thing to the truth.
Typical sources
When a brand says one thing but its community says another, AI often believes the community more.
CReviews on Google, Trustpilot and app stores
CReddit, forums and Q&A sites
CComments under your posts and ads
CFacebook groups and communities
CQuestions people ask about you
CWhat customers tell each otherA reputation question between 2 well-known brands, with plenty of owned and earned content on both sides.
Only Trustpilot reviews and Reddit discussions
Tweakers and Reddit reviews, the Coolblue website and trade press
Trustpilot and Google reviews, Facebook group discussions, trade press and a bol seller blog
1 review score can decide who is trusted
For a question about reliability, the engines went to what customers say. A single platform’s rating, with its volume and its most recent complaints, set the tone of the whole answer.
The scan shows where people talk and what they ask. Community management is how you answer, so AI reads your side too.
Community scan
Community management
For your GEO: up-to-date, correct answers about you, wherever AI looks.
Reviews are the loudest source
Forums are often read as the truth
Ask every customer for a review
Let fans speak
Share creator content where people talk
Measure what AI repeats
Creator videos mostly stay on brand and creator channels. Also post them in the threads where people ask the question.
r/belgium · 4h · ▲ 212 · 96 comments
Looking for good prescription sunglasses in Antwerp. Tips?
u/eyeeyeeye_official eyeeyeeye team here. Our creator shows the range: prescription sunglasses at eyeeyeeyeinstagram.com/reel/…
Forum · Food and drinks · Alcohol-free
Re: Best drinks for mocktails?
Marc_V This creator tested the best mixers, worth a watch.Quote · Sofie88: “Tried number two at our party. Huge hit.”
Forums
Parents in Antwerp · Public group · 12K members · Nadia · 2d
Where do you get prescription sunglasses that actually look good?
eyeeyeeye · Brand page Hi Nadia! Our creator shows them here: prescription sunglasses at eyeeyeeyefacebook.com/reel/…
Public groups
YouTube · The best drinks for mocktails · 38K views · 248 comments
@sarah.mixes · 1w: Which tonic did you use in the second one?
@mocktailcreator A light, not too bitter tonic. Full list of drinks is in the description!6d
YouTube
Post the video where the question is asked: as the brand, an ambassador or a fan.
Your GEO checklists to get started
The owned, earned and community checklists from the webinar in 1 free PDF. Share them with your team and tick them off one by one.
In this paper
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Answers change from ChatGPT to Gemini and from day to day. A position is a snapshot of 1 engine, on 1 day, in 1 language.
“We rank number 2”
Ask again tomorrow and the order is different.
“We appear in 64% of answers”
The same question, asked 25 times. Count how often you show up. Measure per AI engine, per language and per market.
4 levels, from the technical basis to business results, with the 3 measures we track for each.
Access
Can AI read you?
Bots allowed
Your site lets AI bots in (robots.txt, your CDN or firewall)
Bot visits
AI bots show up in your site logs (GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, ChatGPT-User)
Readable pages
Key facts in plain text, not hidden in code
Presence
Are you in the answer?
Mentions
How often AI names you, per engine and market
Share of voice
You versus your competitors
Right story
Positive tone, correct prices and facts
Sources
Which sites does AI use?
Source mix
Owned, earned or community
Your own pages
Which of your pages AI cites
Content from others about your brand
Which articles, reviews and threads AI cites
Results
Is it paying off?
AI traffic
Traffic from AI in a custom GA4 channel
Brand searches
More people searching your name
Customer answer
“AI assistant” in “How did you find us?”
In a spreadsheet
No tool needed. You do it yourself, for free:
QuestionsFind 20 questions your customers ask before they buy
Ask AIAsk each one in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot, in a new chat
NoteAre you named? Which competitors are? Which sites are linked?
CountIn how many of the 20 answers are you named? And your competitors?
RepeatSame questions every month, so you see if it goes up or down
Like Peec AI
You add your questions once. The tool asks them in the AI models you pick and tracks:
Visibility% of answers that mention you
Next stepsSuggested actions to get named more often
SentimentHow AI describes your brand
Share of voiceYour mentions versus competitors
SourcesWhich sites AI cites most in your category
OONA/BAAS will soon launch its own GEO reporting dashboard. Similar tools: Profound and Otterly.AI.
In this paper
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Set up
Your top customer questions, a baseline, a check of your facts
OOwned: fix the basics
Open your site to AI bots, answers first, 1 fact sheet
EEarned: make your stories AI-ready
Topics people ask AI about, 1 core claim, hard facts in every pitch
CCommunity: be where people talk
Listen monthly, reply fast, correct wrong info at the source
Owned, earned and community are not 3 separate projects. AI reads them together, so they have to tell 1 story.
GEO
Same topics
The themes you tackle in owned are the ones media, creators and people talk about.
Same words
The same words in owned, earned and community, so AI recognizes 1 brand.
Same claims
What you say, what others publish and what people repeat never contradict each other.
Baseline, community scan, monthly dashboard and a fix list in order of impact. We run the audit with you and hand over a plan your team can act on.
The GEO checklists
Owned, earned and community in 1 PDF. Leave your details and the download starts right away.
With OONA/BAAS
Baseline, community scan, monthly dashboard and a fix list in order of impact. Leave your details and we will get in touch.
With OONA/BAAS
We will be in touch very soon to discuss the first steps in your GEO journey.