The search result is becoming a sentence
For twenty years, being found meant ranking: appear high on the page, win the click. That still matters. But a growing share of patients now ask an AI assistant instead, and the assistant does not return ten links. It returns a short answer that names one or two practices and cites its sources.
Generative engine optimization, GEO, is the work of being the practice that answer names. It is not a trick, and it is not a different discipline from good marketing. It is making your expertise easy to quote.
SEO earns the click. GEO earns the citation when there is no click at all.
What makes a practice quotable
- Real answers to real patient questions, in plain language, on pages you own.
- One consistent identity everywhere: same name, address, phone, and services on your site, your Google Business Profile, and every directory.
- Structured data that says in machine terms what the page says in human terms.
- An llms.txt file that gives engines your positioning straight, so they do not guess.
- Authorship that shows clinical experience, because engines weigh who is talking.
