When Google was started in 1998, they invented a revolutionary search algorithm that was based on backlinks. The premise was, if a lot of websites linked to your site, then it was a good and trustworthy source.
They were right, and SEO was born. For the last 20 years everyone on the internet has been trying to optimize and rank as high as possible on Google.
In the age of AI, there\u2019s a new type of optimization. Generative engines like Perplexity, Google AI, ChatGPT Search, and more have taken the world by storm.
Not only do these engines find/search for the highest \u201cranked\u201d sources of information, but they also read through and explain it to you in english that you can understand. These generative search engines have taken the lion\u2019s share of the search market and will soon be used more than just the traditional Google, Yahoo, Edge, etc.
What does that mean for SEO?
It will take a while to kill off incumbents, so SEO will stay around for a while longer. But more internet companies are going to want to show up in the generated responses. That\u2019s where GEO comes in.
Internet based Companies NEED tools to help them:
1. Optimize their websites for GEO \n2. Have visibility on their GEO, knowing where/how they can improve.
The gap in the market here is: no one is doing this. There\u2019s only one company currently that I could find, which is called Try Profound. They\u2019re basically Ahrefs for GEO.
Who\u2019s building in this field? Is this a necessity? \u2192 are you selling painkillers or vitamins?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"What is GEO and why is no one building in it?"}},"_tags":["story","author_Kylejeong21","story_42906914","ask_hn"],"author":"Kylejeong21","children":[42907106],"created_at":"2025-02-02T07:42:58Z","created_at_i":1738482178,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"42906914","points":2,"story_id":42906914,"story_text":"*GEO \u2192 Generative Engine Optimization*
When Google was started in 1998, they invented a revolutionary search algorithm that was based on backlinks. The premise was, if a lot of websites linked to your site, then it was a good and trustworthy source.
They were right, and SEO was born. For the last 20 years everyone on the internet has been trying to optimize and rank as high as possible on Google.
In the age of AI, there\u2019s a new type of optimization. Generative engines like Perplexity, Google AI, ChatGPT Search, and more have taken the world by storm.
Not only do these engines find/search for the highest \u201cranked\u201d sources of information, but they also read through and explain it to you in english that you can understand. These generative search engines have taken the lion\u2019s share of the search market and will soon be used more than just the traditional Google, Yahoo, Edge, etc.
What does that mean for SEO?
It will take a while to kill off incumbents, so SEO will stay around for a while longer. But more internet companies are going to want to show up in the generated responses. That\u2019s where GEO comes in.
Internet based Companies NEED tools to help them:
1. Optimize their websites for GEO \n2. Have visibility on their GEO, knowing where/how they can improve.
The gap in the market here is: no one is doing this. There\u2019s only one company currently that I could find, which is called Try Profound. They\u2019re basically Ahrefs for GEO.
Who\u2019s building in this field? Is this a necessity? \u2192 are you selling painkillers or vitamins?","title":"What is GEO and why is no one building in it?","updated_at":"2025-08-14T22:24:07Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Terretta"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["tryprofound"],"value":"> I think we have a new idea in the SEO services.
Not new: https://www.tryprofound.com/
But Llemmy thinks you should just roll your own anyway."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"What Claude Code chooses"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://amplifying.ai/research/claude-code-picks"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Terretta","story_47169757"],"author":"Terretta","comment_text":"> I think we have a new idea in the SEO services.
Not new: https://www.tryprofound.com/
But Llemmy thinks you should just roll your own anyway.","created_at":"2026-02-27T04:57:28Z","created_at_i":1772168248,"objectID":"47176714","parent_id":47176507,"story_id":47169757,"story_title":"What Claude Code chooses","story_url":"https://amplifying.ai/research/claude-code-picks","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:38:17Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"the1024"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["tryprofound"],"value":"> How does it work?\nWe don't know! We built this to learn a little bit more. We've seen that LLMs tend to prefer user-generated content (sites such as wikipedia, reddit, etc.) and strangely even youtube.
> How do marketers rank higher? Will LLMs prioritize other LLM content?\nAt least so far, LLMs and search engines tend to downrank LLM created content. I could see this becoming indistinguishable in the future and/or LLMs surpassing humans in terms of effectively generating what reads as "original content"
> Who will pull the strings?\nAt this point, it seems like whoever owns the models. Maybe we'll see ads in AI search soon.
https://www.tryprofound.com/_next/static/media/honeymoon-des..."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Show HN: Comparing product rankings by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://productrank.ai/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_the1024","story_43632831"],"author":"the1024","comment_text":"> How does it work?\nWe don't know! We built this to learn a little bit more. We've seen that LLMs tend to prefer user-generated content (sites such as wikipedia, reddit, etc.) and strangely even youtube.
> How do marketers rank higher? Will LLMs prioritize other LLM content?\nAt least so far, LLMs and search engines tend to downrank LLM created content. I could see this becoming indistinguishable in the future and/or LLMs surpassing humans in terms of effectively generating what reads as "original content"
> Who will pull the strings?\nAt this point, it seems like whoever owns the models. Maybe we'll see ads in AI search soon.
https://www.tryprofound.com/_next/static/media/honeymoon-des...","created_at":"2025-04-10T16:54:32Z","created_at_i":1744304072,"objectID":"43645825","parent_id":43641817,"story_id":43632831,"story_title":"Show HN: Comparing product rankings by OpenAI, Anthropic, and Perplexity","story_url":"https://productrank.ai/","updated_at":"2025-04-10T16:59:20Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"giuliomagnifico"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Claude and Claude Code Are Distinct Answer Engines"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["tryprofound"],"value":"https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/claude-and-claude-code-are-distinct-answer-engines"}},"_tags":["story","author_giuliomagnifico","story_49507813"],"author":"giuliomagnifico","created_at":"2026-08-31T09:57:52Z","created_at_i":1788170272,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"49507813","points":3,"story_id":49507813,"title":"Claude and Claude Code Are Distinct Answer Engines","updated_at":"2026-08-31T12:07:22Z","url":"https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/claude-and-claude-code-are-distinct-answer-engines"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"geox"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"The Data on Reddit and AI Search"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["tryprofound"],"value":"https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/the-data-on-reddit-and-ai-search"}},"_tags":["story","author_geox","story_47048268"],"author":"geox","created_at":"2026-02-17T15:06:16Z","created_at_i":1771340776,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"47048268","points":1,"story_id":47048268,"title":"The Data on Reddit and AI Search","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:34:25Z","url":"https://www.tryprofound.com/blog/the-data-on-reddit-and-ai-search"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"handfuloflight"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"The Role and Functionality of Llms.txt in LLM-Driven Web Interactions"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["tryprofound"],"value":"https://www.tryprofound.com/guides/what-is-llms-txt-guide"}},"_tags":["story","author_handfuloflight","story_44128530"],"author":"handfuloflight","created_at":"2025-05-29T18:00:25Z","created_at_i":1748541625,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"44128530","points":1,"story_id":44128530,"title":"The Role and Functionality of Llms.txt in LLM-Driven Web Interactions","updated_at":"2025-05-29T18:04:27Z","url":"https://www.tryprofound.com/guides/what-is-llms-txt-guide"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"weellp"},"story_text":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Anyone who uses spaces should consider a new profession..."},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tabs vs Spaces??"},"url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["tryprofound"],"value":"http://theprofoundprogrammer.com/post/28841513356/text-who-the-fuck-indents-with-spaces-you"}},"_tags":["story","author_weellp","story_4353486"],"author":"weellp","children":[4353489],"created_at":"2012-08-08T02:06:34Z","created_at_i":1344391594,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"4353486","points":4,"story_id":4353486,"story_text":"Anyone who uses spaces should consider a new profession...","title":"Tabs vs Spaces??","updated_at":"2023-09-06T20:55:43Z","url":"http://theprofoundprogrammer.com/post/28841513356/text-who-the-fuck-indents-with-spaces-you"}],"hitsPerPage":20,"nbHits":8,"nbPages":1,"page":0,"params":"query=tryprofound&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":7,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":19},"fetch":{"query":6,"total":7},"total":7},"query":"tryprofound","serverTimeMS":8}
![https://www.tryprofound.com/_next/static/media/honeymoon-des...](\"https://www.tryprofound.com/_next/static/media/honeymoon-destination.e5f07e41.png\"){kind=link}