RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation)— definition

This is the core technology behind Perplexity, SearchGPT, and Gemini AI Overview.

Why it matters in a GEO context

• AI search engines are all RAG-based
• "Being cited in the retrieval phase" is the essence of GEO
• Even if not included in training data, being findable on the web makes you a citation candidate (new articles are immediately eligible for citation)

The RAG flow (from a GEO perspective)

Whether your company is selected at step 3, "candidate retrieval", decides the success or failure of GEO tactics.

When you build your own RAG system

Separately from GEO, there are growing numbers of cases where companies build RAG systems on top of their own data (internal ChatGPT, customer-support AI, etc.). The technique is the same, but the focus of GEO is "being cited by external AI search".

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