GEO and SEO share the same fundamentals: reachable, clear, well-structured content. What changes is the goal. Ranking first no longer guarantees the click when an AI answer sits above your result, so GEO targets being cited in that answer, not just listed below it.
The tactics that work are not exotic: answer-first structure, citable facts, clear entity signals, and consistent presence on the sources engines trust. There is no secret checklist and no required markup. Anyone selling a separate six-figure GEO budget is usually reselling solid SEO with a new acronym.