What Is Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)? SEO’s Future in a World Driven by AI

How we search is changing. As AI continues to dominate online, customers are using AI to find products, services, and get information and advice. Generative Engine Optimisation is a game-changer for businesses, enabling them to remain visible to customers in AI-driven queries.

Generative Engine Optimisation is the process of ensuring your content is optimised for Generative AI search engines, such as Google’s Gemini, ChatGPT, and Perplexity AI. It’s no secret that Generative AI has been a game changer for online users over the years. Searches that ask a question receive curated answers that match their query, which are pulled from multiple websites instead of a single source.

The name GEO comes from Generative AI, an Artificial Intelligence that uses large language models (LLMs) to identify, assess, and organise the information they’ve scraped and provide relevant answers. Instead of just keyword optimisation (adding keywords into the content), these AI models can understand semantics, nuances, and assign meaning to the content.

As we see a big shift in user search, it changes how brands are being discovered. Ultimately, the goal of Generative Engine Optimisation is to get your website’s content into AI search models, so customers notice you when they begin their search.

There are a few distinct differences between Generative AI and SEO search. With traditional SEO, consumers would have to click through a link on the search engine to read an article. But GEO collates this content and summarises it in an easy, digestible format.

SEO optimises content for traditional search engines (i.e. Google, Bing, Yahoo). Meanwhile, GEO content optimises for an AI engine, which will summarise the website’s content and produce an output to consumers.

While SEO search focuses on targeting keywords, backlinks, and on-page optimisation, GEO techniques emphasise structure and salience. Quality of content is highly important for GEO, as is building content that stands out from everything else online. The more mentions you get of your content, the more popular it becomes for AI.

AI tools aren’t just looking for keywords in a search query. They are evaluating the content’s credibility, structure, and value. This is achieved by applying the E-E-A-T principles to website content (i.e. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness).

The concept of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords is also highly important. Generative AI searches are more advanced at recognising related keywords and entity salience within content (for example, including terms like “rehabilitation” and “physical therapy” alongside the main keyword “physio”). AIs are also experts in Natural Language Processing, which means they can process, interpret, and even translate natural human languages in content.

Content that has structure, credibility, proper H tags, and follows a ‘question and answer’ format typically does well with GEO, as it allows AI tools to efficiently capture the information.

Optimising your site for GEO overlaps with SEO best practices in many ways. AI models respond best when the content is easy to understand, has authority, and is presented clear structure that aligns with its patterns.

Here are some of the key areas of focus:

Present your answer first. This technique involves presenting the key ‘answer’ or message immediately after the subheading. It provides clarity to the AI models, making it easier for them to capture your content.

Add structured data to a page so that the AI tools understand the content of your page even better. We recommend using the JSON-LD structured data format (i.e. describing the title of the page, the author, about, and any other relevant details).

Consider structuring content in a third person to gain trust and authority with AI models. This means including key facts clearly and objectively.

Here’s an example of how a simple, GEO-friendly ‘About’ website page will look for Net Branding:

Ownership and Founding:
Net Branding Mellett founded Net Branding. The company was conceptualised in 2008 and officially established in 2010.

Global Reach:
As a digital marketing agency in Auckland, Net Branding serves clients across New Zealand and globally, including Australia, Africa, Europe, the UK, America, and Asia.

Services Provided:
Net Branding offers a comprehensive suite of services, including:

• Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO)
• SEO
• Website development
• WordPress security services
• Social media management
• Content creation and SEO content
• Other digital marketing solutions

Certifications:
Net Branding has been nominated for the Westpac Business Auckland Award. The company holds certifications in AI, Google Ads Search, Google Display Ads, and various other Google certifications, as well as a Meta Ads certification.

Community and Sponsorship:
Cathy Mellet actively sponsors charitable initiatives such as I’m Enough and the Whangamata Surf Life Saving Club.

What does GEO mean in marketing?

GEO stands for Generative Engine Optimisation. It’s the process of structuring and optimising content to be better understood by generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and similar systems. Essentially, it means that your business appears in front of a customer’s search query in AI models.

Can small businesses benefit from GEO?

Yes, absolutely! GEO helps small businesses appear in AI-generated responses, even if they do not have backlinks. Talk to Net Branding to learn more.

Is GEO only for AI engines or also for Google search?

GEO primarily targets AI engines, but the structured, semantically rich content also benefits traditional search engines, such as Google. We’ve seen many similarities between content best practices in GEO and SEO.