What is GEO? Everything to Know About Generative Engine Optimization

The way we search on the internet is evolving. With ChatGPT boasting 180.5 million monthly active users and Google AI overviews popping alongside most queries, traditional browsing is changing. Instead of sifting through multiple links, users have started relying on AI-powered dialogue boxes to get relevant answers in a quick, readable format. This transformation highlights the growing importance of Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). This is a new strategic approach to align content for AI-driven search engines, tailoring information for wider user intent. 

In addition to optimizing for search engine results pages (SERPs), brands now face the challenge of ensuring visibility within generative AI outputs. As algorithms evolve, integrating GEO practices is no longer optional but essential for maintaining authority and relevance for organic search.

GEO is still at its infancy with strategies being rapidly developed. From understanding the basics of GEO to implementing effective optimization strategies, let’s explore what it takes to succeed in this new era of generative AI-powered search. 

What is GEO?

Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) involves adapting digital content to rank on AI-driven search engines like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Copilot, and Google’s AI overviews.

Optimized content appears in AI-generated results when users search for products, services, software, or related information. If your content is cited as a source in AI responses, it can enhance your website’s visibility and establish authority. 

A quick example: The query “What is SEO” on Google search ranks the Semrush article as a top source in the AI overview. Users are likely to click on that article to get more information.  

GEO combines traditional SEO principles with optimization for generative models to help brands rank in AI overviews and chatbot responses. 

Why GEO is Important?

Gartner predicts a 25% drop in search volumes due to AI chatbots by 2026. Marketers have a challenge to rise to. Content quality must improve to be trusted by AI models and reach their audiences more interactively. GEO plays a significant role here because of: 

1. Change in browsing behaviors 

A study by Surge evaluated ChatGPT and Google search across 500 queries and found them in close competition, with ChatGPT preferred for 42% of queries and Google for 40%. While Google continues to dominate certain areas, ChatGPT excels in synthesizing concise, personalized responses for complex queries.

Google is not taking this situation lightly. In fact, Google declared the emergence of ChatGPT as Code Red back in 2023 and has since accelerated the development of its AI products. This includes introducing the AI Overview widget to many search queries, creating more opportunities for marketers to craft content optimized for better rankings on both SERPs and AI platforms.

2. The trend of AI adoption 

With individuals and businesses rapidly adopting AI, mastering GEO becomes crucial.  42% of users agree to use AI tools to improve their research skills. This includes 24% of consumers in 12 markets. While the percentage is lower than those for search engine usage, they highlight a growing trend. Consumers turn to AI for basic research on brands, products, and services. 

.Brands can become a part of this research by providing relevant information about a topic related to their product or service.
This reliance on AI is also entering consumer shopping experiences. The 2024 Consumer Study shows that consumers prefer virtual assistants, augmented reality, and AI applications to assist them as they shop. 86% of people who haven’t used AI yet, would like to experience how it can help research products while 79% would look for deals and promotions.  

3. Helps create content for AI 

GEO helps optimize existing or new content for AI bots. Creating content to be discovered or cited in AI-driven searches, will give it better visibility and impressions. As AI-based search engines become a great resource for finding information, knowing how to create content that will appear in AI results becomes crucial.

4. Betters SEO strategy 

Leveraging GEO techniques will enhance your SEO practices. As search engines integrate AI models, adapting and staying competitive becomes necessary. 

Emphasizing the importance of GEO, Glenn Gabriel Bona, Growth Manager (Organic) at TripleDart, explains:

“While AI Chatbots may not significantly impact Google's search dominance in the near future, it's still important to optimize for the changing landscape. You also need to get your brand and company out there on other websites. AI chatbots and agents can start making recommendations based on all of their inputs. So if your brand is mentioned positively more times than your competitors, you should be able to land in AI recommendations.”

Benefits of GEO

You can implement SEO, but without GEO, you risk losing out on a significant portion of visibility and impressions. While traditional SEO brings in readers from the SERPs, GEO ensures your content reaches those relying on AI-driven searches as well. Considering the fact that generative search is gaining momentum, ranking for both is essential. Here’s how it benefits you in the longer run: 

1. Improves user experience

GEO focuses on understanding the deeper intent behind a user’s search query, providing precise, easy-to-read information in one place. This eliminates the need to navigate across multiple tabs, offering a seamless search experience.

By aligning content with user intent, GEO delivers solutions directly from brand/product pages or blogs. This enables readers to access detailed information from the generative results and head straight to the website for further exploration. With all relevant insights presented upfront, the search journey becomes faster and more efficient.

For example: Document 360 is one of the alternatives for Google Docs. For a query seeking alternatives, a user can check the first link to learn more about the product while also discovering the other six options.

2. Increase in website reach and visibility 

Website content optimized for AI platforms increases the likelihood of being referenced as a source in users’ queries. A Surfer SEO study reveals that, 52% of sources in Google AI overviews are among the top 10 results. Organic ranking on SERPs and appearance in AI answers combine to improve overall website visibility and reach. 

3. Competitive advantage for early adopters

Generative Engine Optimization aligns content with advanced AI systems. By creating content specifically for AI-driven search spaces, early adopters can dominate the highly dynamic algorithms. Combining SEO with GEO ensures that your products and services rank well on both traditional SERPs and AI-based searches. By making some adjustments to your content, you can remain competitive in organic search results while also tapping into GEO. 

4. Data-driven results 

GEO offers brands a broader opportunity to align with user intent by understanding what their audience is searching for. Identify the type of questions your target audience is asking with the help of keyword research tools. Research on related topics, validate a few queries asked in Google, and determine the possibility of users asking similar questions to AI-based search engines. 

Going data-driven into a user’s intent will give you a better direction to create content catering to their specific needs. 

GEO vs SEO: Similarities and Differences

You can think of GEO and SEO as two wheels, back and forth, needed to drive the content performance further. Let’s look at the similarities first: 

Similarities Between GEO and SEO 

1. Boost visibility: GEO and SEO both enhance the content visibility to make it reach the desired audience. 

2. Reliance on keywords: Content optimization for both methods is largely based on relevant keywords for discovering information. 

3. Authority building: Both GEO and SEO build authority by positioning your brand as a reliable source across traditional search engines and AI-driven platforms.

4. Constant updates: Both strategies need you to stay up to date with the latest trends, tools, and strategies for successful implementation.

Differences Between GEO and SEO 

1. Targets different platforms: SEO efforts are focused on rankings in search engine results; GEO is inclined to rank on large language models of AI-based search engines.

2. Response generation format: Good SEO delivers results as a list of links, directing users to pages with more detailed information. GEO provides quick and precise responses for AI platforms to provide relevant information for exact queries.

3. Different metrics of success: Organic search traffic, backlinks, bounce rate, and conversion rate are some common indicators of SEO success. While success metrics of GEO are still being studied, research points to the addition of statistics, citing sources, use of unique words, and technical terms, which can significantly help content to perform for generative AI engines. Higher overall traffic and getting indexed on AI Overviews that are generated for relevant search terms can be considered successful outcomes.
   
   Content display and contextualization: SEO and GEO differ in how they display and contextualize content. SEO optimizes content for search engines by enhancing meta tags, keywords, and links to boost visibility on SERPs, with content displayed as clickable links leading to full pages. In contrast, GEO optimizes content for generative AI tools, structuring it for easy extraction and relevance to user queries. This content often appears as bulleted lists or summaries directly within AI-powered results, eliminating the need for users to click through.
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4. Advanced user intent understanding: SEO targets specific keywords to display results, while GEO uses AI to gain deeper insights into user intent, delivering more precise content. Content optimized with a GEO strategy accounts for a user's emotions, context, location, past queries, and preferences to provide a tailored response.
   
   For example: For a query, ‘how to improve sleep’, AI overview gives quick tips, along with a link for home remedies. The home remedies tab goes a step beyond and offers advice that is easy to understand and can be executed within one’s comfort.

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How to Integrate GEO With SEO?

Traditional SEO cannot be the sole driver of content reaching your audiences. A recent survey revealed that 8% of people rely on ChatGPT as their primary search engine. While this number is much lower than that of Google, the growing popularity of AI-based search cannot be underestimated. Therefore, the integration of GEO services with traditional SEO is more important than ever.

Here’s how to implement it: 

1. Unify the content strategy 

When planning a content strategy, consider both aspects required for successful SEO and GEO. Create a unified brand voice, use a conversational approach, and look for broader goals of user intent. Make these the pillars of your content optimization. 

2. Perform detailed keyword research

To implement SEO with GEO, perform a semantic analysis of the common keywords you wish to rank for. It will help you understand the context, emotions, and sentiments of a user’s query. You can decode a user’s intent and deliver more suitable content tailored to their preferences. 

3. Focus on user experience 

While the focus of GEO services is to make content AI-friendly, the real consumer is ultimately a human being. Therefore, engaging content, relevancy, readability, and accuracy make the search experience pleasant to read and return to.

Mobile optimization, website loading speed, and overall appearance of content also need to be monitored for easy viewing. 

4. Stay updated with algorithmic changes 

SEO is always changing to provide the best results to users. To stay ahead of the game, you must be aware of the quickly changing rules. Keep following official Google blogs, read research articles on generative AI, trusted blogs in your industry, forum discussions, etc. This will help you improve your GEO strategy alongside SEO practices.

Decoding GEO 

By now it is clear that GEO is important and it is here to stay. But, how does it work between typing a query and receiving an answer? Let us decode the technical functioning. We will reference extensive research by researchers from Princeton University to understand the workings of generative engines. 

Factors considered to put together a response 

1. Response generation

A generative engine takes a user’s query (qu) and creates a response (r) in a natural conversational style. For this, it uses: 

Generative models (G): Let us call them helpers of the engine. They  

• Rephrase the query for a clear understanding
• Summarize the key points 
• Turn the summary into a reader-friendly answer 

Search engine (SE): Parts of the query are sent over this engine to find relevant sources (S) of information. Once the information is accessed, it turns into an answer for the response.

To put it into a formula: 

fGE : (qu, Pu) → r

Here, Pu represents personal user information. 

So a generative model takes a query, processes it with personal information, and sends out a tailored response. 

2. Source of information

Every response depends on the sources analyzed to frame it. The primary source that provides most of the information for a user query is credited as a citation (ci). 

Unlike SEO,  where average rankings measure impressions; generative engines have multiple sources to cite. The length, word count, and presentation of this source are metrics considered for its visibility in the response.

3. Subjective impression (si) of a citation

Other than the above-mentioned metrics for a citation, generative engines also consider the quality of information. 

• Does it directly answer the query?
• Is it unique or generic?
• Does it provide some additional information?

A citation is judged on how well it answers the question and adds useful, unique, and variety of information to a response.

Each of these sub-metrics plays a very important role in giving responses. A generative engine carefully chooses and puts together information that best answers your query. 

How to Optimize Content for GEO?

Now that we have an idea of how generative engines work, how exactly do you tailor your content on SERPs so that it also ranks in AI search engines? Here are some steps:

1. Detail your content

AI engines do not look for pages that match exact keywords, they analyze the context of a query. Every piece of content you’re building to publish online must have:
 

• Clear definitions 
• Highly relevant citations, quotations, or other sources
• Latest information 
• Scope of diversity regarding the topic 

For example: When writing for the keyword ‘best employee management software’, you should also target entities like ‘attendance tracking’, ‘real-time analytics’, ‘benefits for large enterprises’, etc. When you highlight features with use cases or reviews instead of just a list of names, it becomes more actionable for AI-driven searches. 

2. Use multimedia 

Long chunks of text without any visual media will drive away your readers. Use infographics to show statistics, video tutorials, or timelines via images, to engage your audience better. 

3. Optimize your content 

Improve your content for GEO by collating and formatting it in an easy-to-read manner. Keep this checklist handy. Your content should: 

• be structured for easy readability (Use of numbered lists, bullet points)
• be concise (A few sentences or short paragraphs)
• directly answer the query 
• highlight key information (Use of different fonts to drive attention)
• be compatible with different platforms (Appearance on mobile and web devices)
  

4. Be authoritative 

Build authority with relevant sources to back up your content. Frame your sentences to build confidence among a reader in a way that they keep returning to your website for more high-quality content. 

5. Keep updating 

Keep adding new information if it provides more relevant details. Regular updates signal to AI that your content remains accurate and up to date. 

6. Track your results 

Check the traffic of posts that you’ve specifically optimized for GEO. Check if they appear in AI Overviews for related search terms or receive traffic from search. 

Accelerate Your SEO and GEO With Experts 

With GEO still evolving, it can get confusing to implement it with SEO and constant algorithmic changes. However, outsourcing it to a B2B marketing agency can significantly reduce the burden. TripleDart is a full-service marketing agency with expertise in SaaS SEO and GEO.

From a complete website audit and data structuring to monitoring overall performance, they will not only fine-tune your content but also refine your keyword research strategy for AI search engines.

Ready to get listed in AI-powered results?  Get in touch with us to get started with a full-fledged GEO strategy. 

FAQs

1. Will GEO replace SEO?

No, GEO will not replace but rather complement SEO. It improves traditional SEO practices with contextual content to rank on generative search results.

2. How to measure the success of GEO content?

Posts specifically created with GEO in mind should be observed for metrics like impressions, clicks, and overall traffic. You should also check if your content is getting indexed on AI Overviews that are generated for relevant search terms.   

3. What are some technical considerations for GEO?

The key factors from a technical perspective include structuring data for AI readability, optimizing for mobile devices, website speed adjustment for faster loading, and analyzing engagement metrics to refine user experience.